JNS BLOG EXCLUSIVE: Naming The Six (Possible) North Minneapolis Crime Families Hours After Polls Close On Election Night...

Stock photo, blog post by John Hoff

About a year ago, a respected community leader (RCL) told me something like, "John, I know you're the only one willing to dig into this story I am about to tell you." The RCL proceeded to tell me half a dozen "crime families" were responsible for a disproportionate amount of crime in North Minneapolis. The crime families had generations of dysfunction and it appeared they taught crime skills to their offspring like a profession.

I obtained the surnames of the families, one of which was (of course) Gomez.

In fact, it was my stories about the Gomez family, documenting three generations of crime, which made that RCL believe I'd be able to get to the bottom of the story of half a dozen crime families. (Click here, and here) 

HOWEVER, hearing of the pattern and assembling the facts isn't as easy as assembling facts and then perceiving the pattern...

To be more specific, it's one thing to notice Malo "The Bored Shooter" Gomez is the brother of Dashaunta Gomez, and then obtain (with the help of outside assistance) family information linking the various family members, and dig up their criminal records, and then to assert: The Gomez family is lousy with crime for three generations.

It's another thing to be given a surname but no recent criminal incident to link with that surname. Also, even if you find an incident with that surname involved, how do you know it's the same family? So proving there are six crime families isn't easy.

But do I have some names? I do. I waited until after the election because it was suggested to me that Don Samuels might need to build trust with these families. Not wanting to get in the way of the Samuels campaign, because I was rooting for Don Samuels to win, I held off reporting on this subject.

Now the polls are closed and my head won't hit the pillow until I publish these names.

According to the RCL, the names are...

1.) Gomez (duh, that's a freebie)

2.) Powell. This is the name of the family who was living at 26th and Knox when a police raid caused a neighborhood riot, known to some historians as the Jordan Riot, known on this blog as the Drug And Gang House Riot. I have written about one scumbag no-account named "Powell," but I don't know if he's related to the same family.

3.) Timberlake. That would include shooter Patrick Carl Timberlake. Also linked to this family is Jamica "The Driver" Holden, formerly Jamica Timberlake. Jamica was involved in a notorious murder and so is the next generation, Patrick Timberlake.

4.) Champion. Yes, that's right, the same family which produced State Senator Bobby Joe Champion, who is also a criminal defense attorney. In fact, Champion was the attorney for Donquarius Copeland, who murdered Rayjon Gomez, though way BEFORE the murder.

The Champion family was named by my RCL as one of the crime families.

"You know if you publish this story you'll be getting into it with the Champions, right?"

5.) Patterson. This is another family named by my source. I don't know if they are related to Honora Tremaine Patterson, accused of a murder at 2311 Queen Ave. N. He's in prison right now, but his MNDOC page is incredibly sparse and doesn't contain any information on his sentence. I've never seen any MNDOC page like his, with so many blank spots.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

OID Number:	237000
Name:	HONORA TREMAINE PATTERSON
Birth Date:	1/29/1982
Current Status:	Incarcerated
Location:	Minnesota Correctional Facility - St Cloud
Admit Date:	9/18/2013
Release Date **:	Contact co-records.doc@state.mn.us for more information
Release Type:
Expiration Date:
Case Worker:	M. Heald (320) 240-3000
Supervising Agent:
Controlling Offense Information *:
Offense Description:
Offense Modifier:
Minnesota Statute(s):
County of Conviction:
Court File Number:

There was also a Tanya Patterson involved in the infamous mortgage fraud by Larry Maxwell, click here. Again, no proof of a link, just the same surname. It's the same with Demetrius Patterson, who shot at a pizza man on the Northside. (This is why we can't have nice things) It should be mentioned there is a fine man named Sherman Patterson who is an aide to Mayor Rybak.

Are ANY of these people related? I just don't know.

6.) Nunn. Unknown if this family includes Orlando "Mookie" Nunn, a homicide victim in 2010. The murder of "Mookie" is the extent of information I have about people named "Nunn" who may be involved in crime and the inevitable results of such bad lifestyle choices.

Mayoral Candidate Don Samuels asserts six families, but I have the names of eight.

Clearly, Don's list and my list are not the same. Also, by the way, DON SAMUELS is not the source of my information. So here are two JNS blog BONUS NAMES:

7.) Lloyd, also spelled Loyd. I have turned up mention of a Bryon Keith Lloyd who kicked a police officer in the leg (twice!) during a domestic disturbance at 3415 Oliver Ave. N. Any link, any relation to "crime families" is unknown.

8.) Jackson. Back when I owned a house in the Hawthorne Eco-Village, and there was a slumlord we called The Devil, and the devil would talk to me, and the devil knew my name, he once told me never to mess with the "Jackson" crime family.

Well, at any given time there are a few people named "Jackson" on the Hennepin County Jail Roster, charged with SOMETHING, but whether they are related to each other or, for that matter, to Michael Jackson is unknown. But the earliest mention I heard of "crime families" in North Minneapolis was back in 2008 or 2009, from the lips of The Devil himself.

BUT ARE THERE REALLY CRIME FAMILIES? Even my source thinks most of the crime activity is clique related, not family related. My source referred me to a copy of the North Minneapolis Community Violence Report (click here for a fantastically informative document, even though some of it is couched in candy-coated, politically correct BS sociology) for explanation of why the Northside has so many problems, and why some involve multi-generational dysfunction.

With Betsy Hodges currently in a commanding lead in the mayoral race, it is unknown if the idea of "six crime families" will grow legs and live beyond the election. It was, after all, promulgated by Don Samuels, who is not leading at the moment.

But this much I know...

This blog would like to document the bloody family tree of any alleged "crime families" in as much detail as the infamous Gomez family. And I would like to see a day when crime families in North Minneapolis are written in the dry pages of history books, like the Hatfields and McCoys, not written in blood in our North Minneapolis streets.