A 22-year-old Minnesota man just pleaded guilty to a felony for shooting someone with a BB gun — while across the state line in New York, a repeat violent offender who did time for a shooting walked out of prison and promptly stabbed a Good Samaritan to death. If you're wondering who the system is designed to protect, it isn't you.
Ashton Charles Hyde of Rochester, Minnesota, admitted to second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon after a March 2025 incident where he argued with a man over a THC vape cartridge, chased him, and shot him in the leg with a BB gun, according to KROC-AM. Two witnesses told police they saw Hyde chasing the victim; one said multiple BB rounds struck his vehicle. The victim also said Hyde drove after him, making him fear he'd be run over. Under a plea deal, prosecutors dismissed a gross misdemeanor charge of carrying a BB gun in public and a misdemeanor assault charge. Court records note Hyde had a previous felony conviction.
Now consider what passes for accountability when the weapon is real and the criminal history is serious.
Alexavier Colon, 23, of Rochester, New York, was charged with second-degree murder June 20 after police say he fatally stabbed Kameron Nelson, a 33-year-old cook at The Mafia Hub bar. Nelson saw Colon arguing with his girlfriend outside the establishment and stepped in to help the woman, the Democrat and Chronicle reported. Police say Colon stabbed him multiple times. Nelson died at the hospital.
Colon shouldn't have been on the street. He was previously arrested for a 2021 shooting on Sullivan Street. He pleaded guilty to second-degree criminal possession of a weapon — not attempted murder, not assault, just possession — and was sentenced in 2023 to three years in prison. He was released last month and was wearing a GPS ankle monitor when he was arrested for Nelson's murder.
A shooting nets a weapons possession charge and a three-year bid. A BB gun dispute nets a felony assault conviction. The DA's office in Colon's case declined to charge the shooting for what it was, and a man who tried to protect a woman paid with his life.
The kdhlradio.com report on Hyde's BB gun case is straightforward — facts, charges, plea. The Democrat and Chronicle's coverage of Colon's murder charge buries the relevant detail about his prior shooting conviction and ankle monitor several paragraphs deep, framing the prior case as just another line in a police blotter rather than a systemic failure that left a man dead.
A BB gun shooter catches a felony. A real shooter walks early and kills. The two-tiered system isn't broken. It's working exactly as designed — just not for people like Kameron Nelson.
