Brainerd Woman charged with Attempted Murder, Gun Jams

By: Alex Evans

BRAINERD, Minn. – Authorities allege a gun jammed when a woman attempted to shoot her boyfriend during an argument.

A Brainerd woman has been charged with the attempted second-degree murder of her boyfriend with a shotgun, according to a criminal complaint. Cassidy Lynn Johnston, 31, also faces charges for second-degree assault, first-degree property damage, and aggravated harassment, all of which are alleged to have stemmed from an argument between Johnston and her boyfriend on Monday.

The Crow Wing County Sheriff’s Office said they were dispatched to the couple’s shared residence on Highway 210 near Brainerd around 6:17 p.m. for reports of a disturbance. The initial information provided to deputies was that a woman, identified as Johnston, was trying “to break down the door to the bathroom where [her boyfriend] was trying to get away from Johnston.”

Deputies found the boyfriend and a female witness whom Johnston had called, waiting at the end of the property’s driveway. Johnston, who was still inside the residence, was directed out and taken into custody.

The female witness said she was Johnston’s friend and had received a call from her asking to be picked up. When she arrived at the home, Johnston’s boyfriend could be heard inside the bathroom while “Johnston was trying to kick in the bathroom door.” When Johnston eventually kicked the door in, the man “barreled through and went outside,” while the woman said she went back to her vehicle.

According to the complaint, Johnston came out of the house, loading and pointing a shotgun towards her boyfriend, who was roughly 100 yards away. As she tried to chamber a round, Johnston reportedly said, “Why should he get to hurt people like this? I am going to hurt him.”

Johnston pulled the trigger, but an examination by deputies showed that “because she did not properly load the ammunition…the firearm jammed.”

The female witness said she attempted to talk Johnston down, and eventually took the gun from her, placing it back inside the home.

Surveillance footage reportedly showed Johnston breaking down the bathroom door and her boyfriend running outside. Johnston then used a rock to break out the windows of the man’s car, and then went back inside where she “broke into the locked gun cabinet, took a firearm and ammunition,” according to the footage.

While in custody, Johnston told deputies that she had intended to harm herself, not her boyfriend, with the firearm, though Crow Wing County deputies said surveillance footage refutes her claim.