Family attorney: Teen disabled from gunshot in 2019 in Mpls. has died

A 19-year-old man who was left paralyzed from a gunshot to the head in 2019 at a north Minneapolis gas station has died, an attorney for his family said Thursday.

Caleb JaChin Duane Livingston was living in Illinois with his mother when he died Sunday, said attorney Mike Padden.

"It's clear that his death was a result of his serious injuries from being shot in the head," Padden said. "It was just a matter of time that he was going to expire."

The attorney said that while Livingston was not in a vegetative state, he was afflicted with what's called unresponsive wakefulness syndrome, meaning "he couldn't talk, he couldn't eat, he couldn't walk."

Padden said results are pending of an autopsy by the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office regarding the precise cause and manner of Livingston's death.

Police have announced no arrests in the shooting, which occurred on May 14, 2019, at the Full Stop gas station at 1818 N. Lowry Av. A police spokesman said Thursday afternoon that the investigation remains open and active.

Livingston's mother filed a personal injury lawsuit in Hennepin County District Court in May 2021 seeking damages from the estate of Daunte Wright, claiming that Wright, who was killed by a Brooklyn Center police officer April 11, 2021, shot her son.

The suit filed by Jennifer LeMay, formerly of Minneapolis, claims Wright had a brief confrontation before shooting Livingston, who was visiting from Illinois.

The suit alleges Wright intentionally shot at Livingston, striking him once in the head and causing "serious, disabling, and permanent injuries."

Padden claimed in the suit that a "plethora" of evidence points to Wright as the shooter.

Now that Livingston has died, Padden said, the Wright estate will soon be sued for wrongful death.

An attorney for the Wright estate, Paul Rajkowski, in July 2021 filed a reply to the suit denying the allegations and asking the court to dismiss the case. A message was left with Rajkowski on Thursday seeking any further comment about the lawsuit.

The lawsuit, which seeks from the Wright estate an award of more than $50,000, has a preliminary trial date of Sept. 5, 2023.

LeMay, who lived in Chicago at the time her son was shot, spoke to the Star Tribune in November 2019 about his injury. He spent 33 days in the ICU at North Memorial Health Hospital in Robbinsdale, where the bill totaled more than $545,000 and caused a fight with her insurance company over who would pay.

LeMay had her son transferred to a Chicago hospital and then a transitional facility.

Wright, 20, was shot and killed by then-Brooklyn Center police officer Kim Potter, who testified at her trial that she believed she was firing at Wright with her Taser but shot him with her handgun. Potter was subsequently convicted of first- and second-degree manslaughter and sentenced in February to two years in prison.

The city of Brooklyn Center reached a settlement and agreed in June to pay $3.25 million to the Wright family.

Staff writer Rochelle Olson contributed to this report.