Before dawn Friday, Lavauntai Broadbent, 16, robbed a man at gunpoint in St. Paul and got away in a stolen car. After nightfall, he was at it again. This time, his target pointed a gun right back.

The man fatally shot Broadbent, of West St. Paul. He told police he feared Broadbent would kill him and the woman he was with, and said he had obtained his permit to carry a gun for his protection after he had recently been assaulted while walking home from a grocery store.

On Wednesday, the Ramsey County attorney’s office charged four teens who had been with Broadbent on Friday, and spelled out more details about what they say happened that day.

The Ramsey County attorney’s office charged Donte Edward Foster, 16, of Woodbury; Kendell Anthony Lewis, 16, of St. Paul; Malcolm James Devion Golden, 17, of St. Paul; and Nautica Delshaun Cox, 16, of St. Paul.

The juvenile petitions give the following account:

St. Paul police were dispatched about 4:40 a.m. Friday to a man who reported his silver sedan had been stolen sometime in the past 24 hours from the area of East Sixth and Hancock streets. He had two loaded guns in the locked car, and police said they’re looking into a connection between the stolen guns and the Broadbent case.

Ten minutes after the car was reported stolen, two miles away, police were called to an armed robbery. A man said he had been at a bus stop at Maryland Avenue and Barclay Street and saw a silver sedan parked nearby. A moment later, a male wearing a red and black long-sleeved shirt, tan pants and full face mask pointed a handgun at him and said, “Empty your pockets.” The man turned over $20, an ATM card, bus card and his wallet, he said. The sedan fled the area.

That night, at 10:26 p.m., officers were called to the area of the World War I monument at Summit Avenue and Mississippi River Boulevard. A woman yelled to officers that a male had been shot on the bluffs. Officers descended the hill and saw a man applying pressure to the wounds of a male who was face-down on the ground, bleeding. Paramedics pronounced the male dead; he was identified as Broadbent.

Broadbent was wearing a red and black long-sleeved shirt and face mask, and had a glove on his right hand. Next to him was a loaded gun.

Police took the man who had shot Broadbent, identified in the petitions as K.L., to police headquarters, where he was “visibly upset and shaking,” the petitions said.

K.L. said he had gone to the river bluffs to watch the blue moon that night. A woman had been sitting nearby and they struck up a conversation. Then a male approached and asked K.L. to use his phone to call his mom. K.L. gave him his phone, and another male came up. He was wearing a mask, stood three feet from K.L. and pointed a handgun. “Empty your pockets, (racial epithet),” the male said, according to K.L.

“K.L. stated he thought he or the woman were going to be killed so he grabbed his holstered gun and fired several shots at the suspect with the gun,” the petitions said.

The male who had asked for K.L.’s phone ran away, and the male who had been armed fell face down. K.L. told him not to move and he responded, “I dropped the gun,” according to the petitions. K.L. told the woman nearby to call an ambulance and police.

K.L. tried to talk to the male, but he stopped responding. K.L. asked the woman to get a first-aid kit he had in his car.

Police also talked to the woman, identified as K.F., at police headquarters. She said she attended college nearby and had walked to the bluffs, where she had a casual conversation with a man she didn’t know. She then saw three males, and she gave an account of what happened that matched K.L.’s. K.L. pulled out his gun and shot five or six times at the male with the gun, the woman said.

On Saturday, police found Lewis driving the stolen silver sedan. Officers searched the car and seized a gun from the front dashboard. They also found a debit card and other property that belonged to the man who had been robbed at the bus stop.

As officers talked with Lewis and the other teens, they were met with varying stories. Ultimately, Foster told police that he had stolen the car and that he had let Broadbent and Golden out to rob a man at a bus stop near McDonald’s on Friday morning. After they got the man’s $20, they had all gone to McDonald’s and spent it, Cox reported.

Foster said there had been another robbery around the same time near a graveyard, though officers couldn’t find a robbery report matching that description.

On Friday night, the teens had gone to the bluffs and took turns shooting a gun into the air, Foster said. Broadbent wanted to rob someone, Lewis said. They could see two people below them and Broadbent said, “Let’s stain them,” apparently slang for robbing people, and Lewis handed him a gun, the petition said of what Foster told police.

Broadbent also said, “on SBG, let’s do this,” the petition said. Investigators believe SBG stands for “Shoota Boy Gang,” and police have seen social-media postings of Broadbent admitting he was an SBG member.

Golden and Broadbent walked down the bluff, and Lewis said he stayed in the middle of the bluff. Lewis saw Broadbent put on a ski mask and a glove, heard gunshots and saw Broadbent on the ground. Golden told police he heard five shots, ran through the woods and went home. Lewis ran to the car and Foster said he did the same after hearing eight shots, and the two drove away.

On Sunday, there was a memorial for Broadbent at Shadow Falls Park. During the service, a Mercedes crashed into the monuments and water fountain and, at the same time, shots were fired. People ran from the scene; no one was shot.

Officers pulled over a Dodge Magnum and five people were inside, including Cox. Officers seized two guns from the car.

Cox told police he had been attending the memorial, heard the car crash and jumped in the Magnum. Four adults were in the car, and Cox said he didn’t know guns were present.

The county attorney’s office charged Foster, Golden and Lewis with two counts of aiding and abetting first-degree aggravated robbery (one for the bus stop case and the other for the river bluff case), and aiding and abetting vehicle theft. Cox is charged with aiding and abetting first-degree aggravated robbery in the bus stop case and aiding and abetting vehicle theft. Foster and Lewis are also charged with reckless discharge of a firearm.

Prosecutors are seeking to have the four teens, who are being held in the Ramsey County Juvenile Detention Center, charged and tried as adults.

Police haven’t presented a case to the county attorney’s office to determine whether the shooter should be charged, the county attorney’s office said.

Broadbent would have been a junior at Henry Sibley High School in Mendota Heights. Principal Ron Monson sent a message to parents Wednesday, saying, “The loss of a young person, regardless of the circumstances, is tragic.”

Sibley’s guidance office will be open Monday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., and counseling staff will be available for students who need to talk, Monson said.

People who knew Broadbent have described him as a goofy teen who loved to crack jokes but who had been hanging out with “the wrong crowd.”

Broadbent pleaded guilty in May to third-degree riot/crime committed for the benefit of a gang. In April, officers had been called to a downtown hotel and saw 50 to 100 juveniles running away. Police reviewed surveillance videos, saw juveniles punching and throwing items at each other, and recognized numerous rival gang members, the petition said. Broadbent had denied to police that he was a gang member, saying he only hung out with them, according to the petition.

Mara H. Gottfried can be reached at 651-228-5262. Follow her at twitter.com/MaraGottfried.

IF YOU GO

What: Community meeting hosted by the University of St. Thomas in the wake of the shooting. St. Paul police and city council members are expected to attend.

When: 7 p.m. Thursday

Where: St. Thomas’ John Roach Center auditorium, east side of the Arches on the main campus. Free parking will be available at any UST lot or at Anderson Parking Facility at Cretin and Grand avenues.