The Stearns County Attorney charged 18-year-old Nathaniel Leon Smith with 1st and 2nd degree attempted murder Friday.

Smith was arrested earlier this week and admitted to St. Cloud police investigators that he shot 21-year-old Antoine Dajuan Fair, who is at the St. Cloud Hospital with at least three gunshot wounds. One shot entered the left side of his neck and injured his carotid artery and is lodged in his jaw. Another shot is lodged in the back of his brain and another is in his lower right back.

Judge Thomas Van Hon set Smith’s bail at $1 million unconditional or $500,000 conditional bail.

The charges stem from the shooting that happened on Wednesday, March 30th in the 100 block of 19th Avenue North. After police arrested him in Sartell, Smith told investigators he was acting in defense of another person Fair was allegedly assaulting. A witness in a nearby residence said she heard three gunshots, and saw Smith standing over Fair and fire two more shots.

Smith’s next court hearing is set for April 11.