Jammed courtroom sees Horace man sentenced to 17 years in girlfriend's shooting death

FARGO — Every seat inside the courtroom was filled and Cass County deputies provided a heavy security presence Thursday, Sept. 24, as the man accused of accidentally shooting and killing his girlfriend inside their Horace apartment last fall was sentenced. In June, Derrick Lobbo, 22, pled guilty to manslaughter in the death of 23-year-old Sakeena Khaadi on Nov. 5, 2025. Lobbo called 911 at 7:52 a.m. that morning, placing the first recorded report of the shooting. Two additional calls would come in a short time later — one from a neighbor who reported there was "an unresponsive female" and another from an employee of a clinic where Lobbo ran after the shooting and asked for help. According to a sentencing memo submitted by Lobbo's attorney Jennifer Braun, the night before she died, Khaadi and Lobbo went out to dinner with his two-year-old daughter. Lobbo had just secured a major sponsor for a nonprofit youth basketball team he was coaching, and they were celebrating, Braun wrote. A Snapchat video on Khaadi's account showed the couple lying on their couch at their apartment later that night, laughing and kissing, Braun said. The couple operated a booth at a local salon together — she did cosmetology and hair, and he did dreadlocks.

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