Nearly a year after a distracted driving crash that killed a woman and her daughter, a southeastern Minnesota man pleaded guilty to causing their deaths.
On Thursday, Tanner Ronald Kruckeberg, 25, of Dodge Center, pleaded guilty in Dodge County District Court to a single count of criminal vehicular homicide — operate a motor vehicle in a grossly negligent manner.
A second charge is expected to be dismissed during his sentencing, the date of which has not been scheduled.
According to the Minnesota State Patrol, Kruckeberg was behind the wheel of a Hummer H3 that struck a Mercury Milan from behind about 7 a.m. Sept. 7 near Claremont, instantly killing one passenger in the Mercury, fatally injuring the car’s driver and seriously injuring another passenger.
Rachel Harberts, 43, and her daughter, Emerson, 8, both of Dodge Center, died as a result of the crash. Harberts’ son, Jaxon, who was 12 at the time, survived the crash.
“I was on my phone long enough to be distracted,” Kruckeberg said in court Thursday of the moments before the crash.
A crash reconstruction determined there were no signs that Kruckeberg tried to brake or swerve before the collision.
A motorcyclist was killed in an early Friday morning crash in Ham Lake.
Anoka County Sheriff deputies responding to a call in the 2300 block of Northeast Bunker Lake Boulevard just before 3 a.m. found the lone rider of the motorcycle dead. The motorcyclist apparently struck a parked vehicle, according to a prepared statement by the sheriff’s office.
While the crash remains under investigation, initial information shows the motorcycle was traveling east on Bunker Lake Boulevard when it left the roadway and struck the vehicle, the statement said.
A ride-share driver is accused of sexually touching a 20-year-old woman he picked up from St. Paul for a ride, according to a criminal complaint filed Thursday.
The Ramsey County attorney’s office has charged Adamu Tesgera Fida of Minneapolis with fifth-degree criminal sexual conduct — non-consensual sexual contact. The charge is a gross misdemeanor.
According to the criminal complaint, the woman told police she ordered a ride from Lyft on June 10 and asked to be dropped off in Minneapolis.
The app showed “Adamu” would be picking her up and police later identified him as Fida, 38.
When the vehicle arrived, she started toward the backseat, but Fida asked her to sit up front. He told the young woman “he was infatuated with her … what a ‘beautiful girl’ she was” and that it was “love at first sight,” according to the complaint.
The woman reported that he reached over and, over her clothing, rubbed his hand across her chest and “grabbed” her breast, the complaint said. He also rubbed his hand on her inner thigh over her clothes.
“He asked if he could pull off the road, indicating he wanted to continue his sexual touching of her,” the complaint said. The woman told him to take her to her destination, but once there, he kissed her on the lips.
She tried to step out of the car, though he grabbed her arm and she had to pull away hard.
The woman told police Fida “appeared very strong,” the complaint said. “She was intimidated by him and felt frozen.”
NO LONGER A LYFT DRIVER
The next day, when the woman went to work at Rosedale Center, she saw Fida in her section of the store. He was watching and following her, according to the complaint. She was shocked and didn’t know how he found out where she worked.
When police talked to Fida on June 13 and showed him a photograph of the woman, he said he recognized her and she sat in the backseat during the ride. He said he had not touched or kissed the woman.
Police asked Fida if he went to the mall, looking for the woman, but he said he was there to shop for an item for his wife.
Police also asked Fida if he touched the woman’s clothing and he said he did not. “Told about DNA, he put his head in his hands and sighed,” the complaint said. “Asked what happened in the car, Fida said, ‘Only this one time.'” He said he had touched her hair and hand.
A Lyft spokesman said in a statement, “Safety is fundamental to Lyft. The behavior described is frightening, and the driver’s access to Lyft has been permanently removed. We stand ready to assist law enforcement in every way we can.”
A warrant has been issued for Fida’s arrest. An attorney for him was not listed in a court file.
Sean Windingland, 30, pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct. Sentencing guidelines suggest a 12-year prison sentence, but the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office sought double the time due to aggravating factors.
Sean Windingland
Ramsey County District Court Judge Judith Tilsen sentenced Windingland on Wednesday to 24 years for one of the charges and 12 years for the other, which he’ll serve consecutively.
Most of the sexual assaults happened at Windingland’s parents’ St. Paul residence.
Windingland posted videos of him talking to the girls about his sexual contact with them and asking them questions about it. People from all over the country saw the videos and contacted police.
Windingland, who was charged in March, told police he posted videos of the girls on pornographic and “pedophile” websites. He said he had deleted 40 to 50 photos and videos of a sexual nature after he realized police were looking for him, according to a criminal complaint.
Prosecutors sought a longer sentence for Windingland because the acts were committed in the presence of another child, there were multiple forms of sexual contact, and “the acts were done with particular cruelty, including being memorialized in photographs and videos that were distributed to others and shared on the internet with an unquantifiable audience,” according to a court filing by the Ramsey County attorney’s office.
Windingland’s attorney did not return a call seeking comment.
Authorities in Canada and far northern Minnesota are urging residents to avoid contact and call police if they see a former Canadian Armed Forces reservist with alleged ties to a hate group.
Patrik Mathews, 26, has been missing for two weeks and was last seen by family members in Beausejour, northeast of Winnipeg, on Aug. 24, according to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Canadian authorities found his truck Monday on rural property in Piney, near the U.S.-Canadian border.
Patrik Mathews
Authorities on both sides of the border continued searching for Mathews on Friday. They have been warning the public that Mathews should not be approached.
Mathews went missing after the Winnipeg Free Press reported last month that he has alleged ties to a hate group.
According to the Canadian Department of National Defence, the military’s intelligence unit has been investigating Mathews for “possible racist extremist activities” for several months.
Department spokeswoman Jessica Lamirande did not elaborate on the investigation, which she described as broad, and would not confirm whether Mathews has ties to a specific hate group.
Mathews, who had been a reservist with the Canadian Armed Forces since 2010, requested to leave the military in April and was relieved of duty Aug. 30. As a reservist, he had worked part-time. Mathews, a master corporal, was never deployed.
Mathews hasn’t been charged with a crime and there is no warrant for his arrest. Law enforcement seized a number of weapons from his house and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police has said Mathews’ family is concerned for his well-being.
The RCMP said in a statement that the man “may be under a significant amount of pressure” due to the investigation and media coverage. It said anyone who sees Mathews should call police immediately and avoid engaging with him.
In Minnesota, Kittson County Sheriff Mark Wilwant said there’s a concern for public safety because of Mathews’ “ideologies.” The Roseau County Sheriff’s Office posted a message to its Facebook page warning residents not to approach Mathews.
Roseau County Sheriff Steve Gust said the public is keeping an eye out for Mathews. Gust said while there is no cause for alarm and nothing indicating Mathews is in his area, authorities are still taking precautions.
“I don’t know what he’s capable of doing,” he said.
The shooting was the eighth in St. Paul since last Friday, and the second homicide in that time period.
On Saturday at 1:15 a.m., officers were dispatched after numerous people called 911 to report shots fired, said Sgt. Mike Ernster, a St. Paul police spokesman. Police found a crime scene and evidence of a shooting.
Officers learned people had already left with the wounded man to drive him to Regions Hospital in a private vehicle.
Medical staff tried to save the man, but he died a short time after arriving at the hospital. He sustained gunshot wounds to his torso, Ernster said.
No one had been arrested as of Saturday morning. Homicide investigators were canvassing the area, working to determine what led to the shooting and who was responsible.
“As usual, they are coming up against some resistance with witnesses trying to come forward and talk to them,” Ernster said. “… We need to hear from people and we need to know what happened out there for our community.”
Ernster encouraged anyone with information to call 651-266-5650 and said people can remain anonymous.
Police said they will release the name of the man who was killed, in the city’s 16th homicide of the year, after the Ramsey County medical examiner’s office confirms his identity.
There have been 108 people wounded or killed in shootings in St. Paul this year, compared to 90 through the end of August last year, according to the police department.
“I don’t know if frustrating is a strong enough word,” Ernster said. “I might even say for officers on the street it would be infuriating. One shooting is too many; 108 is mind boggling. … Gun violence itself tears at the fabric of communities, it rips families apart, it rips neighborhoods apart, it makes people feel unsafe in their homes.”
Ernster asked people to work together with police, including calling them if they know of people illegally carrying guns.
“Call us beforehand, so we can get ahead of some of this stuff and hold the people involved with these gun crimes responsible,” he said.
On Friday, Mayor Melvin Carter said, “Violence of any kind in our community is unacceptable.”
“Addressing the root causes that lead people to brazenly threaten our public safety as they have in the past week starts long before our first responders arrive on scene,” he wrote in a Facebook post. “We need to continue to invest in approaches that proactively create the conditions in our community where we have to call 911 fewer times in the first place and ensure all of us can access the support, resources, and opportunity that our city has to offer.”
A Somerset High School health teacher who drove a 15-year-old student from a sporting event to her Minnesota home allegedly to rape him faces seven felonies relating to sexual misconduct that spanned the final three months of 2018, according to a criminal complaint filed in St. Croix County Circuit Court.
Talia Jo Warner, 23, Lake Elmo, Minn., was charged Aug. 28 with second-degree sexual assault of a child, use of a computer to facilitate a child sex crime, child enticement, causing a child older than 13 to view sexual activity, two counts of exposing genitals, pubic area or intimate parts to a child and exposing a child to harmful material, according to court records.
Talia Jo Warner poses for a photo as a new staff member last year in front of Somerset High School. The former Somerset High School teacher was recently charged with seven felonies related to a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old student, according to a criminal complaint filed in St. Croix County Circuit Court. (Forum News Service file photo)
A warrant for Warner’s arrest was issued the same day. According to court records, she was scheduled to make her first appearance Thursday, Sept. 5.
A personnel approval included in the Somerset School Board agenda from the April 1 meeting lists Warner’s replacement. An attached recommendation letter indicates Warner’s replacement had been doing the job since the beginning of February.
Allegations of the assault first reached district officials Jan. 15, 2019, according to charging documents.
In a statement emailed to RiverTown Multimedia, the district “will not be discussing or commenting extensively” on the matter due to privacy concerns.
“When the District first learned of the potential allegations, Ms. Warner was removed from the classroom and the District undertook a full investigation and has cooperated with law enforcement through this process,” the release states, and Warner’s resignation took effect Feb. 11. “District staff appreciate the support of the community during this difficult time, and also want to thank the community for respecting the privacy of the alleged victim.”
According to the complaint:
From sometime in October 2018 through the end of December 2018, a 15-year-old sophomore at Somerset High School received roughly 10 pictures and videos from Warner, which included one video of her performing a sex act on herself, the student told authorities.
The teacher and student had two encounters outside of school — once in her car down the street from his house and once more at her house.
On Jan. 15, a teacher and students alerted Somerset School District officials of Warner’s contact with the student. Warner later resigned due to the allegations.
“Based on the information received, Somerset School District officials believed the information was false and investigated the incident before law enforcement was contacted,” the complaint states. “Several persons were interviewed prior to law enforcement including Warner and several others that brought this information forward.”
The student was interviewed four times throughout the investigation — the first was by the school in which he denied any inappropriate contact with Warner and the subsequent three with law enforcement during which he admitted to the contact.
The student told police Warner picked him up Dec. 14, 2018, after a sporting event and the two drove back to her former White Bear Lake, Minn., home and had sex in her bedroom.
Authorities reviewed Snapchat records and found messages between the teacher and student intensified with “sexual talk and behavior” over the months that included talk of sending nude pictures. None of the images or videos of Warner mentioned by the student were located.
Second-degree child sexual assault and use of a computer to facilitate a child sex crime carry a maximum sentence of 40 years in prison and $100,000 fine. Child enticement is punishable by up to 25 years in prison and a $100,000 fine while causing child to view sexual activity has a maximum sentence of six years imprisonment and a $10,000 fine. The remaining charges carry a sentence of not more than three years and six months imprisonment and a $10,000 fine.
An Indiana man charged with stealing about $75,000 worth of prescription drugs from Walgreens pharmacies in St. Paul and Edina has been sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Michael Iman White, 20, of Muncie, Ind., was sentenced Friday in U.S. District Court in St. Paul, according to U.S. Attorney Erica MacDonald.
During a four-month period between April and July of 2018, White used force, violence and fear of injury to rob or attempt to rob five Walgreens pharmacies. He terrorized numerous store employees by pointing actual or replica firearms at them and sometimes restraining them with zip ties.
Investigators used cellphone tower records to identify a single phone number that had been in the area of all four pharmacies when the robberies took place and found it belonged to White, according to the charges against him. They then used White’s driver’s license photo and Walgreens surveillance footage to identify him as the man involved in all four robberies, the charges said.
Police say an 11-year-old girl who may have left her South St. Paul home early Saturday to meet with someone she met online was found safe Sunday afternoon.
Authorities said no further details about where the girl was found or the circumstances will be immediately released as the investigation continues.
According to a press release sent Sunday, the girl was last seen around midnight Friday at her home in the 1400 block of Concord Street South.
She was noticed missing about 9 a.m. Saturday.
Police say she left “information behind suggesting she left willingly.”
Authorities say it appears the girl possibly had formed an “online relationship and that individual may be involved with (the girl) leaving.”
Investigators said they don’t yet have a description of that individual but will release more information if it becomes available.
RICHFIELD, Minn. — Police near Minneapolis shot and killed a driver following a chase after he apparently emerged from his car holding a knife and refused their commands to drop it.
The chase started late Saturday night in Edina and ended in Richfield with officers shooting the man, Brian J. Quinones, who had streamed himself live on Facebook during the chase.
Police responded after Quinones ran a red light and wouldn’t pull over, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported. According to emergency dispatch audio, Quinones continued running through red lights in Richfield.
After police forced the car to stop, Quinones got out holding what appears in the video to be a large knife in his left hand. In the dispatch audio, officers can be heard yelling, “Drop the knife. Drop the knife.” Shots can then be heard before they say, “Shots fired. Shots fired.”
Quinones seemed calm and expressionless during the chase, sometimes glancing in the rearview mirror. Just before the livestream, he posted on Facebook, “So sorry.”
No officers were hurt. The Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office is investigating and declined comment Sunday.
“The Edina and Richfield Police Departments express our thoughts and prayers to all those involved in this tragic incident,” the departments said in a joint release.
A crowd gathered at the scene after the shooting, which happened behind an apartment complex. Some in the crowd shouted at the police as dozens of officers lined up behind police tape to keep order.
On Sunday evening, local media outlets reported that a small group of demonstrators briefly shut down part of Interstate 494 to protest the shooting.
The Minneapolis-St. Paul area has had several police-involved shootings in recent years that have sparked angry protests, including the 2016 killing of a black driver, Philando Castile, by a police officer in the Twin Cities suburb of Falcon Heights. Castile’s girlfriend streamed the immediate aftermath of the shooting live on Facebook.
In July, top Minnesota law enforcement officials announced they were launching a working group and public hearings to find ways to prevent and respond to fatal encounters with police.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, a Democrat, and Public Safety Commissioner John Harrington are leading the 16-member group. Protesters disrupted the group’s first meeting in August, saying the group was skewed toward lawmakers and law enforcement, and needed more representation by families affected by police shootings.
The discovery of two bodies Saturday by police in a New Brighton apartment complex has been ruled a murder-suicide by the Ramsey County Medical Examiner’s Office.
Police were called to Granite Falls at Silver Lake apartments, 2160 County Road E, about 7:30 a.m. after a witness called police from a nearby gas station reporting seeing a man with a gun and hearing a gun shot.
Responding officers found Mainhia Yang, 34, in the couple’s apartment dead from an apparent gunshot wound to the head.
While they were executing a search warrant of an unattached garage on the property, investigators found her husband Ge Vang, 51, dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot.
Police had only one previous police call for service to the apartment in April 2015 for assisting the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport Police Department with a warrant that was not used.
There was no contact with the residents of the unit.
Prior police contacts with Ge Vang were traffic-related. They included a property damage motor vehicle crash reported in October 2018 as well as a citation issued in December 2014 for driving after revocation and failure to provide proof of insurance.
The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension assisted with the investigation.
A man with a lengthy criminal record including manslaughter is accused of robbing a bank in Little Canada at gunpoint last week.
Albert Leroy Burley Jr. was arrested after investigators with the Ramsey County sheriff’s office used images of the gunman pulled from neighboring businesses security systems in addition to detailed descriptions of his getaway vehicle to track him down, according to the criminal complaint filed in Ramsey County District Court Monday.
Albert Leroy Burley Jr.
Burley, 54, is charged with one count of first-degree aggravated robbery.
He walked into a US Bank branch located on the 2800 block of Rice Street in Little Canada last Tuesday armed with a gun, the complaint said.
He made off with nearly $7,000 after displaying the firearm, authorities say.
The Ramsey County Special Investigations Unit located a vehicle that matched the description of the getaway vehicle the following day and got the license plate.
They used it to track down Burley and his wife’s residence in Little Canada, and executed a search warrant there last week, legal documents say.
Burley’s wife was shown images captured of the robbery and confirmed that the vehicle spotted in the footage was her’s and that the person shown getting out of it was Burley, the complaint said.
She declined to provide further details.
Burley reportedly declined to give a statement to investigators.
His criminal history includes a 1985 conviction for manslaughter with the use of a handgun, a 1987 conviction for possession of heroin with intent to distribute, and four counts of robbery in the 1990s. All of the convictions are out of Maryland.
He has no criminal history in Minnesota.
Burley is scheduled to make his first court appearance in Ramsey County Monday afternoon.
A Minneapolis water department employee who was fired from his job went back to his workplace with plans to shoot workers, he told police, according to a criminal charge filed Monday.
When he was hospitalized at Regions Hospital in St. Paul, Michael Samuel Butler informed a sergeant he stashed two guns and three clips full of ammunition for each gun near the Minneapolis facility. The Ramsey County attorney’s office charged Butler, 48, of Minneapolis, with threats of violence in reckless disregard of the risk.
Michael Samuel Butler
Police were initially sent to the Minneapolis Public Works Water Treatment and Distribution Service after they were told a hospital patient said he had planned to shoot employees at the facility.
Officers searched the area with a K-9, but didn’t find any guns. A manager told police that Butler didn’t show up for work three days in a row and was fired a few weeks earlier.
Police took a photograph to Butler to have him narrow down the search area for the guns, but he told them, “No one is going to find it,” the complaint said. He said the bag of guns was still there when he checked on Aug. 29.
A Minneapolis police investigator went to Regions to talk with Butler on Aug. 31. Butler told him “he began to have issues with coworkers who made false allegations to supervisors” about him, according to the complaint. “Butler became angry about the situation and his anger continued to build until he was fired.”
Butler said he went on a three-day binge smoking crack and doing amphetamines and then checked himself into the hospital, the complaint said.
“Butler said he was so upset with employees and management at the Water Works facility that he was actually planning to kill them,” the complaint continued. “… Butler went back to the job site in the early morning when it opened, and he watched employees from a distance.” He said he did this on several occasions.
Butler also reported that getting high on drugs made him aggressive and he needed them “to give himself the courage to follow through on his plan,” the complaint continued. He said that after the shooting, he planned on shooting himself, so he wouldn’t be arrested again.
Butler told the investigator he paid a lot of money for the guns on the street and that they were well hidden.
The complaint doesn’t indicate the guns have been found. A Minneapolis police spokesman referred questions to the Ramsey County attorney’s office, and a representative there said he doesn’t have information beyond what’s in the complaint.
Butler was transported from the Hennepin County jail to the Ramsey County jail on Monday. An attorney for Butler was not listed in a court record.
Minneapolis City Coordinator Nuria Rivera-Vandermyde said in a statement Monday: “The safety and security of all city employees and visitors to our buildings is our top priority. The city plans to continue to expand security trainings for employees, review security measures at city properties and develop additional tools and trainings to help supervisors and staff address mental health issues.”
An 18-year-old man was killed Monday afternoon after someone fired gunshots across a busy St. Paul street. Later Monday, another man was fatally shot, marking the fourth homicide in a week in the city.
Police called the earlier shooting on Monday “an incredibly dangerous situation” on Rice Street, north of the state Capitol.
“Shooting across a street in broad daylight at 4:30 in the afternoon on the cusp of rush hour, people are coming and going,” said Steve Linders, a St. Paul police spokesman. “It’s an incredibly busy area. Schools are letting out, school buses in the area. … Another brazen shooting in the city of St. Paul and to say the least it’s maddening.”
Raumez Ross, 18, was fatally shot on St. Paul’s Rice Street on Monday, Sept. 9, 2019. (Courtesy photo)
Multiple people called 911 to report shots fired in the North End.
The man, whom relatives identified as Raumez Ross, was shot in the area of Rice Street and Winnipeg Avenue. He went inside a corner store, Winnipeg Grocery and Deli, where he died, according to police.
Police did not announce any arrests Monday night. The shooting did not appear random, Linders said.
Later on Monday night, a man was shot in St. Paul’s Payne-Phalen area. It happened about 10 p.m. at Case Avenue and Edgerton Street. Police said they were also investigating a vehicle crash there.
There has been another shooting in St. Paul. It happened a little over an hour ago at Edgerton and Case. pic.twitter.com/1yTg7oVp30
There have been a series of shootings in St. Paul since Aug. 30 that injured at least eight people.
Monday’s homicides were the 17th and 18th of the year in St. Paul.
WALKING DOWN STREET, THEN GUNFIRE
Preliminary information about the Monday afternoon shooting showed the 18-year-old was walking down the sidewalk on the east side of Rice Street when shots rang out, apparently from the west side of the street, according to Linders.
Officers rendered aid and paramedics responded but weren’t able to save Ross, police said.
Investigators noted about 30 people gathered at the scene shortly after the shooting.
“It’s possible somebody there captured the shooting on their cellphone,” Linders said. “It’s possible somebody there knows who pulled the trigger. We need somebody to tell us.”
Anyone with information is asked to call police at 651-266-5650.
Ross, whose nickname was “Mezzy,” just turned 18 in August, his aunt said. Relatives sobbed as they stood near the place where he was killed Monday.
4 HOMICIDES IN WEEK
Police said they would be releasing information early Tuesday about the homicide that happened Monday night.
They have not made arrests in the fatal shootings that happened earlier in the week.
Linders said he didn’t have information about whether Monday’s homicide was connected to Feiner’s.
“It comes down to putting the puzzle pieces together, it comes down to finding the people responsible for all of these shootings, the homicides, and figuring out what led to what and if they are connected,” Linders said.
On Sunday at about 12:20 a.m., there was another shooting about a block from where Ross was killed. In that case, a man was wounded in his foot at Rice Street and Manitoba Avenue, according to police.
SHOOTINGS RAISE DISCUSSION OF OFFICER NUMBERS
St. Paul City Council member Dai Thao, who represents the area where Ross was killed, went to where people were gathered afterward. He said he would like to see community ambassadors in the North End, and more opportunities and resources for young people.
“I think we need to be very careful about what we cut and public safety is one of those things,” Thao said Monday.
Community activist John Thompson, who was going to his friend’s cellphone store on Rice Street, also stopped to talk to people after the shooting.
He said he doesn’t think flooding the neighborhood with police officers is the answer.
“There’s a root problem and you’ve got to dig the decay out,” Thompson said. “You’ve got to put something here in this community that they want to do. … All we’ve got up and down these streets are bars and liquor stores. You’ve got to get innovative.”
A 71-year-old man is accused of pointing a long gun at a group of youth who were reportedly playing tag near his St. Paul home last weekend.
The males and females, who ranged from 11 to 15, didn’t realize the weapon — which police said was manufactured to look like a real hunting rifle — was a BB gun and they were so frightened they ran away, according to a criminal complaint filed Monday, which charges Robin Lee Frits with two counts of terroristic threats.
Robin Lee Frits (Courtesy of the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office)
After police arrested Frits on Saturday at 7:50 p.m., he told them, “So they can terrorize the neighborhood, but I’m going to jail,” the complaint said.
Police responded to a gun-pointing incident in the Payne-Phalen area and were told Frits became upset by the noise the young people were making in the alley behind his home and garage.
He yelled at them several times, “It’s time to go!,” the complaint said.
The youth ignored him and continued running around, chasing each other, and laughing and yelling in the alley on Hawthorne Avenue, a couple of blocks from Arcade Street. They ran away after Frits pointed a long gun at them, “racked” it and repeated his order to leave, the complaint said.
The young people reported the same man yelled at them in the past for playing in the alley and when they walked to school in the morning. Their residences back up to the alley where Frits’ garage is.
After police arrested Frits, he reported at least 10 kids were running through yards, the alley and at the end of his driveway.
He said they were “yelling, screaming and fighting” and “this commotion had continued for three hours,” according to the complaint. Frits said he was next to his garage when a youth asked what he was looking at and started “bad-mouthing” him, which is when he told them to leave, but they did not.
“Frits said in his ‘stupidity’ he went in his garage, picked up his long BB gun, came out the service door into his backyard, and held the BB gun in the air,” the complaint continued. He said he did not point the BB gun or make threats with it.
Frits’ only criminal history in Minnesota is a 2007 misdemeanor DWI conviction, prosecutors noted in the complaint. He remained in the Ramsey County jail Monday.
An Arden Hills man missing since Aug. 12 was found safe Monday, according to the Ramsey County sheriff’s office.
Authorities had asked for the public’s help earlier this month in locating Jacob Daniel Hornsby, 27, who had been uncharacteristically out of contact with with family.
Jacob Hornsby
No other information about the circumstances of his disappearance was available.
“There are things we are not stating because it is connected with him being in the service,” said Roy Magnuson, spokesperson for the sheriff’s office. “We know that he’s safe.”
Magnuson would not elaborate on which branch of service Hornsby may be in or the connection with his absence.
MINNEAPOLIS — The livestreamed video of the final minutes of Brian Quinones’ life before he was fatally shot by police show him calmly driving a car and listening to music, running at least one red light as he leads officers on a chase through two Minneapolis suburbs.
At one point, the video shows, Quinones got out of the car with what appears to be a knife. Moments later, someone shouted an unintelligible command and multiple shots rang out. Quinones, 30, died at the scene.
His brother said afterward that Quinones had been having suicidal thoughts.
An undated photo of 30-year-old Brian Quinones, who was fatally shot by police in suburban Richfield on Saturday, Sept. 7, 2019, after a police chase that Quinones livestreamed on Facebook. Police say Quinones confronted officers with a knife before he was shot. (Anthony Darst via AP)
The shooting sparked a protest and raised questions about whether police were too quick to shoot Quinones, and whether they could have used another means to stop him or help him if he was in crisis.
Shawn Price, 35, stopped Monday to pay his respects at a makeshift memorial near where Quinones was shot. Price says based on what he heard in Quinones’ video, the number of shots fired seemed to be “completely in excess,” and he wonders if police could have done more to de-escalate the situation.
“There was no attempt at Taser or to do any other method that would have prevented, you know, this young man’s life being taken,” Price said.
Investigators released no new information about the case Monday, including how many times Quinones was shot, or whether there was any attempt to use a stun gun. About 12 shots can be heard in the Quinones’ video.
Craig Futterman, a University of Chicago law professor, said deadly force should be a last resort and police need to assess a developing situation and look for a way to de-escalate.
“Could they have responded to the situation in different ways that would not have put their safety in danger?” Futterman asked.
He said police are trained to use tactics such as time and distance to avoid the need to use deadly force. National best practices call for training officers on how to work with people who may be in crisis. It also has become best practices for many departments to have crisis intervention teams to work with people who are in trouble.
Authorities began chasing Quinones late Saturday after they say he ran a red light and wouldn’t pull over. In the livestream video, Quinones, who is from Puerto Rico but had lived in Minnesota for many years, can be seen glancing in the rearview mirror, and sometimes rapping along with the music before he gets out of the car. Before starting the livestream, he posted on Facebook, “So sorry.”
His younger brother, Joshua Quinones, told Minnesota Public Radio News on Sunday that he spoke to his brother before the pursuit and could hear the “sadness in his voice.” He said his brother had suicidal thoughts and “had it all planned out.” After Brian hung up, Joshua and his sister went to Brian’s apartment. He wasn’t there, but they found his livestream on Facebook. Joshua Quinones said his sister had texted her brother things like, “Don’t do anything stupid.”
“I just think that (police) could have done better. At least tase him with a Taser,” Joshua Quinones told MPR. “But really, shoot him … That’s just too much.”
No police officers were hurt. The Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office is investigating and declined to comment on Monday. A statement released Sunday by the city of Edina says Quinones “confronted officers with a knife,” and the county medical examiner said Quinones died of multiple gunshot wounds.
Five officers — three from Richfield, two from Edina — were placed on paid leave, city officials said.
Quinones’ video has been removed from Facebook but portions of it are on YouTube. It doesn’t show the shooting. Authorities haven’t said whether there is squad car or body camera video of the incident.
Bob Bennett, an attorney who represents Quinones’ wife, said he wants to see those videos. He could not confirm whether Quinones’ family called police about his mental state, and Joshua Quinones declined to talk to a reporter Monday.
David Klinger, chairman of the Criminology and Criminal Justice Department at University of Missouri-St. Louis, said that while the mental state of an individual should play a factor in how police manage and control a situation, it’s immaterial when an officer is faced with an imminent threat.
“What difference does it make if the reason why a man is trying to kill you is because he hates you or because he thinks you are a demon who has been sent from another dimension … if he is trying to kill you, you have a right to protect yourself,” Klinger said.
Torri Hamilton, a civil rights attorney in Chicago, said police dispatch recordings would be key to finding out if family members called police and if police were made aware of concerns. She said any police video from squad cars or body cameras would also be important.
She pointed to the case of Laquan McDonald, who had a knife in an interaction with police in 2014, and was shot 16 times as he was walking away. In that case, Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke was convicted of murder.
“Unless they are confronted with deadly force, they cannot use deadly force,” Hamilton said.
The Minneapolis-St. Paul area has had several police-involved shootings in recent years that have sparked angry protests, including the 2016 killing of a black driver, Philando Castile, by a police officer in the Twin Cities suburb of Falcon Heights. Castile’s girlfriend streamed the immediate aftermath of the shooting live on Facebook.
The good Samaritan died at 10 p.m. Monday in the Payne-Phalen area.
Early Tuesday, a 27-year-old man was shot at Marion Street and University Avenue and later died at Regions Hospital.
“It has been a tragic week in St. Paul,” Police Chief Todd Axtell said in a Facebook post Tuesday morning. “Last night was one of the most violent nights I have witnessed in my career. Three lives were lost, three families will never be the same and our community is waking to uncertainty and fear.”
Axtell said he’s meeting Tuesday morning with the police department’s top brass “to make sure all of our resources are aligned in an effort to apprehend those responsible and to prevent any further violence.”
Between Labor Day on Sept. 2, and early Tuesday, there were five homicides in St. Paul. At least nine people have been injured in shootings since Aug. 30.
Police are investigating whether any of the incidents are connected.
“It’s certainly possible,” said Steve Linders, a St. Paul police spokesman. “It’s rare to see this type of violence in such a short period of time, so it’s possible they’re connected, but until we find the people responsible, we won’t know for sure.”
CRASH, THEN A SHOOTING
After a series of vehicle crashes at Edgerton Street and Case Avenue on Monday night, Dan Thompson’s neighbor came out of his residence to make sure everyone was OK.
That’s the kind of man he was, Thompson said of his neighbor, who leaves behind a wife and four young children.
“This good Samaritan … came out to help,” said Sgt. Mike Ernster, who is also a St. Paul police spokesman. “Unfortunately, he paid for it with his life, and our heart aches for his family.”
About 10 p.m., officers were responding to a crash involving several vehicles when they heard that gunshots were fired.
Four vehicles were involved in a crash
Witnesses reported the suspect — identified by police as Lionel Eaton — was driving south on Edgerton when he rear-ended a vehicle in front of him. That vehicle’s female driver also was heading southbound.
The force of the collision caused the woman’s vehicle to cross into the northbound lane and strike a parked vehicle, Ernster said.
Eaton’s vehicle continued south on Edgerton and also struck a parked car on the northwest corner of Edgerton and Case.
A man who lives on the block came out to try to help the people at the crash scene, Ernster said. Multiple 911 callers reported the driver — still in his vehicle — began shooting and fatally struck the man.
Thompson said he and others ran out of their homes when they heard the first shot. He ran toward his wounded neighbor and called out to him, but he could tell he “was gone immediately,” Thompson said.
The man’s wife also tried to reach her husband, but Thompson was worried about the driver still being armed in the car.
Thompson held her back behind another vehicle and the driver started shooting again — Thompson said he heard five to six more shots. They ducked and police arrived soon after.
“The world really lost a good man,” said Maya Thompson, Dan’s wife.
“He loved his family more than anything,” Dan Thompson added.
THIRD HOMICIDE OF NIGHT: MAN SHOT IN VEHICLE
On Tuesday at 12:15 a.m., officers responded to Regions Hospital where two men who had been shot arrived in a private vehicle.
The driver was treated for injuries that weren’t life-threatening, but a front-seat passenger was pronounced dead. A back-seat passenger was uninjured.
Nickey “Niko” Taylor (Courtesy photo)
Nickey Taylor was the man killed, according to his mother, who called her son “Niko.”
Investigators determined the men were in a vehicle at University Avenue and Marion Street when people in another vehicle encountered them and began firing at them, Linders said. Multiple bullets struck the car.
Police said they’re working to determine a motive and identify the suspects.
Taylor, who had a 5-year-old daughter, “was the best father,” said his mother, Milagro Rosario. She said she doesn’t understand why he was killed.
“He wasn’t into street stuff, so it makes it harder to accept this the way it is,” Rosario said.
Taylor’s older brother was the back-seat passenger who wasn’t injured, and their friend was driving. They were coming back from a friend’s surprise birthday party in South Minneapolis, Rosario said.
“People take life for granted,” said Alfredo Rosario, Taylor’s uncle. “It’s so easy to pull the trigger, but the consequences behind it … you leave a family suffering for what?”
Taylor’s homicide was the 19th of the year in St. Paul.
In addition to the three back-to-back homicides, police responded to seven confirmed reports of shots fired — with no one injured — in various parts of the city Monday and Tuesday.
Police said earlier Monday that at least 110 people have been wounded or killed by gunfire this year. There were 90 through the end of August last year.
As he rises, the Rev. Darryl Spence sends his son the same message, again and again, just in case.
“I have a 21-year-old son and every morning my first text is ‘Son, are you OK?’” said Spence, flanked by reporters and television crews outside the Golden Thyme restaurant on Selby Avenue in St. Paul. “We have to stop.”
That sentiment was repeated across the city Tuesday morning as residents woke to the news that gun violence claimed three lives in an eight-hour span.
The fatal shootings in the North End, Payne-Phalen and Frogtown were the latest in a back-to-back string of violence across the city since Labor Day.
It’s unclear how many, if any, of those incidents are related.
What is clear is that many involve young black men in their teens and 20s, the very group that Spence has spent years mentoring as the leader of the God Squad, which does outreach in low-income corners of the city. He said the tension is palpable out on the streets.
“The kids are worried,” said Spence, a former football coach at the Jimmy Lee Rec Center. “Our kids are definitely hurting. They’re afraid. The problem is they can’t show fear, because fear will get you killed on these streets.”
Dora Jones-Robinson, founder of the Rice Street-based nonprofit Mentoring Young Adults, cried as she recounted losing her adult niece to gun violence last year in Texas. She distributes lawn signs and t-shirts that say “Guns Down St. Paul,” a message she wants young people to embrace.
Jones-Robinson said some community members hesitate to reach out to law enforcement with information that can be used to catch suspects or avert future crimes because they fear being labeled or suffering retaliation. She urged anyone in that situation to reach out to her organization at 651-432-2203.
“If they don’t want to feel like they’re snitches, they can call us,” said Jones-Robinson, wiping bleary eyes. “We can walk them through it.”
LESS POLICE HIRING?
On Sept. 5, St. Paul Police said they were alarmed to report that seven people were shot in six days.
Since then, violence has continued, drawing fresh attention to St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter’s recent budget proposal, which would trim hiring within the police department next year by five officers, decreasing the department’s authorized strength from 635 to 630 officers. The total, said Carter, would still elevate the police force to record numbers.
That decision, yet to be finalized, has nevertheless drawn outrage in some corners, with many residents and candidates for St. Paul City Council demanding more officers, not fewer.
All seven city council seats will be up for election in November.
“With all the gun violence in this country, it doesn’t make sense to cut our police force,” said Council Member Dai Thao, who supports police efforts, still ongoing, to obtain ShotSpotter gunshot detection technology to track the source of gunshots. “It’s a multi-prong approach. We need jobs for youth, and the ShotSpotter. We need more resources in this community. When people are shooting each other, it’s the symptom, not the cause.”
Thao led a prayer circle on Tuesday evening in front of the Libby Law Office on Rice Street, where attorney Kirsten Libby said she witnessed the fatal shooting of Raumez Ross, 18, during rush hour the day prior.
Libby said she called 911 even before the last shot was fired, and witnessed Ross stumble across the street into the Winnipeg Grocery and Deli, where he died. Two 15-year-old suspects have been arrested in the case.
At the same time as Libby’s rally on Tuesday, Ross’ relatives and friends gathered across the street in front of a small makeshift memorial composed of candles, photos and other remembrances assembled in the Rice Street doorway of the small convenience store.
“What we have out there right now obviously is not working,” said Gidget Bailey, co-owner of Tin Cup’s on Rice Street, who witnessed an afternoon shootout on Sept. 4. “Decreasing, obviously, is not going to work either. I think we need more boots on the ground. Our police officers are stretched way too thin. Minneapolis wants to up their police officers. There’s a reason why. Stray bullets don’t have names on them.”
From left, Nathaniel “Nick” Khaliq, Dora Jones-Robinson, Rev. Darryl Spence, and Melvin Carter Jr. join hands with Mai Chong Xiong, front left, a legislative aide for St. Paul City Council member Dai Thao, following a news conference on gun violence outside Golden Thyme Coffee and Cafe. (Neal Lambert / Pioneer Press)
The mayor’s father, former St. Paul Police Officer Melvin Carter II, joined Spence and Jones-Robinson in addressing the media on Tuesday, but he said he had not discussed the recent gun violence with his son, whom he said grew up on some of the same streets most impacted by crime.
Ward 4 City Council Member Mitra Nelson said she’s seen no data showing that hiring more officers reduces violent crime.
Instead, she hopes to convene a listening session with community members about problem sites that have drawn criminal activity, with a broader discussion about streetlights, abandoned properties and other issues that could be addressed by different means.
“In this budget climate, if we say ‘yes’ to one more officer, you’re saying no to something else, like more programming for youth,” Nelson said. “If we are reactionary, and all we do is react with adding one more of one kind of tool but not the others, we’re not going to move. This is a moment that tests our values, but I still believe that we need a whole range of responses. … We’re seeing a lack of common sense actions on gun violence at the state and federal levels. We don’t live in a vacuum.”
Nick Khaliq, a former St. Paul firefighter, served on the St. Paul City Council for a period after Carter stepped down to take a job with the state of Minnesota. He urged the public to think beyond what he deemed short-term solutions.
Both in St. Paul and nationally, fatal street shootings were more prevalent in the 1980s and ’90s, and some of the resulting get-tough-on-crime approaches, such as judicial three-strikes rules, have aged poorly and have now been widely rejected, he said.
“We can go all the way back 25 or 30 years when the community demanded that there be more officers, and it was just a temporary fix,” Khaliq said. “It didn’t really resolve the problem.”
