Mug Shot For Murderer Ryan Daniel Jones-Adams, Who Said "I'll Up On Your Ass" Before Shooting Marvin Ray Maynard, Age 16...

Minnesota DOC mugshot, therefore public domain, blog post by John Hoff



Ryan Daniel Jones-Adams, who hardly looks old enough to shave, is in prison for killing Marvin Ray Maynard, age 16, on James Ave. N. In the court proceeding, Jones-Adams "hinted that he could easily have been the guy on the wrong end of the gun."

Yeah, that's kind of the reason this blog always looks into the records of the victims of Northside shootings. Because this is a common theme: dumb and random luck, who it was who had the drop on who in North Minneapolis gun violence.

Jones-Adams' anticipated date of release is in 2033. By which time he will most likely be quite experienced at shaving. Might even work on a beard, just for a hobby.

On a recent spin through the Minnesota Department of Corrections website, I found his mug shot and thought readers would be interested in his young, innocent-looking face.

As Ryan ran toward Maynard to shoot him, Ryan yelled, "I'll up on your ass!"

Those words must take on a whole new meaning in prison.

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"Thug Memorials" Refreshed In North Minneapolis--No Good Will Come Of This!

Photo and blog post by John Hoff

On Memorial Day--the holiday set aside to honor dead members of the military who actually made some kind of (expletive) positive contribution to this nation--at least two "thug memorials" were refreshed in North Minneapolis. One of the memorials, pictured above, is at Hawthorne Crossings strip mall and memorializes Haywood Eaton, who died in a hail of bullets over some kind of drama involving a vehicle--badly borrowed, but NOT stolen.

The other memorial is in the Jordan Neighborhood and memorializes Marvin Ray Maynard, a much-too-young-to-die young man who was hanging out with the wrong crowd and paid for it with his life.

Despite promises made in the dark by the 311 system, check out this blog post, the Marvin Ray Maynard memorial has only been "addressed" by being ignored. At one time there was one teddy bear in the memorial--tied to the tree like a torture victim--now it appears the first teddy bear died in a gang-related incident, but left a whole brood of little bears with no decent father figure in their life.

As for Haywood Eaton's memorial, the soggy remains had been removed--apparently by management at the drug-and-thug infested Hawthorn (sic) Crossings strip mall, only to...

...reappear on Memorial Day.

Despite my hard ass tone, I am sorry for the loss represented by these memorials. I think memorialization is appropriate and, indeed, could take place at the site of their untimely deaths for as long as a month. But after a month or so, the appropriate place for a memorial is a CEMETERY. My neighborhood is not a cemetery and my neighborhood should not LOOK like a cemetery.

The Mayor has announced crime-fighting initiatives in North Minneapolis, including (my personal favorite) leaning hard on uncooperative victims of shootings living the "thug life." Well, I think getting rid of these "thug glorifying memorials" is surely one valuable piece of the strategic puzzle.

Another Spontaneous Memorial To Another Senseless Shooting...

Photo and blog post by John Hoff

Marvin Ray Maynard III, age 16, didn't live much of his life before getting shot dead in some nothing argument with a group of teenagers. The shooting happened on the 2600 block of James Ave. N. According to the Star Tribune, Maynard had just gotten back from a stint at the Redwing juvenile corrections facility and was thinking about finishing high school and getting his life back on track.

Mainstream media coverage made mention of the street memorial, but no pictures of it have been published. I thought it would be socially useful to publish these images for the sake of completeness of the historical record.

Am I just being a stick-in-the-snow, or is it really inappropriate to leave a Seagram's gin bottle at a memorial for a minor?

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