By Shawn Hogendorf, Staff Writer

Two Prior Lake men were charged in connection with a shooting in the 3100 block of Little Crow Drive on the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux reservation by the Scott County Attorney’s Office on Monday.

Nathan Lee Brewer, 28, and Matthew Joseph Hutchinson, 22, both of Prior Lake were each charged with two counts of first-degree aggravated robbery and two counts of second-degree assault after shooting one man and beating another during an altercation on Aug. 13 at about 1:48 p.m.Nathan
Lee
Brewer

Brewer was released from Scott County Jail following his first court appearance on Monday. Hutchinson is currently in custody and awaits a first appearance on Friday.

According to the criminal complaint, drugs and money were a motive in the altercation that led to the shooting and assault.

Police responded to a call for a man had been shot in the back with a handgun at 3182 Little Crow Drive. When police arrived, three construction workers flagged the officer down and pointed to the driveway where Martin Lafaye, 41, of Minneapolis was covered in blood and holding his back.

Mdewakanton Emergency Services also responded to the Matthew
Joseph
Hutchinsonscene and transported Lafaye to Hennepin County Medical Center to be treated for non-life-threatening injuries. During the altercation, Jesse Runningshield, 26, of Minneapolis was beaten. Runningshield was also treated for non-life-threatening injuries at Hennepin County Medical Center.

Conflicting accounts

According to the criminal complaint:

Lafaye told police he received a call from Brewer at about 11 a.m. asking to borrow $300. Detectives learned that Lafaye and Brewer were friends and Lafaye told police that he frequently visited Brewer at Brewer’s home on Little Crow Drive. Lafaye also told police it wasn’t unusual for Brewer to ask for money because Brewer and his wife received payment from the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community twice a month and Brewer typically ran low on money days before the next scheduled payment from the tribe.

Lafaye and Runningshield arrived at the Little Crow Drive home at about 1:15 p.m. Lafaye, Runningshield, Brewer and Hutchinson went into the house and stood in the kitchen area along with Brewer’s wife and 5-month-old child, according to the criminal complaint. Lafaye said Brewer sat down at a computer and Lafaye gave him $300. Brewer told Lafaye he had a problem with him, stood up and tried to punch him. The men got into a fight when Hutchinson ran out of the room and returned with a .44 caliber handgun.

Brewer held Lafaye on the ground by the throat and said “break yourself,” which means give up all the money while Hutchinson went to get the gun. Lafaye told police that he wrestled with Brewer and Hutchinson when he heard the gun go off and realized he was shot. Lafaye said Brewer took $610 from his pockets and the last person he saw holding the gun was Hutchinson. 

The men involved in the altercation had conflicting stories as to the events that led up to the shooting and assault.

 As Brewer was being handcuffed he told police, “I put myself in a bad situation. I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. You got the wrong guy. I didn’t do it.”

After being taken to the Prior Lake Police Department for questioning, Brewer told police Lafaye came over to repay him $1,500. Brewer said Lafaye came over with Runningshield and only had a fraction of the money he owed him and offered him crack cocaine as payment. Brewer said a fight broke out and his friend pistol whipped Lafaye. Brewer told police he didn’t see who shot Lafaye, but was standing nearby at the time of the shooting.

 After being shot, Lafaye ran out of the house through the back door to a construction site for help.

During questioning, Lafaye started to cry and told police he didn’t know how his friend could do this to him. Lafaye told police he was just trying to help Brewer and didn’t know what caused Brewer to snap other than a need for heroin and the money to buy it.

Police also spoke with Lafaye’s wife Salina Goodwin at the hospital, who told police she and Lafaye were friends with the Brewers. Goodwin told police she and Lafaye were recovering heroin addicts, who prior to treatment, supplied the Brewers with heroin on many occasions. Goodwin told police that she introduced Lafaye to the Brewers and four of them were good friends and Brewer always paid Lafaye back for money that was lent to him.

Runningshield, the man who was assaulted during the fracas, told police he had not meet Brewer before. He told police that after Lafaye gave Brewer money, there was a disagreement, Hutchinson punched Lafaye and the four men began to fight. Runningshield told police that after Lafaye tried to run, Brewer shot at him twice, before turning the gun on Runningshield. Runningshield said Brewer asked him if he was “ready to die” and pulled the trigger, but the gun didn’t fire.

Runnningshield then told police Brewer hit him in the side of the head with the gun, knocking him unconscious. Runningshield said he woke up in the driveway with Brewer and Hutchinson standing over him. Runningshield said the men told him not to come back or call police or they would kill him.

As Runningshield fled, he noticed he was missing $150 from his pocket. Runningshield told police he hitchhiked to Minneapolis and then walked to the hospital.

Police set up a parameter, when officers saw a black SUV drive into the garage of a house at 3175 Little Crow Drive. Shortly after the truck pulled into the garage officers saw Brewer walking out of the home and arrested him.

As police were waiting for a search warrant for the home at 3175 Little Crow Drive, a woman came out of the front door and asked where everyone was. When police asked the woman where she came from, the woman said she was in a small room in the basement of 3175 Little Crow Drive known as the “safe room.” When asked if anyone else was in the room, the woman told police her boyfriend, Hutchinson, was in there. Police went into the home, found Hutchinson and asked why Hutchinson didn’t come out of the room when police went through the house. Hutchinson told police, he was scared.

Hutchinson told police he was Brewer’s half brother. Hutchinson told police Brewer had received phone calls threatening Brewer and his family and Brewer told the person on the phone to come over and handle it like a man. Hutchinson told police, he retrieved a gun and hit one of the men with it and the gun went off during the altercation. Hutchinson then hid the gun in a window well of the house at 3119 Little Crow Drive.

Hutchinson told police he recently moved to Prior Lake from Oregon and was living with Brewer.

When police searched the house where the shooting occurred at 3119 Little Crow Drive they found the Taurus .44 magnum revolver with three live rounds in the cylinder and one spent round.

Police believe Hutchinson pulled the trigger.

Little Crow Drive is on the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux reservation, near Prior Lake’s northwestern border with Shakopee. This was the first of two shootings that were reported on the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux reservation last week. A woman from Savage died on Saturday morning after gun shots rang out and she was apparently struck by a car.

If convicted, Brewer and Hutchinson each face up to 20 years in prison and $35,000 in fines for each of the two counts of first-degree aggravated robbery and up to 10 years in prison and $20,000 in fines for each of the two counts of second-degree assault.

Brewer is scheduled for an omnibus hearing on Oct. 30 at 9 a.m.

Hutchinson will make his first court appearance at 9 a.m. on Friday, Aug. 22.

 Shawn Hogendorf can be reached at (952) 345-6374 or shogendorf@swpub.com.