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Tim Nelson
Minneapolis

Boy, 16, charged in gang-related beating death

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A 16-year-old Plymouth boy was charged Monday in the death of a Brooklyn Park teen who police said was killed as part of a gang initiation rite.

Kayakers found the body of 17-year-old James Teto Grant July 18 in Bassett Creek in Theodore Wirth Park. Police found a car battery attached to his leg with a cable.

Emmanuel Garmodhen Myles, 16, of Plymouth, was charged in Hennepin County District Court with aiding and abetting second-degree murder.

According to the criminal complaint, Myles told police he and two other teens lured Grant to a secluded area to initiate him into the Bloods street gang on July 10 by beating him.

Myles told investigators the beating was also to retaliate for a fight Grant had been in. According to the complaint, one of the teens allegedly hit Grant with a shovel and killed him.

The charges say a 24-year-old drove the teens to Home Depot to buy shovels, which they planned to use to bury Grant. After starting to dig, they decided instead to use a stolen car battery to submerge Grant's body in the water, the complaint said.

Two other teens may also face charges, as well as the adult who allegedly helped the boys with their plan to conceal the crime.

The victim's father, James Grant, told WCCO-TV he and his son immigrated to the United States from Liberia years ago. He says they came to America for a better life, and that he had hoped his son would go to college.

(The Associated Press contributed to this report.)