Photo by Hawthorne Hawkman, blog post by John Hoff
So I was doing that thing I do...feeding off leads in the mainstream media, searching nooks and crannies of the internet to add more information to public discourse about the arrest of an alleged shooter in the Ray'Jon Gomez murder. Naturally, the recent first degree murder charges against Donqauris Davon Copeland are highly interesting to me.
Could I find this guy's Facebook, I wondered? And perhaps discover a treasure trove of photographs depicting god-knows-what?
So I started searching under his full name...nothing but dozens of news stories about his arrest.
Full name, middle initial...same thing.
First and last name, no middle initial.
Huh. Got a hit on...my own blog? What the heck?
I wondered to myself: Did "Donquarius Copeland" appear in some kind of blog posting prior to his arrest? So I clicked on the link to my very own blog and was amazed to discover...
The name "Don Quarius Copeland" (note the space) had appeared in a story about one of the all-too-common "treeside memorials" that spring up in my North Minneapolis neighborhood, and then often (not every time) turn soggy and trashy.
So here is a link to the story, which was actually written by the Hawthorne Hawkman, click here. The intrepid Hawkman was wondering, "Who is Todd Copeland?" (The man named in the curbside memorial)
The information about "Don Quarius Copeland" doesn't come from Hawkman, however. It comes from a blog commenter who used to be very active on my blog, La Vie En Rose, who wrote as follows:
----------------------------------------------------
Took me two seconds with Google.
Little Todd" Copeland, 9, and a pal decided Tuesday that they liked each other's trick bicycles so much that they'd swap. But when their fathers heard about the trade, one didn't like it.
A fight ensued Wednesday night. When it ended, Little Todd's dad, Todd A. Copeland, 28, was dead and a friend had been shot in the arm outside a duplex in the 2900 block of N. 4th St. in Minneapolis' Hawthorne neighborhood.
About noon Thursday, police arrested a 30-year-old man in connection with the shooting. The suspect is a friend of the other father.
Details are still unfolding, but witnesses and police gave this account:
Copeland and his older brother, Michael, 30, were going to talk to other's boy father, who was unhappy that his son's blue trick bike with mag wheels had been traded for a black one that Copeland had put together in his back yard.
Before they met up with the other father, another neighborhood boy told them that Little Todd (whose real name is Don Quarius Copeland) and his friend had settled things.
So Todd Copeland and his brother went to the duplex, and Mike Copeland said that when he left about 8:30 p.m., his brother was drinking beer with friends, including Carlos DeFrance, 18.
A short time later, the other boy's father and his friend knocked on the door of the duplex. When Copeland came out, the father punched him and knocked him down. Copeland got up and chased the father into the street. DeFrance followed.
When the other father's friend pulled a gun, DeFrance and Copeland ran for the house. DeFrance was shot in the arm and was recuperating at home Thursday. Copeland was shot in the neck, side and chest.
In the upstairs unit of the duplex, Tina Kelm, 36, was putting her 1-year-old to bed when she heard shots and called police. Her brother, Joe DeMars, said he heard about four shots.
I could only find it via Google Cache: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:jceM8o8prg0J:www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php%3Ft%3D8876+todd+copeland+minneapolis&cd=3&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a
-------------------------
(End of La Vie En Rose quote)
Of course, Ray'Jon Gomez was slain while riding his bike. Interesting coincidence with the kid bikes. Also, note the age of this "Don Quarius Copeland" in the story. He's 9 years old and known as "Little Todd." Donquarius Devon Copeland, arrested in the Ray'Jon Gomez shooting, is only 17 years old.
At this point, I don't have smoking gun proof that "Don Quarius Copeland," the 9-year-old in this story, is one and the same with Donquarius Devon Copeland," the 17-year-old charged with first degree murder.
But the coincidence being so eerie...
I put such facts as I have before my readers to scrutinize.
