News and Press Releases
Red Lake man sentenced for firing AK-47 assault rifle at a residence
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 23, 2011
MINNEAPOLIS – Yesterday in federal court in St. Paul, a 21-year-old Red Lake man was
sentenced for firing an AK-47 assault rifle at a residence on the Red Lake Indian Reservation.
United States District Court Judge Donovan W. Frank sentenced Jesse Dale Roy to a term of five
years of probation on one count of assault with a dangerous weapon. Roy was indicted on April
20, 2011, and pleaded guilty on October 28, 2011. The defendant is required to reside at a
halfway house for four months and complete 100 hours of community service as conditions or
his probation.
In his plea agreement, Roy admitted that on March 14, 2011, he fired several shots from an
AK-47 rifle at the home of a female member of the Red Lake Band of Chippewa with intent to
do bodily harm and without just cause.
According to a law enforcement affidavit filed in the case, the assault occurred when Roy
fired shots into the woman’s home. Police subsequently responded to the reported shooting,
which occurred shortly after midnight. The shots were fired from a vehicle that was ultimately
stopped on a traffic violation just east of Highway 89 and County Road 32. Officers spotted
several spent shell casings in the vehicle, and Roy, the driver of the vehicle, was arrested. Police
found one rifle casing near the area where the vehicle was when the victim heard shots and seven
bullet holes in the exterior of victim’s residence. One bullet fragment was found inside a kitchen
cabinet. Police followed the path the vehicle was believed to have taken when it left the scene
and located an AK-47 style assault rifle. Police also recovered a cloth gun case along that same
path. The gun case contained a magazine that was compatible with the AK-47 style assault rifle.
This case was the result of an investigation by the Red Lake Tribal Police Department and the Federal
Bureau of Investigation, with assistance from the Beltrami County Sheriff’s Office and the
Blackduck Police Department. It was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin S. Ueland.
Because the Red Lake Indian Reservation is a federal-jurisdiction reservation, some of the
crimes that occur there are investigated by the FBI in conjunction with the Red Lake Tribal
Police Department. Those cases are prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
