Two Teens Arrested After Deadly Shooting at a Minneapolis Queer Punk House Last Year

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Two Minnesota teenagers have been arrested and face murder charges after a mass shooting at the Minneapolis queer punk house Nudieland last August — but some community members say jail time won’t bring them justice.

The Hennepin County Attorney's Office announced charges against the two teens this week, CBS affiliate WCCO reported. Both suspects are charged with seven felonies, including aiding and abetting second-degree murder and four counts of second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon. They have been charged as juveniles, though one has turned 18 since the shooting.

Growing out of another local DIY space named Disgraceland, Nudieland was both a music venue and living space for Minneapolis’ LGBTQ+ punk community, as past residents told Reckon last year. On August 11, during one of its frequent live shows, two people believed to be the teens charged this week opened fire on the crowd, wounding several people and killing musician August Golden, 35. At the time, several witnesses said the shooters arrived at the show, unsuccessfully attempted to hit on two lesbian members of the audience, and then made several queerphobic statements about other attendees; one was openly carrying a firearm, and said he would use it “if need be,” according to WCCO.

Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty confirmed those accounts this week, but said it would be too difficult to prove in court that the anti-LGBTQ+ statements were made. “What we don't believe at this moment is that we have enough information to know whether the crime itself was motivated by those hateful comments,” Moriarty told reporters at a press conference on Tuesday, adding that her office is “committed to holding those who caused this harm accountable.”

Attendees who had come to see bands play at Nudieland were mingling after the show when the shooting occurred.

But that sentiment is at odds with the values held by members of Minneapolis’ LGBTQ+ punk scene, as some who called Nudieland a home have expressed doubts about whether carceral solutions will bring relief. Caitlin Angelica, Golden’s partner of several years, told Minnesota Public Radio that although she had been frightened by the knowledge that Golden’s killers were still at large, jailing the two teens allegedly responsible won’t solve anything by itself.

“I feel very sad that they are so young [....] We don’t want people to necessarily be put in prison, even though they did a really bad thing,” Angelica told MPR. Claire Cobs, another survivor of the shooting, agreed. “What they did was horrible and inexcusable,” Cobs explained, “but I also know that that kind of hate that compelled them to do what they did that night, and think that was an okay thing to do, is a systematic issue that doesn't start or end with them.”

In the wake of the shooting, community members organized a GoFundMe campaign to support the survivors and their families, which raised over $211,000. UnderCurrentMPLS, which documents and promotes underground and DIY music in the Minneapolis area, released a Nudieland tribute video in Golden’s memory a week after the tragedy.

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