Crime, Law and Justice

Three face charges in connection with fights at St. Louis Park High School

The US flag blows in the breeze outside of St. Louis Park High School
Three people faces charges in connection with fights at St. Louis Park High School that led to classes being canceled last Friday.
Evan Frost | MPR News 2018

Three people were charged Thursday in connection with fights at St. Louis Park High School that led to classes being canceled last Friday and a new safety plan on campus this week. 

Latoys Raynell Milon, 44, and two of her children — 19-year-old Jerome Averill Smith Jr. and 22-year-old Abreeha Annalisa Smith — were each charged in Hennepin County District Court with one count of third-degree riot and one count of fourth-degree assault motivated by bias.

Criminal complaints allege that the three threatened and assaulted at least four Somali students outside the school at the end of the day on Jan. 18.

Another of Milon’s children, a minor who attends the school, allegedly claimed to her family that she was “jumped” by a Somali student during a fight earlier in the day.

According to the charging documents, police were dispatched to the school just after 2 p.m. on reports that a parent was threatening to fight students. Body camera footage allegedly shows Milon yelling at Somali students in the hallways.

Officers said they later saw the three defendants in a fight with several students outside the school. The criminal complaints say that at least four Somali students were injured.

The three defendants were not in custody as of Friday morning.

At a school board meeting earlier this week, parents and community members said they had safety concerns following the fights. Interim superintendent Kate Maguire said the school is taking disciplinary action with the students involved, and working with the St. Louis Park Police Department on the investigation.

The investigation into the fights remains open, and police said more charges are possible.