The tension started building last winter when Justin Girling overheard his half-brother giving their mom a hard time in the St. Paul home the three shared.

Kurt Schmeck, 47, was “acting erratically,” “kicking things,” and using foul language toward their mother, Girling recalled in court Wednesday.

Girling said he eventually went downstairs to grab some breakfast and start his day, grabbing the handgun he kept stored under his pillow on his way out of his room.

The St. Paul man’s frustration built when he reached the bottom of the stairs and again heard Schmeck’s voice, this time in the kitchen complaining to their mother about bad service he’d recently experienced at a store.

“He was upset as usual,” Girling told Assistant Ramsey County Attorney Hao Nguyen of his half brother during the court hearing.

Frustrated, Girling walked into the kitchen to confront his half sibling, he told the court. That’s when events turned fatal.

“I say to (Schmeck) … You know, this is not your house … I (was) trying to get across to him that you can’t just do this to (our mother)” Girling recounted.

Schmeck countered, and began taunting his little brother, Girling said.

“He starts saying, ‘What are you going to do about it, tough guy,’ and then he comes toward me in what I feel is a threatening, aggressive way,” Girling said.

That’s when Girling took out the gun he’d concealed on his person and fired three shots at his half brother’s chest, fatally striking Schmeck with every bullet, he said. Medics pronounced Schmeck dead at the scene last Jan. 31.

That was the narrative Girling placed on the record during a plea hearing held in Schmeck’s death Wednesday afternoon before Ramsey County District Judge Leonardo Castro.

In the days following the slaying, the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office charged the 32-year-old with one count of intentional second-degree murder.

“When you shot him, you intended to kill him?” Nguyen asked during the proceedings.

“Um, yes,” Girling responded.

Though he’d previously claimed his actions had been in self-defense, Girling admitted Wednesday that his actions against his half brother, who was unarmed at the time, were not a justifiable use of deadly force.

Girling pleaded guilty to the sole charge facing him in the case with the understanding that the state would seek the low end of the state’s sentencing guidelines recommended for second-degree murder when Castro sentences him in late October.

Without a criminal history, that prison term is not expected to exceed about 22 years in prison.

The plea deal also preserves Girling’s defense attorney’s right to ask for a departure from sentencing guidelines so that her client might serve less time.

The men’s mother called police around 1:40 p.m. Jan. 31 to report the shooting inside their home on the 1000 block of East Third Street.

She was baking chocolate chip cookies in the kitchen when the confrontation between her sons began, she told authorities at the time.

Seconds later, she said she saw Girling pull out a small black handgun and shoot Schmeck.

She was not present at the plea hearing Wednesday.

Girling will be sentenced Oct. 25.

The CenturyLink vendor responsible for a major 911 outage in 2014 was also responsible for the multi-state disruption that led to an untold number of unanswered emergency calls Wednesday, officials said.

“I have never in my 30 years experienced an outage such as what we experienced yesterday,” Dana Wahlberg, director of the Department of Public Safety’s emergency communication networks division, said during a press conference Thursday.

The vendor, Longmont, Co.-based West Safety Services, was “completing a routine process on their network when yesterday’s outage occurred,” state officials said.

In 2014, the company — then called Intrado — was responsible for an outage affecting 6,600 calls in seven states, where 11 million people were without 911 service for six full hours.

That outage, caused by a software error, primarily affected the state of Washington but also interfered with 70 calls in Minnesota, mostly in the metro area. Intrado and CenturyLink were fined $17.4 million for the outage.

“What is most troubling is that this is not an isolated incident or an act of nature. So-called ‘sunny day’ outages are on the rise,” a Federal Communications Commission report on the 2014 incident stated. “That’s because, as 911 has evolved into a system that is more technologically advanced, the interaction of new and old systems is introducing fragility into the communications system that is more important in times of dire need.”

The report noted that 911 networks switching from the old, “circuit-switched” systems to internet-based systems, like the one now used in Minnesota, need to be closely examined and monitored for vulnerabilities. While internet-based systems allow for more flexibility in routing calls, outages can affect much wider coverage areas.

“This has concentrated critical functions in fewer locations that are more distant. … Redundancy and responsibility are both endangered,” the report noted, adding, “Large-scale outages … may result when (IP-based) networks do not include appropriate network architectural safeguards.”

IMPACT OF WEDNESDAY’S OUTAGE

State officials still aren’t sure how many calls were missed during the Wednesday outage, but counties across the state reported being at least partially affected, Wahlberg said. Some calls across the network were received successfully; others were not.

The outage across the state’s 102 dispatch centers took place shortly after 4 p.m. Wednesday and lasted roughly 50 minutes. The states of North Dakota and North Carolina were also confirmed to be affected, officials said.

Wahlberg said she also received emails from colleagues in Ohio and Louisiana about outages.

“It could very well have been far more area,” Wahlberg said.

Wahlberg said to her knowledge there was no evidence that the outage was the result of some sort of deliberate attack on the network, which is internet-based.

CENTURYLINK TO DO OWN INVESTIGATION

CenturyLink is conducting its own investigation into the outage, which they have 14 business days to complete and give to the state.

As for the report, “We expect that CenturyLink will review every factor and will provide us with a full reason for outage. … We will expect data, concrete data, that will guide us in understanding what the issue was,” Wahlberg said. “We expect our 911 system to be reliable and dependable, and as such we hold our vendors accountable for that. … I expect 911 to work. My dad called 911 three days ago.”

CenturyLink released a brief statement confirming that a third-party vendor “affected enhanced services supporting 911.”

Frank Tutalo, CenturyLink’s director of corporate communications, said he had not heard any reports of issues related to the vendor in states other than Minnesota, North Dakota and North Carolina. He also said there was no evidence of a deliberate attack on the network.

He did not release any additional information about the outage, saying CenturyLink’s investigation was still in its fledgling stages.

$29.5 MILLION CONTRACT

Minnesota’s 102 dispatch centers received an average of 7,817 calls per day statewide this year, according to DPS data. State officials said there have yet to be any reports of serious incidents that were missed during the Wednesday outage.

The state is in the second year of a five-year, $29.5 million contract with CenturyLink as its 911 service provider. They had completed a five-year contract with the state immediately prior to that.

West Safety Services officials could not immediately be reached for comment.

The young man who pushed an 8-year-old boy off the top of a water slide on Tuesday, sending him 32 feet to concrete below, bit a lifeguard at the same Apple Valley water park less than three weeks earlier but was not charged for that incident or told to stay away, according to police.

On Wednesday, Roman Alexander Adams, 18, of Maple Grove was charged with third-degree assault in Dakota County District Court for allegedly picking up the boy and pushing him off the top of a waterslide at the Apple Valley Aquatic Center, which the city owns and runs.

He was arrested on a warrant Wednesday at his father’s home in Shorewood and released from Dakota County Jail after posting a $50,000 bond.

The boy remains hospitalized with a broken femur, several foot fractures and shattered shoulder bones, Apple Valley police Capt. Nick Francis said Thursday.

“I think this very well could have been a deadly incident,” he said. “Once we realized where this child fell from — the height which he fell from onto concrete — we were amazed that it only resulted in broken bones and other injuries. We were expecting much more internal injuries, head injuries and possible death. For whatever reason, this child landed in such a position where the injuries were quite minimal for the distance that he fell.”

Francis said Adams has a developmental disability but “knew what he did was wrong.”

“He knew what he did was going to hurt this little kid, and he made the decision to do it,” he said.

Adams bit the lifeguard on July 13, but police were not aware of it until after Tuesday’s incident, according to Francis. He said an injury report was made within the park system and the lifeguard was tested for communicable diseases.

Apple Valley City Administrator Tom Lawell said Thursday that the lifeguard was bitten while swimming underwater and “presented it as an employee injury, not as a personal assault.”

On Thursday, Park and Recreation Director Barry Bernstein directed questions about the bite to Francis.

Following the bite, the city could have pursued an assault charge against Adams and also given him a no-trespass order that would have kept him away from the pool, Francis said. He said he was not sure why park or other city staff failed to do either.

“My guess is that it’s just attributed to someone with a disability who did this, and it was the first time it happened with this person,” he said.

ADAMS THOUGHT LINE WAS ‘TOO LONG’

Police were called to the aquatic center at 14421 Johnny Cake Ridge Road about 1:30 p.m. Tuesday on a report of a boy with a broken leg. Officers found the boy on a concrete sidewalk below the water slide, conscious and breathing.

In an interview with police, Adams said he was waiting in line to use the water slide and that it was taking “too long,” a criminal complaint reads. He admitted that he picked up the boy from the platform at the top of the water slide, pushed him over the railing and saw him fall, charges said.

Witnesses told police there was no interaction between Adams and the boy before the incident, Francis said. They did not know each other.

At the time of the incident, a personal care assistant was with Adams but in another part of the park, Francis said.

The city shut down the park after the incident and reopened it Wednesday.

The boy’s identity is being withheld by police at the request of the family, Francis said. The boy had two surgeries Wednesday and is scheduled for at least two more.

“The family is pretty sheltered down about this,” Francis said. “They’re just focused on trying to get him through the surgeries and get him the care he needs.”

Under conditions of his release set by a Dakota County judge, Adams is not allowed at the water park or to have contact with minors.

The water park, which opened 20 years ago, drew more than 67,000 people in 2017, according to a city report, which says visitors included more than 4,600 water walkers and lap swimmers, 138 busloads of kids and nearly 200 personal care assistants “working with disabled users.”

VIRGINIA, Minn. — A 75-year-old Iron, Minn., woman told police she was in her living room watching television Sunday night when she heard a noise from the other room.

Getting up to investigate, she found a young woman she did not know standing in her bedroom.

“Who are you?” the resident asked.

“I am your worst (expletive) nightmare,” the invader allegedly replied before punching the woman in the face.

Authorities say the suspect, 23-year-old Lindsay Marilyn Mayry, repeatedly demanded money before eventually fleeing with the victim’s purse, cellphone, jewelry box, a jar of coins and a GPS unit.

Mayry was arraigned Wednesday in State District Court in Virginia on eight charges, including five felonies, related to a string of incidents over the span of about an hour.

In addition to the home invasion, Mayry is accused of stealing about $200 in cash from her grandfather, taking a set of keys from a Cotton gas station and spitting on a deputy and a nurse after her arrest.

Mayry, of Virginia, remains in the St. Louis County Jail. Sixth Judicial District Judge Robert Friday set her bail at $50,000.

According to a criminal complaint:

St. Louis County Sheriff’s Office deputies were first called to the SuperAmerica station, 7521 Comstock Lake Road in Cotton, at 6:20 p.m.

An employee reported that she found a woman rummaging through her purse in the office, taking a key ring and fob worth about $100. Deputy Troy Fralich reviewed surveillance video and recognized the suspect as Mayry.

Just after 7 p.m., dispatch was notified of the robbery at a residence on the 4000 block of County Road 7, about 22 miles northwest. The victim was able to provide a description of the suspect and her car that matched what was seen in the gas station video.

Deputies met with the 75-year-old, who had blood on her face and shirt. She recalled that the intruder kept asking “money, money, where’s your money?” After getting punched, the victim said she turned to run from the residence and was again struck in the shoulder. She eventually made it to a neighbor’s house to summon help.

Within 13 minutes of the robbery call, Eveleth police officers found Mayry’s vehicle near the intersection of County Road 7 and State Highway 37. They initiated a traffic stop and she pulled into the Crossroads convenience store parking lot. Officers noted that she had several $20 bills in her hand and attempted to place her under arrest.

Mayry reportedly resisted, pulling her arms away, kicking at the officers and later spitting on a deputy during transport. Before bringing her to jail, deputies took her for an evaluation at Essentia Health-Virginia, where they said she was similarly combative and spat in the face of a nurse.

While deputies were still on scene at Crossroads, they were approached by Mayry’s grandfather, who reported that the defendant had been at his house about 45 minutes earlier. He said she left without telling him, and he quickly realized that the cash was missing from his billfold.

Law enforcement later searched Mayry’s car, finding the keys stolen from SuperAmerica, as well as a bag of items taken from the assault victim.

Mayry is charged with first-degree aggravated robbery, two counts of first-degree burglary and fifth-degree assault in connection with the home invasion.

A check of court records reveals prior convictions for second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon, domestic assault and theft.

Mayry is due back in court on Aug. 20.

ST. CLOUD, Minn. — A man has been convicted of killing his grandparents at a home he shared with them in central Minnesota.

Thirty-three-year-old Gregory Allen Scheel pleaded guilty in Stearns County District Court to two counts of first-degree murder Thursday.

KNSI reports Scheel cried when he admitted to assaulting and murdering 93-year-old Willie Scheel and 80-year-old Gloria Scheel on March 21st at their Paynesville home.

Scheel put a plastic bag over his grandfather’s head and a ligature was used to tie the bag around his neck. He died from asphyxiation. Scheel then wrapped an extension cord around his grandmother’s neck and strangled her. He drove the bodies to Kandiyohi County where he lit the car on fire.

Scheel will be sentenced on October 4th.

A Stillwater inmate used a prison-issued hammer and two improvised knives to kill a corrections officer last month, according to murder charges filed Thursday.

Edward Muhammad Johnson, 42, had checked out the hammer from the industry building at Minnesota Correctional Facility-Stillwater before fatally bludgeoning officer Joseph Gomm on July 18, charges say.

Washington County prosecutors charged him Thursday with second-degree intentional murder and second-degree assault.

Johnson was already serving a 29-year prison term for the 2002 murder of his girlfriend, Brooke Elizabeth Thompson.

According to the criminal complaint, Johnson used a hammer to beat and kill Gomm on the third floor of a vocational building at the prison, causing “substantial injuries to his head and face.” Johnson also used a “homemade knife” to twice stab Gomm in the chest, the complaint states.

After Gomm’s death, Johnson was moved to the Minnesota Correctional Facility-Oak Park Heights, where he remains. His first court appearance is scheduled for 10 a.m. Friday.

The shop foreman at the prison told investigators that a prison inmate approached him and told him that Gomm needed help. When the foreman went into the M Shop, he saw Johnson striking Gomm in the head with a hammer, the complaint states.

The foreman ordered Johnson to stop and called for help on his portable radio. He told investigators that Johnson then stopped striking Gomm and swung the hammer at him.

“Fearing for his life, (he) retreated from the shop to a nearby stairwell,” the complaint states. “Johnson then shut the door leading from the stairwell into the shop and barricaded it shut.”

When correctional officers arrived at the M Shop, they had to go back down the stairs to the second floor and come up a different stairwell and enter through a different door.

Several inmates told investigators they saw Johnson running around shirtless; correctional officers said inmates often remove their shirts when “they are involved in a fight or other aggressive or assaultive conduct,” the complaint states. Inmates also reported that Johnson told them that they were going to be “fine,” which they interpreted to mean that Johnson did not intend to harm them, according to the complaint.

When the correctional officers confronted Johnson, he put up his hands and surrendered, the complaint states.

“Investigators learned that a hammer had been checked out to Johnson when he reported for work that afternoon,” the complaint states. “On the floor, not far from where Officer Gomm was found, investigators located a bloody hammer matching that which had been checked out to Johnson and that which (the foreman) saw Johnson use to repeatedly strike Officer Gomm in the head. Investigators also located two homemade ‘knives,’ one or both of which were used to stab Officer Gomm.”

The complaint does not indicate what precipitated the attack.

Gomm was a 16-year veteran of the Department of Corrections. Thousands of corrections officers from around the U.S. and Canada came to Minnesota to attend his July 26 funeral at North Heights Lutheran Church in Arden Hills.

While in custody at the Hennepin County jail after killing Thompson, Johnson punched a detention deputy in the eye after the deputy told him to stay away from a certain area of the jail, according to court documents.

Johnson pleaded guilty to fourth-degree assault in that case and was sentenced to 13 months in prison.

Incarcerated at Stillwater since 2003, Johnson was scheduled to be released Dec. 12, 2022.

As a child, Johnson witnessed his father shoot his mother six times before turning the gun on himself.

On Wednesday, union leaders representing corrections staff called for more prison officers and changes to inmate discipline rules. Representatives of AFSCME Council 5 say state prisons are understaffed and officers are not properly equipped for the job.

Sarah Fitzgerald, a spokeswoman for the Department of Corrections, said a review indicates the need for 150 additional officers at state prisons and the agency backs the union’s push for more money from the Legislature.

If convicted on both counts, Johnson could face an additional 47 years in prison.

Washington County Attorney Pete Orput did not return a phone call seeking comment; he said in a news release that he would address the media after Johnson’s court appearance.

In Minnesota, a grand jury indictment is required for any crimes carrying a sentence of life imprisonment.

IOWA CITY, Iowa — The mother of a missing Iowa college student pleaded Thursday with anyone who may have abducted her daughter to let her go and instead claim a pot of reward money that has ballooned to $172,000.

Laura Calderwood said during a news conference that she believes her daughter, 20-year-old Mollie Tibbetts, is alive but has potentially been kidnapped. She announced the new reward amount, which spiked from $2,000 offered earlier this week after donations poured in from across the nation.

Tibbetts’ disappearance has baffled investigators since she went missing more than two weeks ago. Calderwood said the money would be paid to anyone who provides information that leads to her daughter’s safe return.

“If someone has abducted her, we are pleading with you to please release her,” Calderwood said. “It is our greatest hope that if someone has her, that they would just release her and claim that money we have raised for her freedom.”

Tibbetts was last seen on the evening of July 18, when she went for a routine jog in her hometown of Brooklyn, Iowa, a town of about 1,400 people in central Iowa. She was dog-sitting that evening for her boyfriend and her boyfriend’s brother, who were out of town, at a home where she was living this summer after completing her second year at the University of Iowa.

Tibbetts was reported missing the next morning when she didn’t show up for work at a daycare in a nearby town.

The FBI and dozens of investigators from state and local agencies are working on the case but have so far hit dead ends . The latest came Thursday, when police confirmed that a possible sighting of Tibbetts at a Missouri truck stop turned out not to be her.

Crime Stoppers of Central Iowa spokesman Greg Willey promised to protect the anonymity of tipsters who call in or submit tips online, saying the group uses software that scrubs identifying information. He said the group exists for people who cannot come forward to police, including those who are guilty or involved in a crime.

But he said he believes the case will be solved by someone who comes forward with new information.

“If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear. Come forward, bring information to the authorities, and let’s bring Mollie home,” he said.

A rabbi at a Jewish learning center in Minneapolis is among those implicated in a metro-area law enforcement sting aimed at combating the online solicitation of sex with children.

Aryeh Cohen, 44, of St. Louis Park, was among those arrested along with several others in the undercover operation, which was carried out in the lead-up to the Super Bowl at various locations around the metro, including North St. Paul, criminal charges say.

He was charged in Ramsey County District Court Tuesday with one count of soliciting a child or someone believed to be a child through electronic communication to engage in sexual conduct, as well as an additional count of engaging in electronic communication relating or describing sexual conduct with a child.

A spokeswoman for the Minneapolis Community Kollel, where Cohen served as a rabbi and director of youth outreach, said the community just learned of the “disturbing” allegations facing Cohen Tuesday and was stunned.

“We have never received a complaint about Rabbi Cohen from anybody on any thing, and so the Kollel is shocked,” Amy Rotenberg said.

The learning center has since relieved Cohen of his duties, Rotenberg said, adding that he will no longer be participating in any Kollel activities.

In recent years, Cohen worked with college-aged students at the center, Rotenberg added. He reportedly worked with high school students several years ago.

“The Kollel is deeply concerned about the health and well-being of our students, staff, and broader community and we hope and pray for healing and wellness for all who have been or may be affected during this troubling and difficult time,” Rotenberg added in a statement Thursday afternoon.

Cohen did not respond to a request for comment on the allegations and no attorney was listed for him in court records.

UNDERCOVER AGENTS POSED AS MINORS

Authorities with the Minnesota Human Trafficking Investigators Task Force working alongside agents with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension and other law enforcement agencies across the metro, including North St. Paul Police, conducted the sting during the last weeks of January, legal documents say.

Dozens were arrested. About 20 were charged in Ramsey County District Court recently with either soliciting a child or someone believed to be a child through electronic communication to engage in sexual conduct, engaging in electronic communication relating or describing sexual conduct with a child, or both.

In most cases, men responded to ads posted by agents posing as underage girls or boys seeking casual connections on social media sites, including Craigslist, Plenty of Fish and Grindr, legal documents say.

Cohen was among those who responded to an ad and subsequently struck up a sexual conversation with an undercover agent, eventually texting the agent a picture of his genitalia, charges say.

He was arrested when he allegedly arrived to meet the undercover agent in North St. Paul on Feb. 1. As he was being taken to a police station, the rabbi made an unsolicited remark to an officer, saying, “I sort of deserve it,” the complaint said.

He allegedly added that he didn’t “think much would happen” when he arrived at the residence because the person he thought he was meeting was sexually inexperienced, the complaint said.

NEARLY 20 ARRESTED IN STING

In addition to Cohen, nearly 20 others from around the Twin Cities arranged to meet someone they believed to be underage at the North St. Paul residence, charges say.

Others charged to date include:

• Bryce Mitchell Unto Olson, 27, of Monticello;
• Adam James Sellers, 28, of Illinois;
• Daniel Hakina Guya, 22, of Washington state;
• Larry Jacob Stiele, 35 of Minneapolis;
• James Joseph Judge, 47 of Minneapolis;
• Ernest William Ahrens, 35, of St. Paul;
• Daniel John Mallet, 45 of St. Paul;
• Andrew Allen Swain, 25, of Minneapolis;
• Leon Wesley Jacox, 23, of Minneapolis;
• Jeremy Mitchell Osterhout, 30, of New Hope;
• Enrique Belizar Lopez Ordonez, 33, of Lake City;
• Lonnie John Jordan, 44, of Nowthen;
• Zachary Allen Miranowski, 23, of Andover;
• Luke Charles Shackleton, 28, of Knapp, Wis.;
• Norberto Hernandez-Pena, 45 of Eagan;
• Byron Russell Peterson, 60, of Eagan;
• Marquayle Damar Brooks, 27, of Minneapolis.

SEPARATE STING YIELDS MORE ARRESTS

A handful of others were also charged in Ramsey County District Court this week for allegedly seeking sex with minors in a separate undercover operation that focused on sex for pay, authorities say.

In that sting, known as Guardian Angel, undercover agents posted ads appearing to offer commercial sex on Backpage.com before the site was shut down last March.

The operation was primarily led by the Minnesota Human Trafficking Task Force and Minneapolis police.

Once an interested buyer responded, the agent shifted gears and revealed that he or she was actually underage, even though the ad stated they were adults, legal documents say.

Those charged in Ramsey County showed up at an apartment in St. Paul in early February and were subsequently arrested.

Some told officers they didn’t actually intend to follow through with the arrangement, but only wanted to meet someone. Others said they responded to the ads to find troubled youth in need of help, according to legal documents.

Those arrested so far in that undercover operation include:

• Darwin Oswaldo Tiniganay, 30, of Minneapolis;
• Jayvadan Ramabhai Patel, 41, of Owatanna;
• Tou Ger Moua, 24, of St. Paul;
• Chaloemchai Saeyang, 44, of Minneapolis;
• Jesus Ernesto Lopez-Pinto, 23, of Minneapolis;
• and Brandon Keith Guy, 25, of St. Paul.

All of the men charged in the two stings are expected to make their first court appearance in September. Attorneys were not yet listed for them in court records.

A 15-year-old St. Paul boy has been jailed for allegedly firing more than a dozen shots — two of which struck an 18-year-old man in the leg — in the parking lot of a Super America in West St. Paul on Monday, police said.

West St. Paul Police Lt. Brian Sturgeon said the boy turned himself in to the Ramsey County sheriff’s office Thursday and is being held at the Dakota County juvenile detention center on suspicion of probable cause attempted murder and second-degree assault.

The boy’s name is being withheld by police because he is a juvenile and has not been charged, Sturgeon said.

The shooting was not random, Sturgeon said.

Officers were called to the Super America at 1285 S. Robert St. at about 10 p.m.

Several witnesses told police the man who was shot was arguing with another man, who pulled out a handgun and began firing. He ran from the scene and was not found despite a search that included a Minnesota State Patrol helicopter.

The man shot was taken to Regions Hospital in St. Paul with wounds not considered life-threatening, Sturgeon said.

WATKINS, Minn. — A 21-year-old pilot walked away unscathed after the plane he was piloting malfunctioned and crashed Thursday morning in a cornfield approximately 3 miles north of Watkins.

According to a release from the Stearns County Sheriff’s Department, the 911 center received a report of “the tail of an aircraft sticking out of the standing corn” about 10:40 a.m. in Luxemburg Township, near Watkins.

Officers arrived on scene and found the pilot, Jonathan Aslesen, of Buffalo, Minn., uninjured. Aslesen denied medical treatment.

Aslesen told officials the engine stalled as he prepared to complete a crop dusting pass on the field. Aslesen said he was forced to conduct an emergency landing in the cornfield.

Light damage was reported to the airplane and to “a small amount of standing corn owned by Westlund Dairy.”

The crop duster belongs to Classic Arrow of Buffalo, Minn.

The Stearns County Sheriff’s Office along with the Federal Aviation Administration are investigating the incident.

A Minneapolis man was sentenced Thursday to nearly seven years in prison for opioid distribution.

John Henry Edmonds, 35, received an 80-month sentence after pleading guilty in March to distributing five different illicit drugs, according to a news release issued by the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

“This is the first case in the District of Minnesota involving carfentanil and one of the first involving furanyl fentanyl,” U.S. Attorney Erica MacDonald said in her office’s release. “Sadly, highly potent and extremely lethal opioid analogues such as these are becoming more common on the illegal drug market and the devastating societal impact of these substances, even in very small quantities, cannot be overstated.”

Edmonds admitted in court to selling these opioid variants to a law enforcement informant in 2017, the news release said. He was arrested in September.

In addition to 80 months in prison, Edmonds was sentenced Thursday to five years of supervised release.

Prosecutors said Friday that they may never know why Edward Johnson allegedly attacked and killed Stillwater corrections officer Joseph Gomm.

Gomm’s killing on July 18 seems “completely senseless,” Washington County Attorney Pete Orput said. “When people ask me, I say: ‘Some people do things because they can.’ We haven’t been able to find a motive. … This might be one of those cases where we’ll never know, and that is frustrating for many of us.”

Orput said prosecutors have enough evidence to seek first-degree murder charges against Johnson and that a grand jury will be convened within 14 days.

Johnson, 42, appeared in court Friday morning behind bullet-proof glass wearing a Department of Corrections-issued orange jumpsuit. He was flanked by two Washington County Sheriff’s deputies.

The court hearing lasted about 5 minutes.

He spoke briefly, answering mostly “yes” and “no” to questions asked by Washington County District Court Judge Mary Hannon. When he didn’t understand one of Hannon’s questions, he said: “Excuse me, ma’am.”

Johnson, who has one eye and did not wear an eye patch, stared straight ahead into the crowded courtroom as Assistant Washington County Attorney Nicholas Hydukovich described how Johnson “mercilessly beat” Gomm.

He was represented in court by public defender Laurel O’Rourke.

A number of people who said they worked for the Department of Corrections attended the hearing, but they declined to comment on the proceedings.

According to the criminal complaint filed Thursday, Johnson used a prison-issued hammer and two improvised knives to kill Gomm in a workshop at the Minnesota Correctional Facility-Stillwater.

Johnson was charged Thursday with second-degree murder and second-degree assault. Under state law, the killing of a corrections officer constitutes a first-degree murder charge and comes with a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole, Orput said.

In Minnesota, a grand jury indictment is required for any crimes carrying a sentence of life imprisonment.

Prosecutors will be pursuing two first-degree murder charges: murder of a corrections officer and premeditated murder. They also will pursue a second-degree assault charge for brandishing the hammer at a shop foreman who confronted Johnson during the assault.

“If I could come up with more charges against him, I would,” Orput said Friday

No other inmates were involved in the attack, Orput said.

“We know what happened, and we have gathered the evidence to show what happened, and we think it’s a very simple, but very tragic case,” he said. “He did this on his own. Gomm happened to be there, and (Johnson) happened to be angry enough to act his anger out.”

Prosecutors asked officers with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension to expedite the investigation, Orput said.

“The public really wants to know there’s going to be justice served up, and so we felt that we really have to go as fast as we can without rushing things,” he said. “As soon as we get indictments, we’re prepared to take it to trial.”

Johnson is serving a 29-year prison term for the 2002 murder of his girlfriend, Brooke Elizabeth Thompson.

HOW THE KILLING HAPPENED

According to the criminal complaint, Johnson used a hammer to beat and kill Gomm on the third floor of a vocational building at the prison, causing “substantial injuries to his head and face.” Johnson also used a “homemade knife” to twice stab Gomm in the chest, the complaint states.

After Gomm’s death, Johnson was moved to the Minnesota Correctional Facility-Oak Park Heights, where he remains.

The prison’s shop foreman told investigators that an inmate approached him and said Gomm needed help. When the foreman went into the shop, he saw Johnson striking Gomm in the head with a hammer, the criminal complaint states.

Several inmates told investigators they saw Johnson running around shirtless; correctional officers said inmates often remove their shirts when they are “involved in a fight or other aggressive or assaultive conduct,” the complaint states.

When correctional officers confronted Johnson, he put up his hands and surrendered, the complaint states.

“Investigators learned that a hammer had been checked out to Johnson when he reported for work that afternoon,” the complaint states. “On the floor, not far from where Officer Gomm was found, investigators located a bloody hammer matching that which had been checked out to Johnson and that which (the foreman) saw Johnson use to repeatedly strike Officer Gomm in the head. Investigators also located two homemade ‘knives,’ one or both of which were used to stab Officer Gomm.”

Gomm was a 16-year veteran of the Department of Corrections. Thousands of corrections officers from around the U.S. and Canada came to Minnesota to attend his July 26 funeral at North Heights Lutheran Church in Arden Hills.

Since Gomm’s death, corrections employees have called for more prison officers and changes to inmate discipline rules. Orput said he planned to meet with staff from the Stillwater prison on Friday afternoon to discuss the case.

“Corrections officers deserve a lot of sympathy,” he said. “They have a thankless job. I want them to know that while they are working to get more staff, I’m working to keep them safe. The only tools I have is an aggressive prosecution. Sometimes that is enough, and sometimes, as in this tragic case, it isn’t, but that’s not going to daunt us.”

Johnson, who had been incarcerated at Stillwater since 2003, was scheduled to be released in four years.

Although Johnson is incarcerated, prosecutors on Friday asked Hannon to set bail at $1 million, a move that Orput acknowledged “seemed almost comic.”

“Maybe it’s superfluous, (but) you have to ask for bail in every case,” he said. “We have no control over (his) sentence. What if tomorrow some post-conviction thing led to him being released? It wouldn’t happen, but why not ask for the bail that we do in every case?

“He’s demonstrated pretty clearly to us … that he’s a danger to society, and we can’t have him out.”

While a St. Paul business advisory council told Mayor Melvin Carter and the city council Friday they believe adding more officers is important, many residents who weighed in to Carter have said otherwise.

The issue arose June 20, when Police Chief Todd Axtell answered questions from the city council by saying he wants to add 50 officers to the department’s ranks over the next two years. He said they’re needed because of the city’s growing population, and the additional staff would allow new cops to have time to get to know the community before hitting the streets.

The Business Review Council, which has 22 members and is one of the city’s advisory committees, wrote in Friday’s letter that some businesses are facing “real public safety challenges,” which “can have a negative impact on doing business in the City of St. Paul.”

“Some St. Paul businesses are incurring significant costs of hiring off-duty officers or private security to protect their business operations,” the letter continued.

BUDGET PROPOSAL COMING

Carter will unveil his proposal for next year’s city budget on Thursday. It’s his first since becoming mayor in January.

In July, Carter held seven sessions with community members to discuss the 2019 budget, and more than 300 people attended.

Participants were given a worksheet and the task of hypothetically closing a $7 million budget gap through cuts, property tax increases or other ways of finding revenue.

About one-third of participants suggested eliminating five to 10 officers, Liz Xiong, Carter’s press secretary, said Friday.

People could also opt to make new investments, which would widen the budget gap, and the top choice was investing in affordable housing.

“We’re not arguing the data we’ve collected is statistically significant, however from what we collected, adding five to 10 officer positions was the least supported option (for widening the budget gap) by participants at the events,” Xiong said. “… The mayor took to heart the conversations he heard from residents. A lot of his budget proposals are informed by the feedback.”

On July 18, 31 community groups wrote to St. Paul city leaders and asked them to oppose any new funding for police officers. They called for the city to build safety by investing in youth and communities.

CONCERN ABOUT 911 RESPONSE TIMES

At the Business Review Council’s July meeting, a member brought up officer staffing “as they see this impacting their business and the public safety concerns,” said Brianne Hamm, who chairs the committee.

The group gathered more information, reviewed it and voted at their Wednesday meeting to send the letter, Hamm said. One concern brought up was an increase in dispatch response times.

911 calls have increased by about 30 percent over the past five years, Axtell told the city council in June.

“Delays can cause minor incidents to escalate into significant challenges,” the Business Review Council wrote in its letter to the mayor and city council. “We want to work with you on addressing these important issues and welcome our role as part of the solution. We believe adding more officers is important, and we also feel that keeping our police department fully-staffed is essential to our community.”

City Council Vice President Rebecca Noecker, whose area of representation includes downtown, said she’s also heard from others about response times.

“I think it’s good to explore it, rather than assuming what the answer is,” she said. “I know our officers are really focused on … having intentional conversations, and that can sometimes mean calls take more time.”

Noecker said while “an answer may be more officers, that’s not necessarily the case.” They could look at other options, such as adding more co-responders — people with a social service background who work with officers and can stay behind on calls to try to troubleshoot solutions, Noecker said.

LOOKING AT PUBLIC SAFETY FROM BROADER SCOPE

The public safety concerns raised by Business Review Council members came from different parts of St. Paul, “ranging from Midway to East Side to Grand Avenue … so it’s not a downtown-specific situation,” said Hamm, who is Securian Asset Management regional vice president-institutional solutions.

Public safety is one of Carter’s top priorities, and “he absolutely shares that priority with” the Business Review Council, Xiong said.

“The scope of this strategy is broader than the number of officers we have in our department,” she said. “Mayor Carter’s public safety strategy supports building safer neighborhoods through investments in our parks, recreation centers, and libraries to connect children and families to opportunities.”

The Business Review Council — which has 22 members and is one of the city of St. Paul’s advisory committees — sent this letter, which was dated Thursday, to the mayor and city council members on Friday.

Art Blakey Jr. lived the last few days of his life as he’d lived most every day of his 83 years: surrounded by community members.

The long-time Minnesota State Fair police chief and Ramsey County sheriff’s deputy passed away peacefully Saturday morning in his St. Paul home, just blocks from where he’d grown up, his daughter Brooke Blakey said.

She described the last week at his home as “a revolving door of people coming by from every walk of life to pay their respects.”

Blakey served the community for 52 years and only hung up his hat last year when he retired as police chief of the Minnesota State Fair. He was the first African-American sworn officer in the Ramsey County sheriff’s office.

As word spread of his passing, friends, neighbors and co-workers took to social media to tell how Blakey had touched their lives.

Ramsey County Sheriff Jack Serier posted that it was “a very sad day for us at the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office. He has been a mentor to many in our agency and will be greatly missed by us.”

Brooke Blakey wasn’t surprised by the community’s response.

“His family was his pride and joy,” she said. “But we have always shared him. He has always had a huge extended family — his fair family, his Ramsey County family, his community. That’s where he felt most at home.”

RONDO BABY

Blakey was born Jan. 24, 1935, to Arthur Blakey Sr. and Johnnie Mae Butler in Yankton, S.D., a town on the Missouri River, just north of the Nebraska border.

He was 5 years old when he, his parents and his younger sister Wanda relocated to the St. Paul Rondo neighborhood where Blakey would live for the rest of his life.

He graduated from Central High School in 1954 and went into the Air Force. He recalled in April that while in the Air Force he received a frantic phone call from his father saying, “They’re taking my house.”

In the 1960s, some 600 homes and businesses in the heart of Rondo, largely a black community, were demolished to make room for the construction of Interstate 94.

In spite of the highway’s disruption, Blakey and his neighbors continued to identify with the Rondo neighborhood.

“He was a Rondo baby,” Brooke Blakey said.

Blakey married the love of his life, Carolyn Carroll, in a simple ceremony in 1980. That was the same year he became the first African-American police chief of the Minnesota State Fair — a job he would have for 37 years.

The couple had three children: Arthur III, Janelle and Brooke, and five grandchildren.

Arthur and Janelle followed their mother into the health care industry, but Brooke, despite her father’s objections, followed him into law enforcement. One of his last public acts was pinning on her new badge July 25 when she was promoted to sergeant with the Metro Transit Police.

“He told me to go out and do good, and to go out and be good. So that’s what I do,” she said.

While he may have been a tough enforcer as a police officer, he didn’t carry that persona home with him, she said.

“He was a big teddy bear,” Brooke said. “He was definitely not the disciplinarian at all. Mama ruled the roost.”

Was he a romantic?

“Not at all,” said Brooke, laughing. “Their big thing was driving around in their Corvette.”

GODFATHER OF THE COMMUNITY

That convertible two-seater cherry red Corvette was a fixture in their neighborhood along Selby Avenue, recalled Devin Miller, 52, who considered Blakey a mentor and an example of what an African-American man should be like.

“You couldn’t go anywhere without seeing him either in uniform or out of uniform. He was like the godfather of the community,” he said.

Blakey began his law enforcement career with the Ramsey County sheriff’s office on March 3, 1965, as a reserve deputy. He went full time in 1970.

Related: From pioneering Ramsey County sheriff’s deputy to State Fair police chief, ‘Art Blakey Day’ is proclaimed

Miller met Blakey in the early 2000s while volunteering at the New Beginnings center. With Blakey’s aid, he later helped found the God Squad, a community group that helps forge relationships between the police and the community.

“We were experiencing a lot of gang issues, drug issues,” he said. “Art was very instrumental in helping us get jackets to identify us. He was county (police), but this was his community. That just shows how committed he was to the community.”

As they worked to clean up Selby Avenue, they made a pledge to Golden Thyme Coffee and Cafe that if the owners opened their business in Rondo, they would support it.

“Golden Thyme was our community center,” he said. Blakey and other community members met there regularly to patronize the shop and to watch over it. “It has become an iconic fixture in Rondo,” Miller said. “Art Blakey should be remembered for his kindness in protecting the community.”

LEGACY OF FORGIVENESS

It was Blakey’s protective instinct that put him between innocent people and a gunman in 1996 when a 19-year-old man shot him three times during an armed robbery at the old VFW post on Fisk Street.

Blakey had gotten several people out a back door to safety and had turned around to confront the gunman, a confrontation ending with both men shot.

That gunman was Danny Givens. And that encounter with Blakey was a turning point in his life.

Givens went to prison, converted to Christianity and later became a pastor of Above Every Name ministries.

Givens met the “kindness” side of Blakey in 2009, when Blakey approached him on the street, accepted his apology and told Givens he forgave him and that he loved him.

“Art Blakey in body is what it meant to be a professional policeman as well as a personable community member,” Givens said. “He showed up at the intersection of those two with a heart full of humanity and integrity.”

Givens said when he heard Blakey was dying, he longed to see him one more time but wasn’t sure he would be accepted by family members.

Encouraged by Brooke, he came over and sat vigil with Blakey, who was sedated at the time.

“I’m a pastor,” he said. “I deal with life and death transitions all the time. It’s different with someone who you’ve harmed physically.”

He said one of Blakey’s daughters saw that he was struggling and encouraged him.

“She said, ‘I hope you know that not only did he forgive you, but our family forgives you. You’re part of his legacy. You must continue to go forward.’ ”

STATE FAIR AND BEYOND

Blakey’s legacy stretches out from Rondo to people all around the state.

During his time with Ramsey County, he rose to the rank of commander and served under four sheriffs. He also took time to be involved in community events.

South St. Paul Mayor Jimmy Francis served as Blakey’s prime minister when Blakey was appointed King Boreas (another first for African Americans) of St. Paul’s Winter Carnival in 2010.

“When we toured around anywhere in the state, there were police officers and first responders who made their way over to us to say hi to Art,” he said. “It was not uncommon for us to hear in a parade, ‘Art Blakey! I want to talk to you!’ He had a ton of friends.”

Francis said as personable as Blakey was — remembering everyone’s names and details about them — he did not like the limelight.

“It was always about everybody else,” he said. “He wasn’t a great public speaker, so he put other people around him that were.”

The State Fair served as a center for Blakey to influence many people.

“It’s impossible to express what Art Blakey means to the State Fair,” said Jerry Hammer, the Fair’s general manager. “Chief Blakey epitomized everything you could want in a police officer and a public servant. Art was a true hero in every respect.”

St. Paul Police Chief Todd Axtell echoed those sentiments.

“He personified kindness, forgiveness and the best of what it means to be a law enforcement professional. His life inspires me to do better every day.”

His last few days were peaceful, Brooke Blakey said. “He was still trying to work and didn’t want to be a bother to anyone.”

The family has not yet set a time or place for a memorial, Brooke said, explaining that the usual church or funeral home would not suffice considering how well known he was in the community.

“We have to find a big enough space,” she said.

The person of interest in a January shooting of a Stillwater man has been identified as 19-year-old Conner William Graham.

Graham, also of Stillwater, turned himself in to authorities Thursday, according to Washington County Jail records.

He has been charged with second-degree manslaughter in the Jan. 19 shooting death of Charles O’Connell, 20.

“He came in with legal counsel and spoke to one of our investigators and an investigator from the BCA (Bureau of Criminal Apprehension),” said Chief John Gannaway of the Stillwater Police Department.

“Based on that interview, the charges were manslaughter,” he said.

O’Connell was shot in the 100 block of Bayberry Avenue Court.

He was taken to the hospital by a private vehicle and died shortly after.

Stillwater police were called to Lakeview Hospital about 7 p.m. on the report of a gunshot wound.

Gannaway had said then that the department had detained a person of interest, which was Graham. O’Connell and Graham were known to each other.

Gannaway had no further details on the reason for the shooting or the cause for the delay in Graham’s charges.

Graham is being held on a $250,000 bail and his first court date is Aug. 7 at the Washington County Courthouse in Stillwater.

St. Paul police responding to a report of multiple shots fired encountered a man with a handgun and fatally shot him early Sunday, according to the police department.

Officers arrived at a multi-unit rental property in the Summit-University area about 2:30 a.m. after receiving a 911 call from a male who described “multiple shots being fired on the second floor of the residence” in the 900 block of St. Anthony Avenue, said Sgt. Mike Ernster, a St. Paul police spokesman.

The two officers involved were wearing body cameras that were turned on.

Mayor Melvin Carter said Sunday he is working closely with the police chief and the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension “to ensure a thorough, transparent and timely investigation, including the release of the body cam footage as soon as possible.”

“Last night’s officer-involved shooting was a tragedy for our entire city,” Carter said in a statement after he stopped by the area earlier Sunday. “As we await further details, my heart goes out to the family of the deceased, to our St. Paul officers, and to every member of our community as we all grieve and process this loss.”

POLICE SAY THEY ENCOUNTERED MAN WITH GUN

When officers arrived at the residence, they encountered a man with a gun, according to police.

“At some point, two officers discharged their service weapons, striking the man,” Ernster said.

Police did not provide details of what led officers to fire their guns.

“Right now we’re very early on in this investigation,” Ernster said. “The BCA will be conducting further interviews and they will be the agency to release information of what actually occurred.”

The BCA will have additional information after they conduct initial interviews with those involved and any witnesses, according to an agency spokeswoman, who said the time frame is unknown.

OFFICERS’ BODY CAMERAS WERE ON

The officers’ body camera footage and other evidence is being turned over to the BCA because they are the agency conducting the investigation, Ernster said.

Carter didn’t announce a specific timeline in which he wants the footage released, but “he’s exploring the quickest route” and wants to do it “as soon as feasibly possible,” said Liz Xiong, Carter’s press secretary.

In Minneapolis, Mayor Jacob Frey released body camera footage last Sunday of the June 23 fatal officer-involved shooting of Thurman Blevins. The next day, Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman announced the officers would not be charged.

Blevins’ family and other community members had pushed for the prompt release of the footage, and Frey had pledged to do so as soon as possible. Video from past high-profile police shootings in the state has usually not been released until after long investigations by the BCA.

MAN DIED AT SCENE

Paramedics pronounced the man dead at the scene in St. Paul. His name has not been released.

Officers searched the area for anyone who may have been injured from the initial report of shots fired and didn’t find anyone, Ernster said.

There were multiple people inside the residence when officers arrived. Ernster said he didn’t have information about whether the 911 call originated from inside the home or elsewhere. The 911 caller hung up without providing additional information, police said.

Before Sunday, police had been called to the residence nine times since the start of the year.

“They tend to be run-of-the-mill calls,” Ernster said. “… “This investigation will reveal where this began, and right now, as far as the previous calls, we don’t know if they relate or not.”

POLICE CHIEF SAYS ‘THERE ARE NO WINNERS IN THESE SITUATIONS’

The officers involved were placed on standard administrative leave.

“Officer-involved shootings are incredibly difficult — for our officers, our department, our community and the family of the person whose life was lost,” Police Chief Todd Axtell wrote in an email Sunday to members of the police department. “While I’m deeply grateful that no officers were injured during this encounter, I also extend my condolences to the family of the man who died. We all know there are no winners in these situations.”

Axtell wrote the department will not be releasing more information now “in the interest of protecting the integrity of the investigation” and that “facts will be released after the BCA has completed a thorough review.”

Early Sunday and into the afternoon, community members came to the area around the crime scene tape to talk to neighbors and try to figure out what happened.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota said in a tweet on Sunday, “Our communities cannot even begin to heal from one police killing before another occurs.”

Teresa Nelson, the organization’s legal director, called for details and body camera footage to be released.

“I think waiting for weeks and months before releasing body camera footage doesn’t help the community to understand what’s happening,” she said. “The community has a right to know when police take somebody’s life, they have a right to know how we’re being policed and what happened. … It’s important for transparency.”

Boutique St. Paul restaurant Tongue in Cheek closed early on Sunday afternoon, after a driver smashed into its storefront at 989 Payne Ave.

On Instagram, the business said nobody was seriously hurt, but that the general manager had been injured.

“Ryan’s fine, just some scrapes and bruises and a few stitches,” the restaurant said on Instagram. “We are all very lucky it wasn’t worse!”

In photos posted on the restaurant’s social media pages, a vehicle appears to have driven through some wooden fencing and into the building’s front entrance.

One of the St. Paul officers involved in Sunday’s fatal shooting of a man in Summit-University is the son of an officer killed in the line of duty nearly 24 years ago.

Matthew Jones became a St. Paul police officer in 2013. He was 8 years old when his father, Officer Tim Jones, was shot and killed during the search for the man who killed fellow Officer Ron Ryan Jr. earlier on Aug. 26, 1994.

The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension is investigating the case and has not released additional information, including the names of the officers involved.

Sources said Monday that they are Jones and Vincent Adams, who became a St. Paul officer at the same time as Jones.

Ron Ryan Sr., a retired St. Paul police commander and father of Ron Ryan Jr., said he was glad to hear the officers were uninjured, but “as far as the toll it takes on them emotionally and the damage done to their family, it’s tremendous, especially in this day and age.”

Ryan said he got to know the young Jones after the 1994 murders, for which Guy Harvey Baker was sent to prison.

“Matt has kind of the same personality as his dad,” Ryan said Monday. “His dad was very social and Matt seems to be the same way. He’s very serious about the job from everyone I talk to and I hear that he’s a great officer.”

Generally speaking, reports of someone shooting a gun in a house “are probably one of the most dangerous calls (officers) go on,” said Sgt. Mike Ernster, a St. Paul police spokesman.

St. Paul police officers responded to a 911 call about 2:30 a.m. Sunday on a report of multiple shots fired in a residence in the 900 block of St. Anthony Avenue, according to police.

When officers arrived at the rental property, they encountered a man with a gun, police said. Two officers fired their guns.

The man who was shot, who has not been named, was pronounced dead by paramedics at the scene.

The police department has placed the officers on standard administrative leave.

A Stillwater man who turned himself in on Thursday said he and a friend were “messing” around with a handgun in his driveway before he shot his friend on Jan. 19.

Connor William Graham, 19, was charged Monday with second-degree manslaughter in the fatal shooting of Charles O’Connell, 20.

According to the criminal complaint, Graham drove to O’Connell’s house with a handgun and an Airsoft BB gun. O’Connell suggested they go to an open field to shoot the handgun, so they drove to a field near a golf course in Grant, where tn was fired twice.

The complaint says Graham then drove O’Connell back to his house on Bayberry Court in Stillwater, but they stayed in the car for about 20 minutes after they arrived at the house.

During this time, according to the complaint, O’Connell was “messing” around with Graham’s handgun before he removed the magazine and set the gun on the dashboard, but the complaint said the make and model of the gun allowed for shooting without a magazine present.

Graham then picked up the gun and turned it in his left hand before pulling the trigger, shooting O’Connell in the chest.

The complaint said that after the shooting, Graham dropped O’Connell off at Lakeview Hospital in Stillwater. O’Connell died shortly after.

Steve Hansen, sergeant of the Stillwater Police Department investigations unit, said law enforcement “had to wait for everything to come back from the forensics,” which is why there was a delay in Graham’s charges.

Graham’s first court date is Aug. 7 at the Washington County Courthouse.

When the family of William “Billy” James Hughes found out he had been fatally shot by St. Paul police officers, they said, “Not again,” his aunt explained Monday.

A cousin of Hughes, Philip Quinn, was killed in a confrontation with officers in St. Paul in 2015.

“When is it going to stop?,” Kathy Ficken, the aunt of Hughes and Quinn, said as she wept after a rally in Minneapolis. “They have to stop. … they’re ruining everybody’s life. … He needs justice.”

Police said they were called to 905 St. Anthony Ave., a multi-unit rental property in St. Paul, on Sunday about 2:30 a.m. They were summoned by a 911 caller who reported multiple shots fired, according to police.

When officers arrived, they encountered a man with a gun, police said Sunday. Two officers fired and struck the man. Paramedics pronounced him dead at the scene.

The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension is investigating and has not released additional information. A spokesman said they would when initial interviews are completed.

But family and community members called for answers on Monday.

“Our community experienced a terrible tragedy” when Hughes, 45, was killed, said Dannah Thompson, a cousin of Hughes. She described him as beloved and said he was a member of the White Earth Nation.

“Through our grief and difficulty, we have been left with more questions than answers as to why police officers decided to abruptly and violently take Billy’s life,” Thompson said.

Officers’ body cameras were activated at the time of the shooting and Mayor Melvin Carter is “looking for an expedited release” of the footage, said Liz Xiong, his press secretary, on Monday.

Carter cancelled his scheduled plans and meetings on Sunday and Monday “to really focus on this and work with the chief of police and BCA (Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension) to move along releasing the video as soon as possible,” Xiong said.

RESIDENT SAW MAN’S BODY ON FRONT PORCH

Mary Pinales, who lives in the residence where Hughes was killed, said she was awakened early Sunday by a gunshot. She looked outside and saw police.

Pinales said police officers banged on her door, told her to put her hands up and asked if anyone else was up there. She said they checked her apartment and then led her down the stairs, the only way out.

At the bottom of the stairs, on the enclosed front porch, Pinales said she saw her neighbor and could tell he was already dead.

Pinales said she was barefoot and officers lifted her to carry her over the blood and outside.

The wood floor was still blood-stained Sunday night, but Pinales found the blood had apparently been scraped off when she returned Monday morning.

There were small holes in the porch’s wall that Pinales said weren’t there before and she believes are bullet holes.

Meanwhile, a 12-year-old girl who lives in the building with her family said she was in her bedroom, just below the porch, and talking to her best friend on the phone early Sunday.

She heard loud footsteps on the porch above, which she figures were officers’ shoes. She then heard shouting and gunshots. Her friend asked, “What is that?” and she responded, “bullets!”

The girl said she dove under her bed. Her father asked that she not be identified for her safety.

Pinales, who didn’t know Hughes well, said he had moved in to the building four or five months ago.

He was a quiet person who did maintenance work around the property, Pinales said.

When Pinales needed her lights fixed, her landlord told her to knock on her neighbor’s door and he helped her. He also did painting around the home, Pinales recalled.

ACLU CALLS FOR TRANSPARENCY IN INVESTIGATION

Teresa Nelson, legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota, called on Sunday for the officers’ body camera footage to be released.

Nelson said on Monday that U.S. Department of Justice best practices indicate that preliminary incident information should be released to the public within eight hours, and she said the federal agency also recommends within 24 hours that authorities should brief community leaders and lay out a timeline of the investigatory process.

“Whenever police kill someone, it is a tragedy,” Nelson said in Monday’s statement. “A police shooting can affect the whole community. The residents of St. Paul along with the family of the unnamed individual deserve to know what happened in this tragic incident.”

In the case of Phillip Quinn, Hughes’ cousin who was killed in 2015, a grand jury did not file charges against the officers involved.

ONE OF OFFICERS INVOLVED IN SON OF SLAIN OFFICER

The BCA hasn’t released the names of the officers who shot the man, but sources said they are Matthew Jones and Vincent Adams, who both became St. Paul officers in 2013.

Jones was 8 years old when his father, St. Paul Officer Tim Jones, was shot and killed. It was during the search for the man who fatally shot fellow Officer Ron Ryan Jr. earlier on Aug. 26, 1994.

Ron Ryan Sr., a retired St. Paul police commander and father of Ron Ryan Jr., said he was glad to hear the officers were uninjured Sunday, but “as far as the toll it takes on them emotionally and the damage done to their family, it’s tremendous, especially in this day and age.”

Ryan said he got to know the young Jones after the 1994 murders, for which Guy Harvey Baker was sent to prison.

“Matt has kind of the same personality as his dad,” Ryan said Monday. “His dad was very social and Matt seems to be the same way. He’s very serious about the job from everyone I talk to and I hear that he’s a great officer.”

Generally speaking, reports of someone shooting a gun in a house “are probably one of the most dangerous calls (officers) go on,” said Sgt. Mike Ernster, a St. Paul police spokesman.

“No officer ever wants to be involved in a situation like this,” Ernster said Sunday. “It’s something that changes them forever and obviously impacts the families involved in this and our heart goes out to them. It’s a tragic situation.”