Jawon Osburn identified as latest juvenile homicide victim

​Jawon Osburn has been named as the 16-year-old victim of a gunshot homicide that happened Monday night.

Osburn, identified by the Hennepin County Medical Examiner, was found shot on the 2900 block of Dupont Avenue, and declared dead on the scene after paramedics were unable to resuscitate him. Osburn's name joins those of Quantell Braxton and Ray'jon Gomez to make up a tragic triumvirate of juveniles shot to death in the last month. Braxton, 14, and Gomez, 13, were murdered during the same weekend last month.

Speaking on WCCO radio yesterday, Minneapolis Police Chief Tim Dolan said investigators don't think that the shooting of Osburn, Monday's victim, was tied in with the deaths of Braxton and Gomez. But he did say it's part of a disturbing trend that's new to him, and to this city.

"In my 34 years," Dolan said, "I've never seen people this young that are targeted -- targeted intentionally."

Osburn was clearly considered a target by someone: In the weeks before he was shot and killed, he'd already been shot once in the leg.

A fourth teenager, 19-year-old Shabar Hildebran, has been shot and killed in north Minneapolis during the same span of time: In the first week of September, Hildebran was killed inside an acquaintance's house after a dispute with three other men.

Dolan told WCCO's Dave Lee that Osburn's shooting was the result of an "ongoing dispute" with others, but couldn't say whether it was gang related. He was, though, more confident in identifying the shootings of Gomez and Braxton as stemming from gang violence.

"It's obviously not something that ended well," Dolan said of Osburn's shooting. "We're dealing with it. We've got issues on more than one front."