An 18-year-old woman is accused of killing a 14-year-old boy by stabbing him in the chest with a knife on the Red Lake Indian Reservation.
The night of April 12, investigators with the Red Lake Police Department and the FBI responded to the hospital in Red Lake, Minn. There, a doctor told them "an unidentified male came running into the emergency room and screamed, 'You have a dead (expletive) out here!' before running back outside and speeding away in a pickup," according to the criminal complaint.
Emergency room staff rushed to the parking lot to retrieve the boy, and for half an hour, they tried to save him. At 11:05 p.m., a doctor told an FBI agent that the boy had died from a single stab wound to the chest.
A woman told investigators that she saw Patricia Ann Brown and another woman stop by her house in a vehicle that night. She recalled hearing a fight near the street -- specifically Brown saying, "I shanked him! I shanked him!" and the boy saying, "She stabbed me!"
The woman told authorities that a man picked up the injured boy, put him in a pickup and drove off.
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The complaint says another witness, who tried to separate Brown and the boy as they quarreled, told investigators Brown swung her arm and struck the boy in the chest; the boy tried to swing back and said, "The (expletive) shanked me."
Red Lake police arrested Brown that night for an unrelated offense and impounded her light blue Chevrolet Blazer. The FBI later searched the vehicle and found a butterfly knife and brass knuckles, according to the complaint.
Brown, a member of the Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians, was indicted Wednesday in federal court on a murder charge.
As part of the same incident, she is also accused of cutting two other juveniles with a knife and is charged with assault resulting in serious bodily injury and assault with a dangerous weapon.
If convicted, she could face a maximum penalty of life in prison on all three counts.
Brown, also known as Trish or Trisha Johns, has an arraignment set for May 28 in Duluth.
A message left for the public defender representing Brown was not immediately returned Thursday.
Ingersoll reports on crime and courts. Reach him at (701) 780-1269; (800) 477-6572, ext. 269; or send e-mail to aingersoll@gfherald.com .
