Level 3 Pedatory Offender Gets Prison for Brutal Rochester Attack

Rochester, MN (KROC-AM News) - The man who brutally assaulted and severely injured a Rochester community activist last year is being sent to prison.

Forty-six-year-old Malik Johnson was sentenced today following his conviction on a first-degree assault charge. He was also originally charged with second- and third-degree assault, but those counts were dismissed through a plea agreement finalized in August.

Brutal Attack on Community Activist Caught on Video

Court records indicate Rochester police responded to a halfway house on the Olmsted County campus in southeast Rochester on April 25, 2024, after receiving a report of an assault. When they arrived, officers learned that an employee of the facility had been struck on the head with a metal tire pump and suffered a significant head injury.

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According to the criminal complaint, surveillance video from inside the halfway house shows Johnson winding up and forcefully swinging the tire pump at the victim’s head while he was sitting defenseless. The court document says the victim suffered a skull fracture and a cerebral contusion that required both physical and occupational therapy with a traumatic brain injury team.

Victim Known as “Yammy Bear” Mascot Suffers Severe Injuries

A Facebook post by the wife of Charles Jackson stated that he was admitted to the ICU at St. Marys Hospital after the assault. Jackson is well known in the Rochester community as the man inside the "Yammy Bear" mascot costume.

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Johnson’s Criminal History Includes Prior Assault Convictions

Johnson had moved into the halfway house following his release from state prison, where he had served sentences for assaults on an Olmsted County detention deputy and a state prison correctional officer. He was also the subject of a Rochester Police Department Community Notification earlier this year. That notice indicated Johnson is considered a Level 3 predatory offender and was convicted of felony criminal sexual conduct in 2016.

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He has now been returned to prison to serve a 135-month sentence for the attack at the Rochester halfway house. Johnson was given credit for the 524 days he has already spent in jail.

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