Inset (left): Ian Bursey (Ramsey County Sheriff”s Office). Inset (right): Tajai Evans (Mueller Memorial Funerals & Cremation). Background: Front Ave. in St. Paul, Minn., where the fatal shooting took place (Google Maps).
A Minnesota man who claimed he was laughed at during a road rage incident has been found guilty of murder.
Ian Bursey, 27, was convicted on Monday of two counts of second-degree murder and drive-by shooting toward an occupied vehicle or building in connection with the death of 26-year-old Tajai Evans. According to a criminal complaint reviewed by Law&Crime, Evans was shot by Bursey after a road rage incident that took place on Nov. 4, 2024. Evans was a passenger in a Toyota Corolla that Bursey claimed had “cut him off about five times.”
When police spoke to the Corolla driver, he had a different story.
Police said Bursey placed a 911 call and told dispatchers that he had been “assaulted” during a road rage incident and that he shot a man he said attacked him. When police arrived at the scene, Bursey had a bloody nose and a nurse was performing CPR on Evans. Evans, a father of two children, was pronounced dead at the scene from multiple gunshot wounds.
When police spoke to Bursey, he told them that he was driving his Hyundai Sonata to work as a Lyft and Uber driver. Bursey claimed that his “anxiety affects his memory,” but told police that the Corolla cut him off while he was driving. He said the driver and Evans then “laughed and pointed at him” when he told them not to cut him off. Bursey claimed that Evans and the other driver said, “They do what they want.”
Bursey told police that he pulled into a parking lot to try to get a license plate number, which he did not write down or remember, and to check his phone. He claimed that while he was sitting in his car, Evans and the other driver came up behind him and started punching him. He then grabbed his gun and fired two shots from inside the Sonata, but “denied he shot to kill.” Bursey then said the two men “ran away” and the other car “sped off.”
According to the complaint, Bursey could not say whether he saw either of the other men with a gun. He told police “the men in the other car were holding their pockets and kind of sketchy.” Police informed him that he could not have seen them holding their pockets while they were seated in a car.
According to the complaint, the driver said Bursey pulled in front of him and brake-checked him. The driver then tried to get away from Bursey by moving into a different lane. Both drivers found themselves next to each other at a red light, and Bursey yelled at the driver about cutting him off, which the driver said he did not do.
The Corolla driver said that he then drove himself and Evans to a tobacco store and parked their car. Bursey followed them, drove past their car, threw something at it, then left, the driver said. After they finished shopping, the driver and Evans saw Bursey’s Sonata pulled over, and Evans got out of the car to confront Bursey.
According to the complaint, Evans punched Bursey. The driver said that “3-5 seconds” later, Bursey shot Evans multiple times. Evans was able to get himself back to his friend’s car, and they were stopped by police on their way to the hospital.
Bursey is scheduled to appear for a hearing on Dec. 4 and will be sentenced on Dec. 11.
