Someone shot and killed a cow and a calf grazing in the the Sherburne National Wildlife Refuge in central Minnesota.

The Sherburne County sheriff’s office is asking for the public’s help in finding who killed two cows, which were legally grazing on the federal land.

According the the sheriff’s office: Deputies were called Tuesday to the area near 293rd Avenue Northwest in Blue Hill Township and met with a man whose cattle graze on the refuge. He told deputies that he found a cow and a calf on the refuge that had been shot, according to Sheriff Joel Brott.

“The cows appeared to have been deceased for several days based on the decomposition of the animals,” according to a statement from Brott’s office. “The cow was found in a creek and the calf was found about 15 feet away.”

The animals were found about a quarter mile north of the Blue Hill Cemetery.

If you know anything, call sheriff’s department investigators at 763-765-3500.

Cattle grazing has been done for years on various public wildlife lands. It’s a benefit to ranchers, but the primary purpose for wildlife managers is the ecological value grazing has on grasslands, as cows mimic the effects that native bison once had. Grazing at Sherburne National Wildlife Refuge helps create excellent habitat for migrating American woodcock.

It was Christopher Calloway’s girlfriend who set it up.

The plan was for her to meet up with one of her friends and her friend’s sister last Sept. 25. They would hang out, drive around, and eventually Kalisa Chardale Smith would tell her friends she needed to quickly meet someone in an alley in the St. Paul Payne-Phalen neighborhood.

What she didn’t tell them was that the person was her boyfriend, Calloway, and that he was waiting with a gun along with two other men — Davonte Bobo and Vincent Reanell Harris —  to rob them.

Shortly after they pulled up and Smith exited the car, the robbery ensued. One of the men pistol-whipped Brittany Rock, Smith’s friend. When Rock’s sister, Samantha Burnette, tried to intervene and hit one of the gunmen on the head with a bottle, she was fatally shot.

The 16-year-old Minnetonka High School student died in the alley.

Calloway, 33, apologized for his actions in a Ramsey County district courtroom Friday shortly before a judge sentenced him to 30 years in prison for his actions.

The sentencing came a few months after Calloway pleaded guilty of one count of second-degree murder in Burnette’s death and a second count of first-degree aggravated robbery.

His accomplices also ended up pleading guilty, Bobo to the same counts as Calloway and Harris to first-degree aggravated robbery. Both were sentenced this summer.

Smith, 29, pleaded guilty to one count of second-degree-murder and will be sentenced later this month.

Calloway’s attorney, Christopher Zipko, said Burnette’s grandparents and sister described their grief during his sentencing hearing Friday.

“They were pretty shaken up,” Zipko said.

Burnette was a junior at Minnetonka High School when she died and lived with her grandmother in Minnetonka. She was spending the weekend with her mother and sister, who live in St. Paul, when she was shot.

Shortly after she died, her relatives remembered her as a positive, social and loving teen who enjoyed listening to music, skateboarding and hanging out with her sister and two nieces.

Calloway apologized to them Friday, Zipko said.

“He did turn around and look at the family and admitted and owned what he did and obviously he deserved everything he got,” Zipko said.

Police in central Minnesota say a man wanted by authorities found a cool place to hide — a refrigerator.

The Stearns County sheriff’s office says it learned last week that the 25-year-old man was at a mobile home in Waite Park. Deputies entered the home and found him inside the fridge.

Authorities say the man was handcuffed behind his back but broke free and ran from deputies as they escorted him to a squad car. He was caught a couple of blocks away and taken to jail.

WJON-AM reports the man was wanted on five warrants out of Stearns County and also one out of Hennepin County. A court order also prohibited him from being at that home.

One of four people accused of operating a multistate sex-trafficking-ring out of California that preyed on foreign-born women to work as prostitutes in Minnesota and elsewhere has admitted to her role in the criminal operation.

After reaching a deal with prosecutors in the case, Fangyao Wu, 23, of Irvine, Calif., pleaded guilty Thursday in Washington County District Court to one felony count of racketeering, court records say.

Wu previously faced six felonies, including two charges of aiding and abetting the sex-trafficking of an individual.

As part of her agreement with the state, Wu is expected to receive a stayed jail sentence for her conviction in exchange for her cooperation with authorities on the criminal cases still pending against the three others charged in the bust, according to Dennis Gerhardstein, spokesman for the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office.

Ramsey and Washington counties headed up the investigation.

Wu also agreed to forfeit the more than $700,000 she earned in proceeds from the sex-trafficking scheme, which authorities in Washington and Ramsey counties described as highly sophisticated when announcing charges in March.

Wu’s attorney, Eric Thole, said the plea deal’s exclusion of any jail time for his client speaks to her limited role in the trafficking operation.

“She was far less culpable than the others and the county attorney recognized that,” Thole said. “She accepts responsibility for her part and wants to move on.”

County attorneys in both Washington and Ramsey said they expect other defendants charged in the case to follow suit.

It was not immediately clear whether the fourth defendant, Sophia Wang Navas, also of Irvine, Calif., also will seek a plea deal.

In a joint statement released Thursday, Ramsey and Washington county prosecutors said Wu’s plea deal is an important first step.

“While this massive sex-trafficking case is still ongoing with regard to other defendants, we are pleased with (the) guilty plea of one of the defendants,” the statement read. “Jointly, both Washington and Ramsey County will continue to pursue justice in this case and others as we are working in partnership to tackle this problem regionally. In addition, we are doubling our efforts to jointly engage the public to become more aware and to take steps to end the buying and selling of women and girls for sex in our communities.”

The operation ran from February of 2015 until Febrary of 2017 and involved nearly 20,000 advertisements for sexual services placed on Backpage.com, charges say.

In describing the ring last winter, Orput pointed to a bust made at a Cottage Grove home in February to serve as an example of how it worked. He said enforcement found little more than two mattresses inside the townhome along with “a line of men” waiting to have sex with three women found inside the home.

Jing and Navas are suspected of placing the ads and communicating with clients.

Jiang, of Blaine, coordinated the logistics of the operation in the Minnesota and North Dakota, finding establishments and private homes for the women to work out of and collecting the money paid to them by clients, the complaint said.

Jiang told officers that the women, who ranged in age from 32 to 45, were forced to earn at least $800 a day or risk getting fired, authorities say. He also said they had to pay housing fees, transportation costs and for their own food.

Most of the women were foreign born, mainly Chinese or Korean nationals. Locally, they served clients across the Twin Cities, including Oakdale, Cottage Grove, St. Paul, Blaine, Maplewood and St. Louis Park.

Jiang typically rotated the women’s location every two weeks, he told police, according to the complaint. He admitted that women were sometimes raped, beaten and robbed by clients.

He referred to the incidents as “just part of the business,” the complaint said.

Investigators say they discovering tens of thousands of dollars in traffickers’ bank accounts. One account contained more than $850,000.

None of the trafficked women initially identified by investigators in the case wanted help or services, authorities say. Orput added that all of the women involved were isolated, spoke little to no English and were fully dependent upon the traffickers. He also said they may have feared deportation for going against their traffickers.

Hearings are scheduled for Jiang and Jing Aug. 25 and 28.

The father and the fiance of an Australian woman shot to death by a Minneapolis police officer responding to her 911 call grieved at a public memorial service Friday night, the same time the family had planned to be on a plane to her wedding.

Justine Damond’s father, John Ruszczyk, choked back tears as he vowed to find justice for his 40-year-old daughter, whom he described as being “ripped from our arms.”

“We should be walking down the street smiling and laughing,” he said of his first visit to Minneapolis. “But now every step on the foot path is very painful. I feel crushed by sorrow.”

Hundreds of people, many wearing heart-shaped stickers, attended the memorial service. An Australian flag was displayed prominently on the stage next to Damond’s picture.

Her fiance, Don Damond, said it “felt like a privilege to love Justine.” They were getting married next week in Hawaii, and he pointed out the painful irony that the service — held at the Lake Harriet Bandshell near her home in southwest Minneapolis — coincided with the family’s original travel plans.

He read some of the uplifting messages she would free-write every morning and called her a “living example of self-mastery.”

“I have immense gratitude for being the one she chose,” Don Damond said. “In Australia, they call it ‘you’re punching above your weight.’ I really had to step up to be at her level.”

Her family has set up the Justine Damond Social Justice Fund, which will support causes important to her, including those promoting equal treatment for all.

As Damond’s loved ones mourned their loss, the investigation into her death moved forward. A judge approved a search warrant for investigators to examine the smartphones of two Minneapolis police officers in the shooting.

The search warrant application was filed Thursday by an agent with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. The agent requested permission to download data from the iPhones issued by the Minneapolis Police Department.

The application states that the information “may more clearly define” the officers’ actions before and after she was killed on July 15. Investigators have said officer Mohamed Noor shot the 40-year-old woman after she called 911 to report a possible sexual assault near her home in the Fulton neighborhood.

Noor’s partner, officer Matthew Harrity, told investigators a noise startled him just before Damond approached their police SUV. Noor was in the passenger seat and shot Damond through the open driver-side window. Noor has declined to be interviewed by investigators and cannot be compelled to do so.

The two officers had not activated their body cameras. Minneapolis police officers are now required to have those cameras on when they respond to calls or make traffic stops.

Damond’s death led to a shake-up at the top of the Minneapolis Police Department. Police Chief Janee Harteau resigned at the request of Mayor Betsy Hodges, who said the department needed new leadership. Hodges nominated Medaria Arradondo, who had been assistant chief, to become chief.

This week a Minneapolis City Council committee unanimously endorsed Arradondo’s nomination.

ST. CLOUD, Minn. — A Minnesota judge says she hasn’t decided whether to allow several media organizations to join a legal dispute over whether to release case files from the Jacob Wetterling investigation.

The first public hearing was held Friday about access to the investigative files from the 1989 kidnapping and killing of 11-year-old Jacob.

The case went unsolved until last year, when Danny Heinrich confessed to sexually assaulting and killing the boy. Heinrich led authorities to the boy’s remains on a farm near Paynesville.

The boy’s parents, Jerry and Patty Wetterling, sued Stearns County to block the release of some documents they say contain personal information.

Several media organizations, including the Pioneer Press/TwinCities.com, and open-government groups are asking to intervene. They argued Friday that the full case should be made public.

District Judge Ann Carrott didn’t immediately rule. She’s giving both sides 10 days to file responses.

Three men were injured in a shooting in downtown Minneapolis early Saturday.

Officers were called to the 300 block of Hennepin Avenue around 2:50 a.m., according to a news release from the Minneapolis Police Department. Once on scene, they found three adult males suffering from gunshot wounds.

All three men were taken to Hennepin County Medical Center. Two have non-life threatening injuries and the third, who was shot in the abdomen, is in stable condition.

No arrests have been made in connection with the incident.

Anyone with information is asked to call 612-692-8477. Tips can be made anonymously by text to 847411. Enter MPD followed by a space, and then the information.

A St. Paul man was arrested Saturday morning after allegedly driving almost 100 mph while under the influence. He had three children in his vehicle at the time.

Simeon T. Bluntson, 33, was pulled over around 7:30 a.m. as he was traveling 96 mph on westbound Interstate 94 near Baldwin, Wis., according to a news release from the Wisconsin St. Patrol.

After he was pulled over, “it was determined (Bluntson) was operating under the influence of an intoxicant.” He was taken to the St. Croix County Jail.

The three children in Bluntson’s vehicle at the time of his arrest were all under 16.

A Woodbury woman will spend one year in prison before being deported back to China for holding her maid captive and routinely subjecting her to violent abuse that caused broken bones and malnourishment.

Lili Huang, 37, maintained a lowcast gaze as Washington County District Judge John McBride read her sentence on Friday.

Huang faced felony charges for labor trafficking, unlawful conduct with identification documents, false imprisonment, second-degree assault with a weapon and third-degree assault after a woman described abuse she suffered during her employment at Huang’s home.

All charges but the third-degree assault were dismissed as part of a federal plea agreement in which Huang confirmed the woman’s claims of abuse.

As part of her Washington County conviction, Huang must also pay $1,190 to a victim’s restitution fund.

The woman, a 58-year-old Chinese national, told police Huang would beat and starve her and that Huang had at one point ripped out handfuls of the woman’s hair.

The abuse culminated last July when Huang threatened the woman with a knife for spilling food on the kitchen counter. The woman, whom Huang hired as a maid and had treated well in China, escaped the home and was found wandering the neighborhood by police.

Washington County prosecutor Imran Ali said the sentence does not necessarily reflect the severity of Huang’s crimes.

He told the court during the sentencing that when he met with the victim, she appeared to be very skinny and covered head-to-toe with bruises and visibly broken bones — injuries that were later confirmed during a medical exam.

“We have a victim in this case who was severely beaten, injured and not from this country,” he said at the sentencing. “She had no one here, couldn’t speak English and had no way out.” 

At the sentencing, Huang offered an apology through an interpreter: “I feel deep remorse for what I’ve done and I apologize.”

Huang’s attorney, Kevin Riach, said she expressed remorse during their communications and that she looks forward to completing her sentence and rejoining her children in China.

Huang agreed to serve one-year sentences from federal and district courts concurrently. She is scheduled to sentencing in the federal case Aug. 24.`

A driver has been arrested on suspicion of driving while intoxicated after striking a Woodbury police squad car early Friday morning.

A video clip posted to the department’s Facebook page shows footage from the squad’s dash camera. The squad car was pulled over on the side of the road when it was struck from behind.

There were no injuries associated with the collision.

A 22-year-old Iowa man has died following a collision with a semitrailer in Goodhue County.

According to the Minnesota State Patrol, Jacob Paul Nelson, 22, of St. Ansgar, Iowa, was driving a 2005 Chevrolet Impala northbound on  Highway 57 around 6:50 p.m. Friday. He stopped at a stop sign, crossed U.S. Highway 52 traffic and failed to yield at a median yield sign.

In doing so, Nelson pulled in front of a 2018 Frieghtliner driven by 54-year-old Christopher John Small of Coon Rapids. The semi struck Nelson’s vehicle, killing Nelson’s passenger, 22-year-old Cody William Lloyd Squier, also of St. Ansgar.

Nelson suffered non-life threatening injuries and Small was not injured. All three people involved were wearing seatbelts and alcohol does not appear to have been a factor in the crash.

A taxi driver was charged with assaulting a customer on Snelling Avenue near Portland Avenue, according to a complaint filed in Ramsey County District Court.

Michael Z. Ghebregziabiher, 55, was charged with one count each of second-degree and third-degree assault, according to the complaint.

A St. Paul man flagged down a cab in downtown Minneapolis early Thursday morning, according to the complaint. He paid Ghebregziabiher up front and gave him his Grand Avenue address. The passenger told police he suggested the cabdriver take the Cretin Avenue exit, but the driver insisted on following the GPS instructions. After arguing about it, the man asked Ghebregziabiher to pull over so he could walk home, the complaint said.

Once they stopped, Ghebregziabiher reportedly hit, punched, and twice used Mace on the passenger, according to the complaint. The rider reported being unable to see, but he eventually escaped from the car and grabbed Ghebregziabiher’s phone, according to the complaint.

When officers found the passenger, he “was covered in blood from head to toe” and “when…he removed his bloody baseball hat from his head blood poured down his face,” the complaint said. He was transported to a hospital. Nearby, officers found a bloody white bag with a crowbar inside, according to the complaint.

Ghebregziabiher returned to the scene later looking for his cell phone and was taken into custody, according to the complaint.

He claimed the passenger was drunk and became belligerent, the complaint said. He said he stopped the car to force the passenger out, but the passenger punched him and refused, according to the complaint.

Ghebregziabiher told authorities he used Mace to force the passenger out out. The passenger hit his head while getting out of the car and again on the curb. Ghebregziabiher reported that the two struggled for a while outside the cab before Ghebregziabiher drove off, the complaint said.

Ghebregziabiher does not have any prior felonies listed. His first appearance was Monday afternoon.

A Maplewood man who took a “bag full of weapons” to his parents’ house in Woodbury, held his parents at gunpoint and repeatedly bashed his mother’s head with a hammer has pleaded guilty to first-degree attempted murder.

David Edward Williams Jr., 22, entered the guilty plea this past week in Washington County District Court. He is being held without bail in the Washington County Jail in Stillwater.

Due to the “horrific and heinous” nature of Williams’ actions on the afternoon of Jan. 21, the state will be seeking an upward departure from the presumptive sentencing, said Assistant Washington County Attorney Kevin Mueller. Williams could face up to 20 years in prison; sentencing will be 1:30 p.m. Nov 22.

Mueller said some of the reasons for the request were because the crime was committed in a particularly cruel manner with particular injury, involved multiple victims and resulted in severe emotional impact on the victims.

“It makes me cringe,” Mueller said. Williams’ mother is now “living with significant, significant injuries.”

Williams, through his public defender Laurel O’Rourke, provided this statement on Monday: “I am saddened and horrified by my actions. I pled guilty because I love my family and in no way did I want to prolong their suffering. I am deeply sorry for the fear and pain that I have caused them.”

HE WOULD NOT STOP

Police say Williams, who is bipolar, showed up at his parents’ house in the 1000 block of Brian Glen Lane on the afternoon of Jan. 21.

As soon as he arrived, Williams confiscated the phones in the house and told his mother that he “was going to hurt her,” according to the criminal complaint.

When his mother tried to leave the room, Williams, brandishing a hammer, blocked her exit with a recliner. He then “began hitting her in the head with the hammer and would not stop,” the complaint states. She “stated that she was beat ‘relentlessly’ with a hammer in the head; (she) thought she was going to die because (Williams) just kept going and would not stop.”

Williams strapped his mother to a chair with duct tape, closed all the blinds in the house and “retrieved a big black bag that contained a black long gun, baseball bat, knife and hatchet,” according to the complaint. He “kept saying he was going to kill her, and he slapped her in the head.”

FATHER LURED TO SCENE

He texted his father, impersonating his mother, to lure him to the home. He then told his mother he was going to kill his father first and then positioned her in her chair “so that she was the first thing (his father) saw when he walked in the door,” the complaint states.

When his father arrived, about 6:30 p.m., Williams threatened him at gunpoint and ordered him to sit in a chair next to his mother.

He “loaded the gun and kept pointing it at (his parents),” the complaint states. “He was pacing around with the gun, hatchet and a knife. (He) kept saying he was going to kill (his parents) or maybe just one of them” and then kill himself.

Williams told his parents he was going to smoke marijuana “one last time before he killed himself,” the complaint states. After he calmed down, Williams’ father persuaded him to let them leave the house. They drove to Woodwinds Health Campus in Woodbury, where Williams’ mother was treated for an open-skull fracture and numerous cuts to her scalp, according to the complaint.

SURRENDER AFTER THREE HOURS

Police officers, including the SWAT team, found Williams at the house at 7:40 p.m. He surrendered after three hours of negotiations. Officers recovered “a 12-gauge shotgun and ammunition, multiple knives, a hatchet (hidden in a ceiling channel), duct tape, damaged phones and medications,” the complaint states.

They also found an entry in a journal dated that day which read: “I’m sorry. I hit you.”

Williams had moved out over the summer, stopped taking his medication and started using drugs and alcohol, his parents told police.

He asked his parents for a list of all the people who were involved in putting him on medications, but “did not disclose what he was going to do with the list,” the complaint states. After he threatened his mother and another family member before Christmas, the Williamses had their locks changed, they told police.

Williams’ mother said thought she was going to die and that she is “very scared” of the possibility of her son getting released from jail, according to the complaint.

Williams was initially charged with two counts of second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon, two counts of firearm kidnapping and two counts of firearm terroristic threats.

What began with a call for a single cop to quell an out-of-control birthday party at a St. Paul rec center ended with a brazen brawl involving hundreds of teens that stretched across entire city neighborhoods.

Police officials are saying that the Saturday night melee, which resulted in six arrests and may have been related to a person found brutally beaten at a downtown bus stop, was the worst of its kind this summer.

While officers are often called to break up fights, the size, scope and degree to which participants ignored officers’ commands forced police to pull numerous spare squads from every district in the city as fights broke out.

“Basically what we have is utter disregard for common decency. This whole event was sheer stupidity,” said St. Paul police spokesman Steve Linders.

The incidents began just after 10 p.m. Saturday, when an officer was called to a birthday party at Dunning Recreation Center, a midsize parks department facility adjacent to Central High School in St. Paul’s Summit-University neighborhood.

Police said an employee of St. Paul-based ARTS-Us, which has managed the center for years, “feared for his life,” as the private party grew increasingly rowdy — particularly after 9:30 p.m., when it was supposed to officially end. Pictures of the building’s interior after the party showed overturned tables and trash strewn about the building.

The lone ARTS-Us staff member working that night wrote in a report on the cause of the incident: “They didn’t follow rules. And was asked to leave. But they didn’t. There was activities going on that shouldn’t be going on.”

When asked to describe the “outcome of the incident,” the staff member wrote, “Fight. Being out of control. So I had to call the police. The parent left after I told her that I called police, found out that shots was fired outside.”

The staff member, when contacted at home, declined to comment.

The person who signed the rental agreement for the party with ARTS-Us — which had a $100 damage deposit — did not immediately return a call for comment Monday.

A police officer arrived to find a crowd of “between 100 and 200 teens” in Dunning’s parking lot and right away heard three shots.

As the officer called for backup, multiple fights broke out.

FIGHT SPREADS  ALONG GREEN LINE

As more officers arrived on scene, Linders said partygoers largely ignored them and kept fighting.

The first person arrested — Roman Prescott Jr., 18, of St. Paul — was one part of the parking lot brawl, police said. When officers tried to detain him, others in the crowd grabbed him and tried pulling him out of their hands, forcing police to use pepper spray, Linders said.

Within minutes, another brawl started a few blocks away. And then reports poured in from multiple stops on the Green Line, along University Avenue, several blocks to the north.

One report at Victoria Street noted people ignoring police orders to stop “yelling, screaming, dancing, twerking and fighting” on the platform, according to one of the 20 police reports written about the incidents, which stretched from 10 p.m. to 12:30 a.m Sunday. Officers from the department’s gang and force units were tapped to bolster the city’s response.

The manager of a Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen near the Lexington Parkway stop was startled when a teenage girl banged on his door, begging to be let in. A police report noted that girls were fighting on the nearby light-rail platform.

Though the manager had just closed, he allowed the girl inside — only to have her threaten to throw a rock at him, police said. She’d asked to be let out, and the manager told her if he let her out he wouldn’t let her back in.

Officers responding to the scene used pepper spray to break up the fight, and one teen threw a rock at them, according to another report.

Police believe some groups took the Green Line into downtown St. Paul, as a congregation grew around the notoriously active Fifth and Minnesota streets bus stop, next to the light rail’s Central Station.

Just after midnight, Metro Transit police responded to a report of a man lying at the stop who had been brutally beaten. A transit agency spokesman said Monday that police didn’t see the assault and had made no arrests.

The 26-year-old, who is from Maplewood but was not named, was taken to Regions Hospital, where he was initially listed in critical condition. By Monday, police said, he had been upgraded to satisfactory.

Six teens were arrested, including Prescott and another 18-year-old, Taishawn Taqunn Smith, both on riot charges. The other four were age 13 to 17; police withheld their identities because they are minors. They also face rioting and other charges, including fleeing police and disorderly conduct.

Two of them — a 13-year-old and a 17-year-old — also were charged with felony aggravated assault. Police noted the 17-year-old was arrested downtown as a felon in possession of a .22-caliber handgun — the same caliber of three shell casings found later that morning in Dunning’s parking lot. Police are testing to see if the casings match the gun.

REC CENTER INQUIRY

At City Hall, parks and recreation department spokesman Brad Meyer said the city would check with ARTS-Us to make sure rules or protocols for the facility had been followed.

“I will be meeting with Arts-Us on Thursday to review rental policies, parks rules and regulations, and ensuring that this type of event doesn’t repeat itself,” Andy Rodriguez, recreation program supervisor for the parks department, said in an email to staff Monday. “The meeting will include their executive director and a few members of the Board.”

Meyer said the parks department will rely on ARTS-Us’s own investigation of the incident, along with the police reports, to determine whether any policies were broken.

ARTS-Us — a St. Paul nonprofit founded in 1993 by three women, one of whom is Ramsey County Commissioner Toni Carter — did not respond to voice or email messages about the incident.

The agency has had a contract with the city to manage Dunning since 2008; it was one of the first agencies to partner with the city in this way. The agreement was renewed in 2015.

Meyer noted that alcohol is permitted on very few park properties — certainly not Dunning — and typically a 100-person party, particularly after hours, would have required more than one supervisory staff member.

ARTS-Us has no similar reported incidents in their file with the parks department.

PARIS, Wis. — Three Illinois men whom authorities believe were gang members may have been targeted by a rival when they were shot to death at close range during a drag racing event in southeastern Wisconsin, sheriff’s officials said Monday.

The three men were fatally shot as they stood near a concession area in the parking lot of the Great Lakes Dragaway in the town of Paris at about 7 p.m. Sunday, according to Kenosha County sheriff’s officials.

Sheriff David Beth said authorities are still looking for the male gunman who first shot two of the three men, shot the third as he tried to get away around a tent and then returned and shot the two others a second time.

“He had enough time and enough arrogance to go back up and actually make sure that they were dead,” Beth said at an afternoon news conference. The shooting happened as some 15,000 people attended “Larry’s Fun Fest” at the raceway on a mild Sunday evening. No one else was hit by gunfire, authorities said.

“At least the family members that I’m aware of are not cooperating at all with the investigation. It has not helped us,” Beth said.

The Kenosha County Sheriff’s Office said Monday the victims of Sunday night’s shooting were 30-year-old David L. Watson of Oswego, 30-year-old Khalid R. Howard of Aurora, and 26-year-old Derek K. Edwards of North Aurora. Howard and Edwards died at the scene and Watson died in an ambulance on the way to a hospital, according to sheriff’s Sgt. Mark Malecki, who said the victims have been identified by investigators as gang members.

Malecki said deputies were investigating the possibility that the assailant was a rival gang member. Beth said no motive has yet been established.

“I don’t know if this is retaliation. I don’t know if this was family trouble. I don’t know,” the sheriff said.

Two of the men died at the scene and the third died in an ambulance on the way to a hospital.

Beth urged any witnesses to the shooting to contact his department.

“A lot of people may not have wanted to come up and talk to the sheriff’s department initially because maybe they were afraid someone was going to see them,” Beth said. “So what I’m hoping happens is someone who knows what’s going on or saw what happened will call us, give us more information and help us catch the individual who did this.”

Great Lakes Dragaway’s website said the event included drag racing, tailgating, live entertainment and a car show. The event is about 30 miles south of Milwaukee.

When shoppers drive the Walmart parking lot, they’re usually after one thing: empty spaces.

Jordan Ziebarth scouts for the exact opposite. The Cottage Grove police officer isn’t interested in the closest available parking spot to the store.

He’s looking at the vehicles that are already there.

To you, it looks like a common parking lot — shoppers coming and going from vehicles, employees shuttling carts back into the store. But to Ziebarth, the Walmart parking lot is more like a fishing hole. He doesn’t know how big the fish are or how many he’ll catch, but like any experienced angler, he’s drawn to the place where he knows he’s likely to get a bite.

“I like it,” Ziebarth said. “It’s a challenge.”

The 12-year police force veteran is like a computer, continuously processing data he’s scanning as his unmarked squad crawls through the lot.

Why is that guy sitting in a car parked in the back of the lot? Why is that SUV parked in the fire lane next to the store entrance? That truck — it’s parked at an odd angle for no apparent reason. That other vehicle: is it a rental car?

Woodbury police officer Adam Sack looks for the same activity in his community.

“All those things will kind of raise my suspicion,” he said.

While Ziebarth and Sack are always on the lookout for solo operators to bust in the lots, they and other cops are keying in more than ever on thieves who are part of criminal networks that target retail stores.

“It’s a regional problem,” Sack said.

And a national one. According to a 2016 report by the National Retail Federation, businesses reported an average impact of about $700,000 per $1 billion in retail sales.

PREVIOUSLY: Analysis: Police called disproportionately to Walmart stores

One group in particular, the Twin Cities Organized Retail Crime Association or TCORCA, has taken aim at the growing trend. The nonprofit group, formed by Sack and two others, bands together law enforcement, prosecutors and members of the retail business community.

“It’s a huge difference,” Sack said. “It brings all the stakeholders to the table.”

The group, which has recently enlisted detectives from the Hudson Police Department as part of its 900-plus-member enrollment, serves as an information-sharing resource providing cops, as well as businesses, with up-to-the-minute updates on suspects and methods being used by thieves. Members of the organization get email messages alerting them to retail crimes, often with real-time surveillance images of the suspects and their vehicles.

Woodbury Public Safety Director Lee Vague said revelations from TCORCA have been eye-opening.

“I learned shoplifting can’t be dealt with as a local problem” alone, he said.

In some cases, suspects have flown into Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, rented cars and fanned out to execute retail thefts on behalf of national crime syndicates.

“You can’t deal with it by yourself,” Vague said.

And with Hudson, Wis., now involved, the group can extend its reach into the Badger State, where officials hope to thwart organized retail crime efforts. The addition of TCORCA will beef up a system that Hudson Police Chief Marty Jensen said already saw crime alerts going back and forth across the border.

“It gives us a heads-up on what’s going on in the Cities,” Jensen said. “If it’s happening over there, it’s coming our way, most likely.”

EVOLVING CRIMES

The list of recent cases includes one involving a group of Cuban nationals suspected of installing credit-card skimmers around Wisconsin. Hudson police detective Todd Pearson said that case, which also involved Red Wing, Minn., police, is being actively investigated by the Wisconsin Department of Justice and the Minnesota Department of Commerce.

Pearson, along with fellow Hudson detective Glen Hartman, held a seminar in July to share information about organized retail crime with members of the Hudson business community. The detectives warned local business leaders to be on the lookout for cloned credit cards, credit card skimmers and gift card scams, among other emerging crimes.

Hartman noted how a bank in Hudson had a credit-card skimmer installed there.

“These people are very, very sophisticated,” he said, explaining how some criminals can install gas-pump skimmers capable of transmitting data over Bluetooth technology to a nearby laptop that can download credit card information while customers pump gas.

Another recent Hudson incident involved a suspect who printed homemade UPC labels that rang up for $25 at Menards. Police said that man slapped the labels on a couple of $800 drills and paid $25 each for them.

From there, the suspect almost certainly turned them into quick cash of his own, Hartman said.

The fencing operations have evolved, too. Once the province of pawn shops or shady backrooms in rundown stores, the market space has exploded with apps and websites offering thieves more cover.

Now they’re moving stolen goods on Craigslist or OfferUp, which also caters to local sales. Those Facebook garage sales you see? Ziebarth said that’s also a common resource for thieves to fence their goods.

“It’s kind of scary,” he said.

Hartman said the hope is that by combining multiple investigations through TCORCA, prosecutors can organize cases that will result in more-robust charges.

“How we accomplish that is by communication” with other law enforcement, Pearson said, “and we can aggregate those.”

Law enforcement’s goal, Hartman said, is to keep organized crime suspects from pleading to misdemeanors that put them back on the street after facing minimal penalties.

“They’re going to start giving them the maximum and start putting them in jail,” he said.

CROSS-STATE BUSTS

Law enforcement officials said they’re harnessing teamwork more than ever and using online tools and social media as vital resources.

A 2016 Hudson case illustrated how credit cards swiped from a car allegedly led to a two-state crime spree that racked up thousands in fraudulent charges.

The incident began with an Aug. 21, 2016, theft of credit cards from a vehicle parked at the Hudson boat launch. Detectives say the suspect, a former Hudson resident, charged more than $600 on one of the cards later that day at the North St. Paul Target.

A criminal complaint states the suspect, Demetri Montoya, charged another $700 a day later at the Hudson Target before going to Target stores in St. Paul, where he allegedly charged nearly $1,000 more to the Hudson woman’s stolen card.

Surveillance footage from the Hudson incident revealed a man, identified by police as Montoya, asking a Target worker for help buying an iPad. The video shows the clerk struggling to complete the transaction before escorting Montoya to the customer service area, where he allegedly presented the Hudson woman’s stolen credit card in a successful transaction.

Pearson alerted Montoya’s Minnesota probation officers in Washington, Hennepin and Ramsey counties. Pearson later got a call from a North St. Paul officer who said she identified Montoya using the Hudson woman’s card to buy a large TV at the Target store there, according to the criminal complaint.

Pearson said in the complaint that an attempt to use another of the Hudson woman’s stolen cards at the Woodbury Walmart was likely to result in Washington County charges.

Montoya faces one felony count of misappropriating an identity to obtain money, and one misdemeanor count of credit card fraud in St. Croix County. Montoya, who now lists a South St. Paul address, had his preliminary hearing on those charges July 28 and is scheduled to be arraigned Aug. 21.

Another case involving authorities from both states led to charges in 2016 in St. Croix County against two St. Paul women suspected of using credit cards stolen in Hudson at retail stores around the metro.

The case began with a Sept. 15, 2015, theft report from a woman who left her vehicle unlocked while she ran into the Hudson Kindercare Learning Center to pick up her child. A criminal complaint issued in the case states she got back in the vehicle to find her purse and its contents gone. Staff later reported they saw a woman jump out of a vehicle that had parked next to the victim’s and snatch the purse.

Hudson Kindercare staff spread the word to its other centers and learned that a Kindercare in Shakopee had been hit the same day by suspects in a vehicle matching the one used in Hudson.

Hudson detective Pearson then put out an alert to other agencies. Three days later, he learned the suspicious vehicle was sought in a similar incident in Minnetonka and that Shakopee police had identified one of the two suspects. It turned out police in Burnsville and Brooklyn Center were searching for the suspect, too.

Later that day, Pearson was contacted by Sack from Woodbury, who told him a pawn-system check revealed one of the suspects in the Hudson case had pawned a wedding band in St. Paul. The ring allegedly was among the items missing from the Hudson woman’s stolen purse.

A day later, Sack contacted Pearson again to tell him that the second suspect from the Hudson theft was on his radar. Sack reported that the two women were suspected in a Woodbury Walmart shoplifting incident, where several of the Hudson woman’s credit cards were used to buy nearly $1,500 in merchandise.

Sack passed along surveillance stills from that incident. Two women matching the descriptions turned up in surveillance photos passed along from St. Louis Park police after a theft from a car there.

Sack then accessed the first suspect’s Facebook profile and discovered she was friends with a woman whose Facebook photo matched the other person from the surveillance stills.

A photo lineup was given to Woodbury Walmart staff, who positively identified a picture of 37-year-old Kimbery J. Letexier as the shoplifter.

Photos lineups featuring Letexier and the other suspect, 26-year-old Bianca M. Sheppard, didn’t yield positive identifications among Hudson Kindercare staff, but detailed descriptions given by the employees matched additional clothing features spotted in additional surveillance captured of the suspects from that same day.

Letexier and Sheppard were each later charged in St. Croix County Circuit Court with a half-dozen theft charges stemming from the Hudson incident. Letexier pleaded not guilty to the charges in June 2017 after her arrest; a warrant has been issued for Sheppard’s arrest.

An alleged gun thief was arrested after a standoff with police Monday, according to the Woodbury Police Department.

Kevron Bivens, 20, was arrested after the theft of a gun was reported at the Cabela’s store in Woodbury. He was found in a mobile home park in Lake Elmo after trying to escape by disguising himself as a woman, police reported.

Police said they were called to the store at 3:50 p.m. after a man was seen leaving with a bloody hand. The suspect is believed to have broken a glass case to get a handgun, and left the store leaving a “trail of blood.”

Witnesses were able to spot the license number of a fleeing vehicle, which had been stolen in St. Paul.

At 4:25 p.m., police found the vehicle in Cimarron Park in Lake Elmo. Officers from Woodbury, the Washington County sheriff’s oepartment and the Minnesota State Patrol surrounded a mobile home.

Six occupants followed orders to leave the unit, but the suspect reportedly stayed inside. After 90 minutes, he reportedly left the unit dressed as a woman, and was immediately arrested.

Police found the stolen gun inside the mobile home.

Bivens is being held in the Washington County Jail.

Teen suspects in the weekend brawl following a birthday party at a St. Paul rec center now face charges.

Antonio Dirrell Hugh, 17, was charged Tuesday with second-degree assault, dangerous discharge of a weapon, illegal possession of a firearm and receiving stolen property for his role in the incident, according to the juvenile petition filed against him in Ramsey County District Court.

A second teen, Roman Prescott, Jr. 18, was charged with disorderly conduct. Two other minors were also charged with lower level crimes, according to a spokesman with the Ramsey County attorney’s office.

The evening of upheaval started around 10 p.m. Saturday, when an officer was called to a birthday party at Dunning Recreation Center, a midsize parks department facility adjacent to Central High School in St. Paul’s Summit-University neighborhood.

Police said an employee of St. Paul-based ARTS-Us, which has managed the center for years, “feared for his life,” as the private party grew increasingly rowdy — particularly after 9:30 p.m., when it was supposed to officially end. Pictures of the building’s interior after the party showed overturned tables and trash strewn about the building.

About two hours later, St. Paul police received a report of shots fired near the rec center and that several teens reportedly involved in the incident fled onto an eastbound light rail train heading downtown, court documents say.

Police also were told that transit footage showed two teens wearing blue and yellow jerseys pointing a gun at others.

Shortly afterward, officers saw two young men matching that description and attempted to stop them, authorities say.

That’s when Hugh reached into his waistband, pulled out a gun and threw it on the ground, according to the criminal complaint filed against him.

He told officers he tossed the handgun because he didn’t want to get shot by police and admitted that he was involved in the shooting at the rec center, the complaint said.

He reportedly said he fired his gun after someone shot at him.

The other teen with him, 18-year-old Taishawn Smith, also was arrested. He was not yet charged as of Tuesday.

Four others were also arrested for their role in the alleged brawl Saturday, police say.

Prescott was arrested on the 1200 block of Marshall after he shoved an officer and refused to get into a squad car, court documents say.

A 13-year-old faces charges of gross-misdemeanor-level third-degree riot and a 16-year-old was cited with a disorderly conduct, a misdemeanor.

Cases against the other two arrested remain under investigation.

It was not clear if any arrests have been made in the beating of a 26-year-old found at a bus stop in downtown St. Paul Saturday night.

Police said Monday that the beating may have been related to the melee. The man was taken to Regions Hospital and was listed in satisfactory condition Monday.

A Coon Rapids police officer’s decision to shoot a felon who led officers on a high-speed chase across Anoka County last fall was justified, authorities say.

The Ramsey County Attorney’s Office announced its decision Tuesday not to press charges against Coon Rapids police officer Brian Platz. Platz shot and wounded Castle Rogers Ahlbeck last Nov. 17 while the 25-year-old was fleeing police after his alleged involvement in a shooting.

Ahlbeck has pleaded not guilty to the counts facing him in that case.

“Officer Platz was chasing a suspected shooter of another person; reasonably believed his life and others were in danger; and that Mr. Ahlbeck was fleeing apprehension in an aggressive manner, which if not stopped, would have further endangered others who would try to stop him or might have gotten in his way. There is no credible evidence to the contrary,” Ramsey County Attorney John Choi wrote in an email to his colleagues in the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office who recommended the decision not to charge Platz in the shooting.

Multiple law enforcement agencies became involved in the pursuit of Ahlbeck after authorities say he shot and injured a man in East Bethel following a drug deal.

At times, his vehicle reached speeds of 120 miles-per-hour during the 16 minute chase, authorities say.

After crashing his vehicle into a squad car on westbound U.S. Highway 10, authorities say Ahlbeck fled on foot and started running toward a nearby home. Platz issued him several orders to stop and at one point said he saw Ahlbeck holding a black object in his hand, authorities say.

Believing it was a gun, Platz fired at Ahlbeck when Ahlbeck turned to his right “in a manner that led Officer Platz to believe that Mr. Ahlbeck was preparing to shoot at him,” according to a memo on the incident released by the Ramsey County attorney’s office.

Platz shot Ahlbeck once, injuring him in his buttocks area and causing him to fall to the ground. When he was ordered to show his hands, Platz discovered that the black object he had seen was Ahlbeck’s cell phone, the memo said.

The man he previously shot and injured was taken to Mercy Hospital, according to the criminal complaint filed against Ahlbeck.

The victim reportedly told police Ahlbeck shot him following a drug deal.

Ahlbeck was subsequently charged with first and second-degree assault, unlawful possession of a firearm and fleeing a police officer in a car.

He pleaded not guilty to the charges in May and is case is headed toward trial in October, court records say.

His attorney, public defender, Catherine Ann Trevino, declined to comment on the Ramsey County Attorney’s office decision.

Ahlbeck’s criminal record includes convictions for third-degree burglary, second-degree assault, attempted theft and disorderly conduct.

While her boyfriend held a knife to her neck for hours inside her St. Paul apartment, a woman stealthily took a selfie of the incident as a cry for help.

Shortly afterward, the St. Paul police showed up to arrest him, authorities say.

That’s the account outlined in a criminal complaint filed Tuesday in Ramsey County District Court charging Peter Vang with one count of second-degree assault and another for domestic assault.

The incident leading to his arrest started around 10 p.m. Friday while the woman and Vang were at her apartment on the 1300 block of Ames Avenue, according to the criminal complaint.

It was around that time that Vang, a habitual methamphetamines user, started to act paranoid, the woman later told police, the criminal complaint said.

The 33-year-old St. Paul man reportedly started accusing his girlfriend of letting people into her apartment and began repeatedly calling the police.

After the last police visit, the woman said she fell asleep on the living room floor. When she woke around 4 a.m. Saturday, Vang was behind her, gripping her in a “bearhug” with a knife pressed to her neck, the complaint said.

He held her there for about six hours, pressing her to reveal why she let “the people” into her apartment, the woman told police. At some point, she managed to surreptitiously use her cellphone to snap a selfie of what was happening and sent it to Vang’s brother in Milwaukee, legal documents say.

The photo prompted him to reach out to his brother’s girlfriend via Facebook, using the social networking site’s video messenger application, the complaint said.

Using the video application, Vang’s brother could reportedly see Vang assaulting the woman and begged him to stop. When he refused, the brother called police, the complaint said.

Officers arrived at the woman’s apartment around 10 a.m. Saturday and arrested Vang shortly after he answered the door.

Police found the woman inside her apartment, shaking, and with numerous red marks across her neck, authorities say.

She told officers she thought Vang intended to kill or seriously injure her, particularly when he responded to her pleas for him to stop with laughter, the complaint said.

Police found a knife shaped like a gun inside the apartment, as well as a baggie of suspected methamphetamine.

In a subsequent interview, Vang allegedly told police that the drugs were his and that he and his girlfriend had both smoked methamphetamines the previous evening.

He went on to admit to holding the knife to his girlfriend’s neck as a means to protect both of them from “gang bangers” he said were looking for him, the complaint said.

Vang made his first appearance on the charges Tuesday afternoon in Ramsey County District Court. No attorney was listed for him in court records.