Man who shot six times at St. Paul police officer sentenced to 15 years

Jan. 14—A North St. Paul man who laughed and bragged that he would be out in 36 hours after shooting up a police car with an officer inside was sentenced this month to 15 years in prison.

Jamoni Raekwon Blackstone, 25, was sentenced in Ramsey County District Court for shooting at a St. Paul police officer April 13. The officer, identified as Sgt. Willis in the complaint, was uninjured.

Willis was sitting in an unmarked car and not in uniform, but was on duty looking out for potential looting following the shooting of Daunte Wright in Brooklyn Center by former police officer Kim Potter. Several St. Paul businesses had been vandalized the day before.

Willis had stopped on Hoyt Avenue and Barclay Street about 10:30 p.m. when bullets struck the police car, breaking glass. Willis drove away unharmed.

Police traced the car to Blackstone and found anti-police social media posts written by him in which he made threats.

Blackstone was arrested April 20. He pleaded guilty to one count of attempted intentional murder in the second-degree Nov. 19.

On Jan 4., he was sentenced by Judge George Stephenson to 180 months with 259 days credit for time served. According to state guidelines, he will serve 10 years in prison and five years on supervised release.

Blackstone has three prior felony convictions, two for illegally possessing a weapon and one for second-degree assault with a deadly weapon.