– The man charged in a fatal shooting in Rapid City last year that led to racial turmoil in the community has accepted a plea deal.
21-year-old Quincy Bear Robe will be sentenced January 22nd on one count of 1st-degree manslaughter.
Bear Robe was originally charged with aggravated assault for shooting 19-year old Myron “Blaine” Pourier Jr of Porcupine, but the charge was raised after Pourier died in a hospital 2 weeks later – first to 2nd-degree murder and then to 1st-degree murder.
In a letter read in court in Rapid City on Monday, Bear Robe admitted firing 2 shots at Pourier while drunk March 19, 2022. One shot missed, but the other hit and killed him.
The probable cause affidavit in the case says Bear Robe, who was also 19 at the time of the shooting, told police his girlfriend was arguing with Pourier in a room at the Grand Gateway Hotel when he shot the other teen
Bear Robe was arrested by police after being spotted running from the motel with a .40 caliber pistol.
In the aftermath of the killing, 76-year old hotel co-owner Connie Uhre posted on social media that all Native Americans were banned from the family-owned hotel.
That led to protests by Native American activists and others. Uhre confronted several peaceful protestors outside the hotel on May 22nd of last year and sprayed them with a chemical cleaning product.
The attack was caught on a cell phone camera and shown to police, who arrested Uhre later in the day on 3 counts of simple assault.
A Pennington County jury convicted her on 2 of the counts earlier this month in a 2-day trial, but found her Not Guilty of the third charge when the protester cited in that count was not present to testify.