Not a day goes by that Derek Kruse doesn’t think about how he was shot in the line of duty — and if a similar incident can be prevented.

That’s part of his job.

Kruse has a new role within South St. Paul police, one that is focused on bringing a more coordinated response to mental health calls and taking a more proactive approach to people dealing with the illness.

A year ago Friday, Dustin Bilderback, a group home resident with a history of mental illness, grabbed a shotgun from his car and fired at Kruse and three other South St. Paul police officers. Officer Todd Waters was struck by pellets in the back, neck and arm; Kruse was hit in the left calf.

“It impacts me to this day,” Kruse, 31, said. “My whole thing was, how could this happen? How did it get to the point where this was allowed to happen?”

Kruse’s new role is possible because of a Dakota County Social Services’ pilot program that started in January with collaboration between South St. Paul and West St. Paul police. It follows similar programs that have been employed in recent years in a few other cities, including St. Paul.

Emily Schug, Dakota County Social Services deputy director, said bridging the gap between law enforcement, mental health providers and those living in the community with mental health issues is critical at a time when calls for service are increasing across the board.

To try to close that gap, Kruse and West St. Paul officer Jesse Mettner work as liaisons with a mental health coordinator who is embedded within the police departments. The coordinator, Kalyn Bassett, follows up on crisis calls with the officers; reviews calls for service to try to determine if there is a mental health component; and works to connect people with mental health resources with the hope of ultimately cutting down on the need for officers to be called for crisis situations. She also has gone out with officers on calls.

Kruse said he believes the work will pay off.

“Only through open communication could such a tragedy be prevented again,” he said.

‘HOW DO WE DO SOMETHING DIFFERENT’

Before the pilot program, Dakota County Social Services staff and the police chiefs in South St. Paul and West St. Paul had been at the table for several years discussing and planning ways on how to better respond to mental health issues.

Both cities are among the oldest in the county and have high amounts of affordable housing. That often makes them the choice for people who receive state supportive housing services, said South St. Paul Police Chief Bill Messerich.

That has led to an increased strain on police, fire and EMS services from people who suffer from mental illness, he said.

“We’ve been at the table saying, ‘How do we do something different so that the concentration levels can be decreased in these two cities?’ ” he said. The shooting “pushed it over the edge,” he said.

Schug agrees, saying that while the “unique pressures” put everyone at the same table, the “tragic shooting spurred the impetus to get this going.”

But the commitment from the two cities — dedicating community engagement officers Kruse and Mettner to the pilot — was the key, Schug said.

“This partnership and model really isn’t possible unless the resources are dedicated on both sides,” she said. “So with all of those factors at play it made sense to do this as a pilot with these two cities.

“And I think as we’re demonstrating the partnership and community benefits of this we certainly have other departments that are interested in talking about the potential for expansion.”

OUTREACH PAYING OFF

The model is employed in about a half-dozen larger communities in Minnesota, including Minneapolis, Duluth and Rochester.

A year ago, St. Paul police started embedding a licensed clinical social worker into its mental health unit. People Incorporated — the Twin Cities’ largest community-based provider of mental health services — pays for the full-time position.

Soon, Regions Hospital added a licensed clinical social worker to serve with mental health officers.

The two social workers do co-response — going out on calls with police officers trying to figure out if people need additional services — and aftercare and case management.

“We also now have opioid outreach and homeless outreach out of our unit, too,” said Amber Ruth, a People Incorporated social worker who is embedded at the St. Paul police headquarters building.

People Incorporated hopes to replicate the model within other police departments.

The results have been promising in Duluth, according to city officials. Since last year’s creation of the police department’s mental health unit — consisting of two dedicated officers and two embedded St. Louis County social workers — there has been a 31 percent reduction in calls for service among those with regular police contacts.

Late last year, Maplewood launched a mental health unit where police, firefighters and paramedics reach out to frequent 911 callers who showed signs mental illness. The unit does not have a social worker working alongside them, however.

“There are a lot of different variations of that model,” Schug said. “I think probably all models have their benefits. From our experience, we’ve really seen the benefit of the police response paired with the social services response and being able to connect people with that array of more community-based social services.”

HOW IT WORKS

Since the start of the Dakota County program, West St. Paul has averaged 25 cases, South St. Paul 35.

There have been dozens of success stories, Mettner said. One that stands out to Mettner is a West St. Paul woman who threatened to harm herself. Mettner and Bassett, the mental health coordinator, made initial contact and established a foundation with the woman, who was fearful of Mettner.

“She had issues with males and issues with police officers,” he said.

On a second visit, the relationship and trust was there and they were able to find her services. When Mettner and Bassett learned she didn’t have a ride to an appointment, they took her there and drove her back home.

“Those are the types of things a regular police officer would not be able to do because of the time,” Mettner said. “But that is really important to us and whether or not we are continuing to go to that address for more calls of self-harm in the future.”

That flexibility is important, Bassett said.

“I don’t have defined roles, whereas a case manager or someone like that has a sort of sweet spot they can cover,” she said. “And if it’s outside of that they say, ‘Call this service.’ I can kind of do what is helpful in the moment.”

That on-the-spot help during a crisis combined with bringing people services quicker than a county case manager or crisis response unit “makes the world of difference,” said West St. Paul Interim Police Chief Brian Sturgeon.

“At least from our perspective, people were falling through the cracks of the system,” he said. “There’s a lot of work to be done with the system, and this is a part that us in law enforcement think is great way that we can get involved.”

IT COULD HAVE MADE A DIFFERENCE

Kruse said the pilot program might have prevented last year’s shooting in South St. Paul.

Bilderback was on a provisional discharge from the Minnesota Security Hospital in St. Peter after having been committed in 2009 as mentally ill and dangerous out of Anoka County. In the days before the shooting, Bilderback showed signs of paranoia and was no longer allowing a nurse into his apartment to set up and monitor his medication, according to Anoka County court documents. He also fought with residents.

“But the hope is that having people freely speak to us now, that we will then know if there is somebody who is causing issues. And we can provide that support.”

A caretaker who stole nearly $100,000 from a 96-year-old woman with Alzheimer’s disease must serve three months in the Ramsey County workhouse and stay away from vulnerable adults.

Barbara Joan Siercks, 70, also must pay restitution and complete 100 hours of community service over the next year, according to Ramsey County court records.

She is eligible to receive certain accommodations as she serves her sentence, including electronic home monitoring and work release.

Siercks was sentenced Friday, two months after pleading guilty to one count of financial exploitation of a vulnerable adult. A second count was dismissed.

She was hired to care for the 96-year-old St. Paul woman while working as an employee of Baywood Home Care in 2014. Over the next year, she wrote dozens of checks to herself from the woman’s bank account and made numerous cash withdrawals, totaling $97,150.

Her client’s friend alerted authorities after reviewing her financial records and finding an unusual number of checks made to Siercks.

Siercks’ attorney declined to comment.

The Minnesota Department of Corrections will host a memorial service Thursday in honor of Joseph Gomm, who was a corrections officer slain at the Stillwater Correctional Facility.

The ceremony will be led by the Department of Correction’s Chaplain Marty Shanahan, and Commissioner Paul Schnell will also speak. A moment of silence will be held, and a bench and rock monument in honor of Gomm will be unveiled.

The 1 p.m. ceremony will be held at the flag pole on the lawn of the historic warden’s house directly across the street from the Stillwater prison.

Gomm was bludgeoned to death while working in the prison’s industry building on July 18, 2018. An inmate, Edward Muhammad Johnson, a 43-year-old serving time on a murder conviction, has been now been charged in Gomm’s death with murder.

Gomm was a 16-year veteran of the department that was remembered as as dedicated officer who looked out for others.

A St. Paul man was charged Tuesday with falsely reporting police misconduct for claiming two Ramsey County sheriff’s deputies raped him before driving him to jail.

Ryland Dean Charles McKown, 25, was arrested July 7 on a warrant for missing his sentencing hearing in a separate case. He was taken to Regions Hospital for treatment before the two deputies transported him to jail.

Once at the jail, McKown told a St. Paul police investigator that the deputies had raped him at the hospital before placing him in their transport vehicle, according to a criminal complaint filed in Ramsey County District Court.

He claimed he suffered additional injuries from the sexual assault that required further medical attention back at Regions.

The two deputies denied any misconduct, telling the police investigator the transport was routine. They said McKown made it clear during their interaction that he was afraid of going to jail, saying at one point he “would do anything” to avoid it, according to the complaint.

Video footage shows McKown being pushed in a wheelchair into the ambulance bay at Regions before deputies helped him into a vehicle and drove away.

Court records list no attorney for McKown.

He was expected to make his first court appearance Tuesday afternoon on the false reporting charge, a gross misdemeanor.

McKown has prior convictions for theft and property damage.

“Unrecognizable.”

That’s how Randy Donnelly described what his brother looked like lying in a hospital bed at Regions Hospital late last summer.

Tubes everywhere, eye blackened, face scraped, and 49-year-old Mike Donnelly, a 6-foot-3-inch plumber, unconscious.

The sight brought Randy Donnelly to his knees, he recalled for jurors in a Ramsey County district courtroom Tuesday morning.

“I could hardly breathe. I thought I lost my little brother,” he said.

The 57-year-old poker dealer was the prosecution’s first witness Tuesday in the trial against Gunner McClellan, accused of sending Mike Donnelly to the hospital Sept. 1 after punching him outside the Minnesota State Fairgrounds.

He is charged with one count of first-degree assault resulting in great bodily harm.

The 22-year-old Cretin-Derham Hall alumnus sat next to his defense attorney, Earl Gray, in a purple shirt and a black suit as a prosecutor showed jurors pictures of Mike Donnelly after he underwent brain surgery.

Thanks to the skills of his surgeons and the “grace of God,” Mike Donnelly survived, but the Little Canada man’s life has been permanently altered, Assistant Ramsey County Attorney Daniel Rait said.

Neither side disputes that Mike Donnelly suffered a traumatic brain injury that night, or that McClellan punched him; the question is why.

WHO STARTED IT?

Gray told jurors his client was defending himself from an older, bigger man who came at him following a heated exchange between two groups.

It happened after they all left the Fair around midnight. McClellan and two buddies had noshed on food, drank beer and walked around before bumping into more friends on their way out, Gray said.

The crew walked to a nearby house and waited out front for rides to a bar. McClellan planned to part ways there because he had an early morning firefighting class. With that in mind, McClellan drank just three beers that night, Gray said.

Meanwhile, Mike Donnelly and his two buddies — also in their 40s — were walking from the Fair to their car when they passed the house where McClellan and his friends were gathered.

The defense claims one of Donnelly’s friends yelled a gay slur at the group; the prosecution claims McClellan’s friends launched the first insult.

Both sides agree that the verbal dispute led McClellan and his friend Garett Goskey to follow the older men.

At some point, the younger men decided to let it go, and McClellan shook Mike Donnelly’s hand, Gray told jurors. He said a woman who was walking behind the men would testify to that effect later in the trial.

Gray said his client was walking away and had just stumbled after trying to drop-kick a barrel to let off steam when Mike Donnelly and his two friends began running down the alley at them.

They went for Goskey first, and then Mike Donnelly took a “swing” at McClellan, Gray told jurors.

On the defensive, McClellan backed up and “hit” Donnelly, who went down.

“He didn’t hit him hard, but (Donnelly) was off balance and fell down,” Gray continued.

Unaware of the extent of Donnelly’s injuries and fearful he and his friends might come after them, McClellan and Goskey ran off, Gray said.

“They ran for one reason. They didn’t want these guys after them,” Gray said.

‘HE’S NOT BREATHING’

Rait gave a different account. The prosecutor told jurors McClellan and his friend followed them “house after house,” relentlessly taunting them for blocks, until one of Donnelly’s friends lost his patience and turned around “to stop things.”

A fight ensued between one of the older men and Goskey until McClellan suddenly punched Donnelly in the face, Rait said.

“Closed fist, to the face, and he hits him hard. Hard enough to render him unconscious,” Rait said.

Donnelly landed with a “thud” on the concrete, where he remained until paramedics took him to the hospital.

As he lay there, his friend yelled out: “You are all witnesses to a murder. He’s not breathing,” Rait said.

That’s when McClellan and Goskey took off, Rait said.

Goskey pleaded guilty in March to one count of disorderly conduct for causing injuries to one of Donnelly’s friends.

Almost a year later, Donnelly has made good progress in his recovery, including returning to work part time as a plumber. But he’s forgetful and quicker to anger and has recurring headaches.

“He’s not the same,” Rait said.

The trial resumes Wednesday.

BARRON, Wis.— A man who admitted to kidnapping Jayme Closs and killing her parents has been moved to a facility outside of Wisconsin.

Twenty-two-year-old Jake Patterson is serving life without parole for the October deaths of James and Denise Closs.

State records say he was moved Monday, but they do not say where. The Department of Corrections says his location is not being disclosed for his safety.

It’s not clear why he was transferred.

Patterson held Jayme captive in a remote cabin for nearly three months before she escaped in January. The criminal complaint says he saw Jayme getting on a school bus and decided “she was the girl he was going to take.”

Patterson pleaded guilty in March to two counts of intentional homicide and one count of kidnapping. He was sentenced in May.

Attorneys for the former Minneapolis police officer who fatally shot an unarmed woman after she called 911 about a possible assault have filed an appeal.

Mohamed Noor was convicted of third-degree murder and manslaughter in the July 2017 death of Justine Ruszczyk Damond, a 40-year-old dual citizen of the U.S. and Australia. He was sentenced to more than 12 years in prison.

In their appeal filed Tuesday, Noor’s attorneys said they expect to raise several issues. They plan to argue that the judge erred by allowing charges not supported by probable cause to go to a jury, allowing prosecutorial misconduct, limiting Noor’s right to present a complete defense and improperly instructing the jury on the third-degree murder count.

Noor has been moved to an out-of-state prison for his own safety but his location has not been disclosed.

A man and woman have been indicted on murder charges in the shooting of an 18-year-old last year after their vehicle became blocked in at a Minneapolis gas station.

Rodney Donta Jackson, 27, and Derionna Leake, 21, were indicted July 11 by a Hennepin County grand jury. They made their first court appearances this week.

According to criminal complaints, Jackson and his girlfriend, Leake, pulled up to a pump at a gas station in the 2400 block of Bloomington Avenue South on Nov. 6, 2018. The couple went into the store, leaving their SUV at the pump.

Upon return they found that Mohamed Abdi, of Bloomington, had parked in front of their vehicle, boxing them in. Leake and Abdi began to argue and Leake threw a Vaseline jar at Abdi.

Jackson and Leake left when the vehicle behind them did, the complaint said, but they didn’t go far. Jackson parked across the street and Leake began throwing objects toward Abdi’s vehicle. Abdi threw rocks in her direction in response. Jackson pointed a gun out the driver’s window, fire one shot and struck Abdi in the head, killing him.

Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman announced Tuesday that Jackson was indicted on first-degree premeditated murder and second-degree intentional murder for Abdi’s death. Jackson has no current address but previously lived in Brooklyn Center, according to court records.

Leake, of Robbinsdale, was indicted on charges of aiding and abetting first-degree murder, aiding and abetting second-degree murder and second-degree riot.

St. Paul Police Chief Todd Axtell wants to try out technology that detects gunfire in the streets and quickly alerts nearby officers.

ShotSpotter, which Minneapolis has used since 2007, calculates the precise location of gunshots by placing acoustic sensors throughout neighborhoods. Law enforcement officials can see a map marking the source of the gunfire, as well as information about the number of shots fired, type of gun used and whether the shooter is on the move.

It would cost St. Paul around $250,000 per year for a single hardware site. Axtell wants as many as three sites, which would cover nine square miles for $750,000 per year.

“It would be good to at least start in one area to study the effectiveness,” Axtell told the City Council on Wednesday in a wide-ranging presentation in preparation for next year’s budget.

Overall, reports of shots fired in St. Paul are down 20.5 percent for the first six months of 2019 compared with the same period last year.

Council members said while ShotSpotter’s price tag gives them pause, they are eager to see the technology deployed in neighborhoods where violent crime is a persistent concern.

They urged the department to continue to look into possibilities for grant funding.

“Those of us who represent areas that are likely in that nine-mile radius are more than ready,” Council President Amy Brendmoen said.

Mayor Melvin Carter will unveil his 2020 budget proposal Aug. 15, after which the council will negotiate changes before final adoption in December.

A MORE DIVERSE FORCE

Axtell’s presentation Wednesday also touched on diversity in the department he’s led since June 2016.

“Much has changed over the past year,” he said. “We’re becoming more diverse … more efficient, more effective, more transparent and more responsive to community needs.”

Half of those enrolled in the next police academy, which convenes in the fall, are young — many of them young people of color — and have completed a yearlong Law Enforcement Career Path Academy funded entirely through AmeriCorps and nonprofit partners.

In addition, the department employs four community engagement specialists of color who do targeted outreach to Muslim religious leaders, a Latino parents group, Hmong shopping vendors and recent Karen immigrants from what is now Myanmar, among other community groups.

Axtell noted, however, that a disproportionate number of shots fired are reported in areas of concentrated poverty.

“We can’t dump it all on the shoulders of the cops and say the cops are racist,” Axtell said. “We have to have honest conversations about why people are getting into the criminal justice system.”

He made no mention of seeking additional manpower on the streets. The department employs 612 sworn officers, out of an authorized force of 635.

CHANGES TO K-9, MENTAL HEALTH TEAM

The chief noted that the police K-9 unit has instituted 35 of 38 changes recommended by an independent audit that followed a series of high-profile legal cases, including refocusing the unit’s work on tracking guns and violent offenders on the run rather than everyday policing. “We took the audit to heart,” he said.

A six-officer mental health unit formed in March 2018 continues to evolve, recently taking the name the Community Outreach and Stabilization Unit (COAST) to reflect its broader new mission, which includes outreach to the homeless. Axtell said one goal is to reduce the number of repeat calls involving the same people in need of emergency public services.

Members of the recently-disbanded mounted patrol unit have joined the city’s traffic enforcement and patrol units, Axtell said. That’ll give them more manpower to enforce a new statewide ban, effective Aug. 1, on holding a cellphone while driving.

COUNCIL CONCERNS

Council members expressed some concern about recent turmoil — including two high-profile resignations — within the Police Civilian Review Board, which has been housed under the city’s Human Rights and Equal Economic Opportunity department since leaving the police department in early 2017.

“I don’t currently feel confident that we are headed for a better future,” she said.

Council members also expressed confusion about why both the police department and the St. Paul Department of Safety and Inspections offer trainings on landlord rights and responsibilities. The police chief said he would look into it.

Even now, a year later, the stories about corrections officer Joseph Gomm keep coming.

Gomm, who was killed by an inmate at the Stillwater prison on July 18, 2018, once went to a grocery store and bought enough meat to fill the freezer of a fellow corrections officer in need, said Audrey Cone, his younger sister.

His co-worker was “going through a divorce and couldn’t afford to feed his family a Christmas dinner,” she said. “So Joe went out and bought this guy a whole bunch of meat. … Joe said, ‘Either you take it or I’m going to put it in your car, but you need to feed your family.’ ”

At 1 p.m. Thursday, the Minnesota Department of Corrections will host a “Ceremony of Remembrance” to honor Gomm, a 16-year veteran of the department. The ceremony, which is open to the public, will be held near the flagpole on the lawn of the historic warden’s house at 970 Pickett St. in Bayport, just across the street from the prison.

Gomm moved to Minnesota from Bucksport, Maine, about 18 years ago, following his sister and brother-in-law, Angela and David Wood, and his mother, Gloria Gomm. Cone followed about six years ago; she and her husband, Chris, live in St. Francis.

Family members from Maine will be in town to attend the ceremony, which will be led by DOC Chaplain Marty Shanahan. A moment of silence will be held, and a bench and rock monument in honor of Gomm will be unveiled.

“It’s going to be hard for all of us,” said Audrey Cone, 44, who works for the state of Minnesota. “We take it day by day. Every day is different.”

Cone said the family visits Gomm’s grave at Roselawn Cemetery in Roseville on every major holiday.

“The funeral wasn’t the end of it,” she said. “It was actually just the beginning for us, as a family, because we had to go through his house, his car, all the financial stuff.”

“It’s been quite the roller-coaster ride,” added Chris Cone, 51, a service manager for a laser manufacturer. “It’s not going to end anytime soon. It’s been extremely hard on the family.”

WAITING FOR THE TRIAL

Gomm, 45, was attacked and killed while working in the prison’s industry building. Inmate Edward Muhammad Johnson, 43, who was serving a 29-year term for killing his girlfriend in 2002, has been charged with murder in connection with the crime.

Johnson is scheduled to appear at 1:30 p.m. Friday in Washington County District Court in Stillwater; his trial is slated to begin Sept. 9.

That date can’t come soon enough, Audrey Cone said.

“It doesn’t change the outcome,” she said. “It’s not bringing Joe back. (But) the quicker it goes, the better, so we can get closure and heal.”

FAMILY’S GOAL: NEVER AGAIN

The family is pushing for a life sentence for Johnson — the maximum available under state law.

“Ultimately, the justice for Joe for us as a family … is for this to never happen again,” Chris Cone said. “That would be the ultimate justice. And him to never be forgotten.”

On Aug. 1, about six miles of Minnesota Highway 95 between Interstate 94 in Lakeland and Minnesota 36 in Oak Park Heights will be renamed “Corrections Officer Joseph Gomm Memorial Highway.” “That was a very nice gesture on the state’s part,” Chris Cone said. “We really appreciate that.”

Said Audrey Cone: “For Joe to have touched so many lives and people that don’t know him, never knew him … it’s been very overwhelming. He will never be forgotten.”

Mike Padden, the attorney representing Gomm’s heirs, said the family is working to “ensure that a tragedy like this doesn’t happen again.”

Gomm “is the poster person for … making it clear that you need heroes like this to watch over the convicted,” according to Padden. “Every single moment they’re in these facilities, with these types of people, they’re at risk.”

Gomm’s death “really conveyed to the public the risks that these men and women face,” Padden said. “Sometimes it takes a tragedy to make things change.”

ATTACKS ON STAFF DECREASING

Changes are already occurring, according to DOC officials. There were 156 discipline convictions for assaults on prison staff in the 12-month period ending June 30, a 17 percent drop from the 188 assault convictions logged the year before.

“It’s trending in the right direction,” said Commissioner Paul Schnell, who took over the department in January.  “We’re making progress, but we have a lot of work still to do.”

Gomm’s death impacted corrections officers “in terms of reconsideration or recommitment to safety protocols and practices and watching out for one another and really thinking through the things we do,” he said. “That does make a big difference, and we are realizing the benefit of that.”

Recruiting and hiring more staff also has become a priority. The department is working on becoming more competitive with wages and expediting the hiring process by “doing more hiring more at the correctional facility level,” he said. “That’s making a big difference in the numbers of people we’ve been able to attract and get hired.”

WOULD BODY CAMERAS HELP?

One other change under consideration: the addition of body cameras.

“They would provide better information about what’s happening and, ultimately, we think it could have an impact in terms of behavior,” Schnell said.

“We want this to never happen again,” he said. “The challenge is that while there are a lot of things we can do to bolster safety and security … we also have to acknowledge that there is no guaranteeing, 100 percent, the safety of people who do this work.”

“There is no simple one answer,” he said. “It’s not cameras, but cameras are a part of it. It’s not increased staffing, but increased staffing is a part of it. It’s all of these things together that makes a difference.”

The Diocese of Crookston has reached a $5 million settlement with 15 people who were children when they were sexually abused by priests.

As part of the settlement, the Minnesota diocese agreed to make public the names and files of clergy who have been accused of abuse. That information will be released at a later date.

Victims’ attorney Jeff Anderson said Wednesday that the settlement brings some closure for survivors and is a step in the right direction. The diocese says that while victims can never be fully compensated, it hopes the settlement can offer healing and justice.

Most of the 15 victims sued the diocese under a 2013 law that gave victims of childhood sexual abuse a three-year window to bring lawsuits against abusers.

With the settlement, the diocese avoided filing for bankruptcy.

A Lino Lakes man who admitted he hacked into state government databases in 2017 because he was angry after a police officer was acquitted of fatally shooting Philando Castile has been sentenced to five years of probation.

Cameron Thomas Crowley, 20, was sentenced Wednesday after pleading guilty in March to one count of intentional access to a protected computer.

Crowley admitted he used the screen name “Vigilance” as he attacked government databases, universities and a school district. Individuals’ names, password information, home and work addresses and telephone numbers were compromised.

He bragged about his attacks on Twitter and taunted authorities. He tweeted that the databases were targeted in retaliation for the acquittal of former St. Anthony police officer Jeronimo Yanez, who shot Castile during a 2016 traffic stop.

Crowley has apologized. He will also have to pay restitution. The amount hasn’t been determined.

GRANITE FALLS, Minn. — Authorities and a local firefighter helped stop a runaway school bus after the driver had an apparent medical emergency.

There were no children on board and no one was injured Wednesday when the bus careened down the wrong side of the road on U.S. Highway 212 near Granite Falls.

The Yellow Medicine County Sheriff’s Office says it received several 911 calls about a bus crashing into vehicles. Authorities caught up with the bus, and Deputy Eric Diekmann drove in front of it with his squad car to warn other drivers. He used his brakes to slow the bus down.

Granite Falls firefighter Greg Meyer then jumped from his personal vehicle, opened the bus door and put it in park.

The 70-year-old driver was taken to the hospital. His condition was unknown.

A 19-year-old Savage man serving a jail sentence for sex with an underage girl is now charged with sexually assaulting a University of St. Thomas student in what began as a consensual encounter.

The 18-year-old student told police she’d been talking to Noah Daniel Stowell on Snapchat for a few weeks when he reached out around 2 a.m. Nov. 10 and asked if he could come to her dorm room after a fraternity party, according to court documents.

The woman agreed, and the two reportedly began making out shortly after he arrived in her dorm room.

They eventually started having consensual sex, but at some point the woman’s stomach became upset so she asked Stowell to stop, she told police.

Stowell ignored her, even after she began crying and repeatedly asked him to stop, according to a criminal complaint filed Thursday in Ramsey County District Court charging him with third- and fifth-degree criminal sexual conduct.

Stowell eventually did stop, but he refused to leave the woman’s room until he’d sexually satisfied himself, the complaint said.

After he left, the woman told a friend what had happened and went to Regions Hospital for a sexual assault examination.

Police interviewed the friend, as well as another woman who was inside the residence hall that night and reportedly saw the victim outside her dorm room repeatedly asking Stowell to leave.

Stowell declined to speak with police about the allegations, the complaint said.

JAILED FOR SEX WITH TEEN

In January, Stowell pleaded guilty in a separate sexual misconduct case involving a 14-year-old girl.

In that case, Stowell persuaded the girl to have sex with him in his parents’ basement after taking her out to a movie in November 2017. The girl told police Stowell, who then was 18, knew she was 14 and that she felt uncomfortable during their entire encounter, court documents say.

Stowell was sentenced in April to 75 days in jail and five years of probation for third-degree criminal sexual conduct.

He was told to report to the Scott County Jail on July 8 and is now in custody. No attorney was listed in court records.

The University of St. Thomas said Thursday that it has no record of Stowell ever attending the university.

“When St. Thomas receives a report of sexual assault involving our community, the University promptly responds by providing resources and support to the reporting party and taking measures to investigate and protect the safety of the campus community. St. Thomas cooperates with law enforcement investigations,” the statement read.

One by one on Thursday afternoon, family and friends of corrections officer Joseph Gomm filled a large badge-shaped piece of wood with red roses and white carnations.

When they were finished, the flowers encircled the words: “You’ll never be forgotten.”

Gomm, who was beaten to death by an inmate on July 18, 2018, was honored and remembered at a ceremony outside the Stillwater prison to mark the one-year anniversary of his death.

“Joe did not die in vain,” the Rev. Martin Shanahan, the chaplain at the Stillwater prison, told the 400 or so people in attendance. “He continues to transform us. His death has been the catalyst of change, the agent of revitalization and the bearer of new visions.”

Shanahan told members of Gomm’s family — many of whom traveled from Maine for the ceremony — that he planned to live up to the promise he made them when he presided at Gomm’s funeral service last year.

“I made a commitment and a promise to you and to our brother Joe … that Joe will never ever be forgotten and neither will any of you,” he said.

To that end, Shanahan said, a bronze plaque mounted on a boulder across the street from the Minnesota Correctional Facility — Stillwater in Bayport will forever honor Gomm “so that no one will forget his service, his dedication, his integrity and his authenticity,” Shanahan said.

A rock with a plaque honoring Corrections Officer Joseph Gomm was unveiled today outside the #Stillwater prison. Today marks the one-year anniversary of his death. pic.twitter.com/NGM4nolAsJ

— Mary Divine (@MaryEDivine) July 18, 2019

The ceremony also included a scripture reading and the songs “O Healing River,” “On Eagle’s Wings” and “America the Beautiful.”

Gomm, 45, was attacked and killed while working in the prison’s industry building. Inmate Edward Muhammad Johnson, 43, who was serving a 29-year term for killing his girlfriend in 2002, has been charged with murder in connection with the crime.

Johnson was to have appeared in Washington County District Court on Friday, but a judge on Thursday granted a continuance until late August. Nicholas Hydukovich, assistant Washington County Attorney, said he requested the continuation because a second evaluation to determine whether Johnson is competent to stand trial is still in progress. No trial date has been set.

Shanahan stressed that the men serving time inside the prison did not take Gomm’s life.

“Joe was killed by one man, not 1,600 men,” he said. “I have seen a growing realization that those entrusted to our custody and care are hurting just as much as we. I have had many offenders over this year ask if there was any way they could let everyone know how sorry they are, and how much they are hurting because of Joe’s death, and how much of a loss it was for them.”

Family and friends of Corrections Officer Joseph Gomm filled a badge with flowers in his honor this afternoon during a ceremony outside the #Stillwater prison. Today marks the one-year anniversary of his death. pic.twitter.com/dAczTmICNT

— Mary Divine (@MaryEDivine) July 18, 2019

“The opposite of love, my friends, is not hate,” he said. “But rather the opposite of love is fear. I trust and I hope that we will continue to step forward in love and not in hate.”

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz did not attend the ceremony, but he released a statement saying his thoughts were with Gomm’s friends and family “as they continue to grapple with this tragedy.”

“No one should fear being assaulted or killed in their place of work,” Walz said in his statement. “I am committed to making our correctional facilities safer for employees and inmates by hiring more staff and encouraging programs that decrease violence. Officer Gomm’s legacy is not forgotten.”

Gomm’s sisters on Thursday said they were deeply moved by the ceremony.

“I’m very overwhelmed and trying to keep it together,” Angela Wood said. “He is dearly, dearly missed by everybody.”

Cone said she expects her family will gather every July 18 to mark the anniversary of Gomm’s death. In addition to visiting his gravestone at the Roselawn Cemetery in Roseville, she said she expects that they will visit his memorial rock and bench near the flagpole outside the warden’s house at the Stillwater prison.

“We’ll come have a little picnic with him,” she said.

Gunner McClellan broke down inside a Ramsey County courtroom Friday morning after a jury found him guilty of first-degree assault for causing a traumatic brain injury to a Little Canada man he punched outside the Minnesota State Fair last summer.

The 22-year-old’s shoulders shook as his attorney, Earl Gray, asked the judge to let his client stay at his parents’ house as he awaits sentencing because this was his first offense.

Ramsey County District Judge Sara Grewing refused, and deputies took McClellan into custody as family members sobbed or stormed out of the courtroom.

The verdict was emotional, too, for the victim’s family and friends. Mike Donnelly’s girlfriend cried after it was announced. Another supporter proclaimed “Yes!”

McClellan claimed self-defense during the three-day trial, painting Donnelly and his two friends as the aggressors when they squared off with McClellan and his friend outside the fairgrounds Sept. 1.

He testified that he hit Donnelly only after the 49-year-old first swung at him and missed. He couldn’t retreat, he said, because he didn’t want to abandon his buddy, who was getting pummeled by Donnelly’s friend.

PROSECUTION: MCCLELLAN THE ‘AGGRESSOR’

The state’s witnesses testified otherwise, including the two friends Donnelly went to the Fair with that night, both men in their late 40s.

They said the three of them were walking back to their car around midnight when they passed a house on Breda Avenue with several young men and women gathered in the front yard.

McClellan and Garrett Goskey were among them, having gone to the Fair that night and bumping into the rest of the crew on their way out.

The two groups exchanged words as they passed by the house. Gray argued that one of Donnelly’s friends set things off by hurling a gay slur at the younger crew. Ramsey County Assistant Attorney Daniel Rait said it was the other way around.

It was undisputed that McClellan and Goskey got mad and decided to take off after the older men as they kept walking. They taunted them, following them for two blocks, Rait said.

“Any way you slice it, (McClellan) is the initial aggressor here,” Rait told the jury in his closing argument.

At some point, one of Donnelly’s friends decided he’d had enough and turned around to confront them.

A fight ensued between one of the older men and Goskey until McClellan suddenly punched Donnelly in the face, Rait said.

He described the blow as a “vicious … sucker punch,” that caused Donnelly to “(fall) like a tree,” and hit his head on the concrete.

McClellan and Goskey took off running as Donnelly’s friend yelled: “You are all witnesses to a murder. He’s not breathing.”

A young woman who’d been with the defendant that night testified that the group fled because they were “scared (McClellan) killed Donnelly.”

Neither McClellan nor Goskey told police about what had happened until days later when they were contacted by an investigator.

DEFENSE: ‘A RIGHT TO USE REASONABLE FORCE’

The defense argued that McClellan had tried to make peace with the older men after following them, even shaking one’s hand before the three men suddenly charged at them.

As one of Donnelly’s friends was attacking Goskey, Donnelly swung at McClellan, Gray told the jury.

“It’s not that complicated. If someone swings at you, you are going to swing back if you can’t get away real quick,” Gray said during his closing argument. “You have a right to use reasonable force when someone comes at you.”

Gray said it’s absurd to argue his client was the aggressor against a 6-foot-3-inch, 240-pound man.

The only reason his client’s punch sent him to the ground was because the older man was drunk and had poor balance at the time, Gray argued.

DEFENSE WILL ARGUE FOR NO PRISON TIME

Gray expressed bewilderment to McClellan’s family as he huddled with them after the verdict and said he’d argue McClellan shouldn’t be sent to prison when he is sentenced Sept. 18.

He declined to make a public comment about the outcome.

State sentencing guidelines recommend a six- to nine-year sentence for defendants convicted of first-degree assault with no prior criminal record.

VICTIM’S INJURIES PERMANENTLY CHANGED HIM

Donnelly’s girlfriend testified at trial that although he survived his injuries, the man she fell in love with and has known since grade school is “essentially dead.”

He had portions of his skull removed following the assault to reduce swelling on his brain and was hospitalized for about a month.

He’s since returned to part-time work as a plumber, but he’s permanently lost his sense of smell, suffers from recurring headaches and has undergone personality changes.

“We don’t do anything anymore. He doesn’t do anything,” his girlfriend said. “He was the most active, hardworking (guy) …”

“He is just so flat now,” she continued. “He used to always smile … I always called him my gentle giant.”

Randy Donnelly said that four weeks after his brother’s brain injury, the two were watching the Vikings on TV when the longtime season ticket holder looked up confused and asked: “When did they start playing football on grass?”

A prosecutor has decided officers were legally justified when they fatally shot an armed passenger who had opened fire on them during an April traffic stop.

Coon Rapids police officer Alex Hattstrom and Anoka County sheriff’s deputy Christopher Vitek Jr. both fired their guns during the April 18 confrontation. The explanation for the decision by Dakota County Attorney James Backstrom noted John Duane Fairbanks, 40, of Cass Lake, had fired at the officers and did not comply with demands to drop the gun.

“Although I have concluded that the use of deadly force by the law enforcement officers was legally justified in this instance, any loss of life is a tragic occurrence, and I wish to express my sympathy to the family and friends of John Duane Fairbanks, whose life was lost in this incident,” Backstrom said in a prepared statement Thursday.

Fairbanks was a passenger in a car that was stopped by police at about 1:30 a.m. on Foley Boulevard at 98th Lane Northwest. He got out of the vehicle and fled, firing a gun at the officers as he ran, police said.

Fairbanks’ gun was recovered at the scene, according to the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.

Because an Anoka County sheriff’s deputy was involved, Backstrom was asked to review the BCA investigation to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest.

A St. Paul man faces around 15 years in prison after admitting he stabbed a woman and left her lying naked in a pool of blood in his bathroom last year.

George Dudley, 30, pleaded guilty to first-degree assault Wednesday in Ramsey County District Court.

Prosecutors agreed to drop a rape charge as part of a plea agreement that calls for a longer sentence than is typical for assault convictions. Dudley is expected to be sentenced Sept. 11 to 15 years in prison, which is five months more than the high end of the state’s guidelines.

The victim told police she had met Dudley at the Metro Transit center on Lake Street in Minneapolis on Nov. 24, bought alcohol with him at a liquor store and joined him at his home in the 1600 block of Van Buren Avenue in St. Paul, court documents say.

That’s where he raped her and beat her with his closed fists, she said.

Dudley called police around 2 a.m. that night and said a woman he didn’t know was wounded in his bathroom, according to the criminal complaint.

Police found the woman bleeding from several stab wounds to the right side of her head, chin and shoulder. A large, bloody butcher knife was on the kitchen counter.

The woman appeared to have been lying in her blood for a while, court documents say.

She was rushed into surgery and received a blood transfusion while police questioned Dudley and his three roommates.

Prosecutors opted for a plea deal to “spare the victim of having to recount her victimization at trial,” said Dennis Gerhardstein, spokesman for the Ramsey County attorney’s office.

Dudley has a history of violent crimes, including three convictions for domestic assault, two for violating protection orders and one for fifth-degree assault, according to court records.

In one instance, he threatened and choked a past girlfriend, holding his hands around her neck for about 10 seconds.

As part of his deal with the state, Dudley did not have to address the rape allegations when he entered his guilty plea Wednesday.

Dudley’s attorney did not return a call for comment.

Robert Bursik missed his daughter’s wedding, the birth of his first grandchild and his eldest son’s college graduation.

He will never again get to take his youngest son to the train museum or to the zoo or go camping or teach him how to fish.

“I miss my dad’s laugh,” Ian, 8, said in a statement read by his mother, Jessica, at the sentencing of Samuel W. Hicks on Friday. Hicks was the driver of the semi-tractor trailer who rear-ended and killed Bursik, 54, of Amery, Wis., at a red light on Minnesota 36 in Lake Elmo last year.

“I miss us going to places together and hanging out. I feel sad most of the time. It was fun hanging out with my dad.”

For nearly 50 minutes Friday morning, family members and friends of Bursik sat in a courtroom in Stillwater and spoke of the sorrow, anguish and pain Hicks inflicted on them. Hicks pleaded guilty in April to a charge of criminal vehicular homicide.

Washington County District Judge Greg Galler on Friday sentenced Hicks to four years in jail, which will be stayed, and 10 years of probation. As a condition of the stayed sentence, he will serve 365 days in the Washington County Jail with credit for two days served.

In addition, Hicks must work with the Minnesota State Patrol and participate in public service announcements and community outreach and education regarding distracted driving.

FAMILY DETAILS LOSSES

Before Hicks was sentenced, Bursik’s brother Paul Bursik told the courtroom how he will never again get to go to a Green Bay Packers game or go ice fishing or share an early-morning cup of coffee at the cottage with his “best friend.”

“Jaci got married last summer, and she asked me to walk her down the aisle and dance with her in place of Rob for the father-daughter dance,” Paul Bursik said. “Jaci and her husband, Matt (Davis), just had their first child, a beautiful boy. Rob would have made a great grandpa.”

In addition to missing the birth of John Robert Davis on June 13, Bursik missed son Colin’s senior year at St. Norbert’s College in De Pere, Wis. Colin was the quarterback of the school’s football team, he said.

Jaci Davis said she longs for her father’s “presence, guidance, his smile, his jokes — may they be brilliantly hilarious, wildly inappropriate, painfully dry, or just completely terrible.”

Bursik loved camping, hiking, sightseeing, traveling, gardening, cooking and “talking about life,” said Davis, of Chetek, Wis.

“My dad had this spark for life that I’ve not seen in anyone else,” she said. “He truly was the most charismatic and friendly human I’ve ever known.”

Davis said she wished she could turn to her father for guidance as to whether to forgive Hicks “and move on and live life to the fullest because my dad doesn’t have one to live anymore.”

“Or,” she asked, “do I sit in the fact that there’s a guy who decided his life was more important than the lives of everyone else around him by picking up his phone and driving?”

HICKS USING PHONE TO LOOK UP HOUSES

Video from the semi-tractor trailer’s cab shows Hicks, 29, of Independence, Wis., was looking at his cellphone for eight seconds before he slammed into Bursik’s car at 63 mph while it was stopped at Lake Elmo Avenue in February 2018.

According to the criminal complaint, Hicks was texting with his girlfriend and using the Zillow real estate app to look up information about a house.

Bursik’s Scion XB was so severely damaged it had to be towed to the Lake Elmo Fire Department, where his body was extricated, the complaint stated.

Hicks sat next to his attorney, Earl Gray, during Friday’s sentencing hearing. His girlfriend, the mother of his two children, ages 4 and 6, sat behind him.

Wearing a dark-blue suit, Hicks spoke only three sentences during the hearing.

“Can I offer an apology to the family?” he asked.

“From the bottom of my heart, I am sorry. I wish it had never happened.”

Gray asked Galler if he would delay the start of Hicks’ sentence by a week to give his client time to say goodbye to his children and inform his employer that he will not be returning to work.

Galler noted the “irony” of the request, which he declined, and Hicks was led out of the courtroom by a Washington County deputy.

‘A LEADER IN HIS COMMUNITY’

Bursick, a professor at North Hennepin Community College in Minneapolis, also was the owner and founder of Dragonfly Gardens, a nursery and greenhouse with locations in Amery and Turtle Lake, Wis.

“He was a teacher, a businessman and employer and a leader in his community,” said his brother Dan Bursik of Woodbury. “He was all that we expect in a citizen and more.”

“He was one of the nicest, most generous, nonjudgmental human beings I have ever met in my 70 years on the planet,” said Peggy LePage, a longtime friend and colleague at the school. “He passionately cared about the Earth and openly shared his love for all things green with his students.”

The night before he was killed, Bursik spent the night by Ian’s bedside at Children’s Hospital in Minneapolis. The boy, who had just turned 7, was being treated for a serious eye infection, Jessica Bursik said.

“He awaited my arrival (at the hospital) so he could drive home to Wisconsin and prepare for a test to return to Minnesota to teach,” she said. “Rob never made it to class that day.”

‘I HAVE LOST MY LIFE AND FRIEND’

Jessica Bursik, a registered nurse at Amery Hospital & Clinic who specializes in diabetes education, said she met her husband while she was a nursing student at NHCC. The couple started dating in 2006.

Hicks, she said, will serve his “brief” time in jail and “have the opportunity to live a full life as a young man and be a father to his children.

“The act of texting and driving is inherently a selfish thing,” she said. “Texting while driving a semi-truck is outrageous and should be soundly condemned by society. … Life is precious, life is short, and life can be taken from you in a flash.”

A St. Paul man declared “all-out war” against a policy adviser in the mayor’s office when the city failed to remove a homeless encampment near his home, authorities say.

Jeffrey Karl Weissbach, 62, called City Hall on July 10 about an encampment that had taken shape in front of a bridge near his home in the 300 block of Colborne Street, according to a Ramsey County criminal complaint charging him with making threats of violence, a felony.

A policy adviser fielded the call and passed on the information to city staff who work with contractors to clean up encampments, the complaint said.

Frustrated that the camp was still standing, Weissbach reportedly called back around 10 times the next day.

In one voicemail, he declared: “It’s all-out war and I will hunt you down and kill you like a dog,” according to the complaint.

A police investigator reviewed the message and called Weissbach, who admitted to angrily calling the mayor’s office and leaving multiple messages. But he denied threatening violence and claimed he was being set up, the complaint said.

Weissbach acknowledged he keeps two rifles in his house.

He was charged via warrant Friday and is yet to appear in court on the allegations.

He could not be reached for comment and no attorney was listed in court records.

Weissbach has no criminal record aside from an impaired driving conviction in 2011.