"The public should be extremely afraid of him."

The Red Star reports some disturbing, but not unpredictable, history of one of the Uptown murder suspects, Donte L. Jacobs: "Uptown suspect had prior gun charge".

This week's murder charge against a 17-year-old in the fatal shooting of a man in the Uptown area in Minneapolis wasn't the first time he had been charged in a violent crime involving a gun.

Donte L. Jacobs, who is accused of taking a purse [Ed. - That's "stealing", Red Star, not "taking"] from a woman, as another teen shot her son, had been charged in June with threatening to shoot a man who owed him money, according to a court document. The man tried to shield his children and several friends as Jacobs pointed the gun in a Hopkins parking lot, the document said.

Somehow this loose cannon was walking free until the inevitable happened.

His prior case had a fateful outcome:

The charges against Jacobs in the Hopkins parking lot incident were dismissed when the witness recanted his statement before the case went to trial.

Does anyone want to guess whether or not the witness feared for his life? We can't even blame Amy Klobuchar for that one. If the witness won't testify, no case. Unfortunately, Michael Zebuhr paid the price.

Here's Donte's mother, Sharon Johnson:

Afterward, she said she found it hard to believe her son could have committed this crime. She said he never hangs around in Uptown, and that she purposely hadn't lived in parts of south or north Minneapolis where he might get into trouble.

"He sees in the newspaper and TV what he's been charged with and he's scared," she said.

He ought to be scared. They're coming to get the punk. In force.

Minneapolis police continue to look for Jacobs in the Uptown homicide. Capt. Rich Stanek said officials believe family and friends are aiding and concealing the teenager, "something we won't tolerate."

"He's 17, he's on the run and he's very unpredictable," Stanek said. "The public should be extremely afraid of him."