Red Lake Man Sentenced for Firing AK-47 Assault Rifle at a Residence

MINNEAPOLIS—Yesterday in federal court in St. Paul, a 21-year-old Red Lake man was sentenced for firing an AK-47 assault rifle at a residence on the Red Lake Indian Reservation. United States District Court Judge Donovan W. Frank sentenced Jesse Dale Roy to a term of five years of probation on one count of assault with a dangerous weapon. Roy was indicted on April 20, 2011, and pleaded guilty on October 28, 2011. The defendant is required to reside at a halfway house for four months and complete 100 hours of community service as conditions or his probation.

In his plea agreement, Roy admitted that on March 14, 2011, he fired several shots from an AK-47 rifle at the home of a female member of the Red Lake Band of Chippewa with intent to do bodily harm and without just cause.

According to a law enforcement affidavit filed in the case, the assault occurred when Roy fired shots into the woman’s home. Police subsequently responded to the reported shooting, which occurred shortly after midnight. The shots were fired from a vehicle that was ultimately stopped on a traffic violation just east of Highway 89 and County Road 32. Officers spotted several spent shell casings in the vehicle, and Roy, the driver of the vehicle, was arrested. Police found one rifle casing near the area where the vehicle was when the victim heard shots and seven bullet holes in the exterior of victim’s residence. One bullet fragment was found inside a kitchen cabinet. Police followed the path the vehicle was believed to have taken when it left the scene and located an AK-47-style assault rifle. Police also recovered a cloth gun case along that same path. The gun case contained a magazine that was compatible with the AK-47-style assault rifle.

This case was the result of an investigation by the Red Lake Tribal Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, with assistance from the Beltrami County Sheriff’s Office and the Blackduck Police Department. It was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin S. Ueland.

Because the Red Lake Indian Reservation is a federal jurisdiction reservation, some of the crimes that occur there are investigated by the FBI in conjunction with the Red Lake Tribal Police Department. Those cases are prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office.