On the evening of November 14, 2022, 17-year-old Yaseen Johnson, a Black student at Rogers High School, was shot and killed in the parking lot of an apartment complex on the 9700 block of 37th Place North in Plymouth, Minnesota. Johnson and a friend had driven to meet two sellers to buy a pair of Balenciaga sneakers. Two men got into the back seat to complete the sale; after Johnson inspected a shoe and handed over the money, one of the men unexpectedly demanded a sneaker back. When Johnson refused, that man produced a gun and fired multiple times. Officers nearby arrived shortly before 6 p.m. and found Johnson fatally wounded inside the vehicle.

Plymouth police identified three suspects during the investigation. An 18-year-old was arrested and released; attention then focused on 19-year-old Augustus Sirleaf of Plymouth and 19-year-old Hans Madave of New Hope. Sirleaf was taken into custody while Madave was sought by police for about two months. Police say Sirleaf and Madave had allegedly planned to rob the buyers during the shoe sale. If anyone has information about the events that night or knew Yaseen, please come forward to share what you know.