12 October 2023
A woman and her boyfriend are charged with child endangerment after prosecutors say her 7-year-old child was injured in an Inver Grove Heights shooting when they left a gun unattended.
Kamera Karmeasha Wright Ramsey, 31, gave officials varying accounts of what happened.
The Dakota County attorney’s office provided the following information in recently-filed criminal complaints:
Kamera Karmeasha Wright Ramsey (Courtesy of the Dakota County Sheriff’s Office)
Officers responded to a St. Paul hospital on Aug. 16 on a report of a child who’d been shot. He had injuries to his hand and thigh, which resulted in numerous fractures and surgery, and medical records noted it was unlikely he was shot once given the location of his injuries.
The boy’s mother, Wright Ramsey, told Inver Grove Heights police that her son was playing with other children at Salem Hills Park in Inver Grove Heights when she heard a boom and saw her son was shot. She said she took him to her residence in Inver Grove Heights and a neighbor drove them to the hospital.
Police went to the park and didn’t find evidence of a shooting. They confronted Wright Ramsey about the situation.
She then said she’d been in a small car crash outside her apartment in the 5300 block of Audobon Avenue. While she was outside her Chevrolet Cruze, she said her 3-year-old son got unbuckled, got her handgun from the trunk of the vehicle and shot his 7-year-old brother. She believed he accessed the trunk from inside the vehicle. She had a permit to carry a gun.
Officers talked to an apartment resident who said Wright Ramsey’s vehicle struck hers on Aug. 15.
Wright Ramsey and a man, later identified as Derrick Wayne Burkhalter Jr., exited the vehicle and exchanged information — the woman had a photo of Wright Ramsey’s insurance information. As the couple began to sit back down in their vehicle, the resident heard a loud bang followed by a child screaming in pain and she heard Wright Ramsey yell at a child.
County child protection workers interviewed the 7-year-old, who said he was on his tablet in the backseat of the car when his 3-year-old brother grabbed a gun and shot him. He said his mom was in the car at the time. “When asked if his mother told him what to say, he stopped answering questions,” according to the complaint.
Derrick Wayne Burkhalter Jr. (Courtesy of the Dakota County Sheriff’s Office)
Child protection staff also talked to Wright Ramsey, who said she hadn’t been truthful with police because Burkhalter was with her in violation of a domestic abuse no-contact order. She said she’d left the children in the vehicle with the firearm in her purse and, after the shooting, put the gun in a storage unit before going to the hospital. She said Burkhalter, 28, drove them.
Both children told police that the 7-year-old was shot with “daddy’s gun.” Burkhalter is the younger boy’s dad and the older boy refers to him as his father. The 3-year-old said his foot was burned after firing the gun, which was likely from a casing, a prosecutor wrote in another court document.
Prosecutors charged the couple with child endangerment involving access to a loaded firearm. Burkhalter is also charged with violation of a domestic abuse no-contact order.
Neither of their attorneys could be reached for comment Thursday.
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