ESPN’s Kevin Weekes gives analysis of NHL games, but on Thursday he turned his attention to an assault in downtown St. Paul that involved a man being repeatedly whipped. Weekes, who was in town for the Wild’s season finale at Xcel Energy Center, recorded the assault with his cellphone from his 16th-floor hotel room at the InterContinental Riverfront. “Well, we’ve got a situation here in Minnesota,” Weekes says in a 2-minute video he posted on the social media app X, formerly Twitter, just after 1:30 p.m. “Breaking News Not Hockey,” reads the post, which has been viewed more than 1.3 million ti ..read more

A judge has dismissed some of the most serious charges against a former Minnesota college student who police and prosecutors feared was plotting a campus shooting. Waylon Kurts, of Montpelier, Vt., who was then a student at St. Olaf College in Northfield, was charged last April with conspiracy to commit second-degree assault, conspiracy to commit threats of violence, making terroristic threats, and a less serious count of conspiracy to commit theft. Prosecutors alleged he was “planning a mass casualty event.” But Rice County Judge Christine Long this week dismissed two of the felony counts aga ..read more

The Minnesota Department of Public Safety Bureau of Criminal Apprehension and the Fillmore County Sheriff’s Office are seeking the public’s help locating a wanted fugitive. William Guy Amick III, 36, is charged in Fillmore County District Court with 13 felony counts related to child sexual abuse material including using minors in sexual performance, soliciting a child to engage in sexual conduct and possession of pornographic work involving a minor. The incidents involve multiple victims between the ages of newborn and 7 years old. William Guy Amick III (Courtesy of Washington County (Penn.) C ..read more

CLOQUET, Minn. — Eight Cloquet police officers were honored for their conduct during a Jan. 8 shooting at the Super 8 hotel that left three people dead, including the shooter. “In January of this year, tragedy struck our community, which resulted in the loss of two innocent victims,” Police Chief Derek Randall said at the ceremony during the City Council meeting on Tuesday, April 16. “Our hearts are still with those families to this day.” The sudden act of violence resulted in the deaths of Super 8 hotel clerk Shellby Marie Trettel, 22, of Cloquet, and Patrick Jeffrey Roers ..read more

LAFAYETTE, Ind. — A young pilot who died last week when a small plane crashed in northwest Indiana has been identified as a Purdue University student from Minnesota, authorities said Wednesday. Alexander Foss, 20, of Maple Grove, was identified using DNA provided by relatives as the pilot who died in the April 11 plane crash, the Tippecanoe County Coroner’s Office said. Coroner Carrie Costello said her office, the Tippecanoe County Sheriff’s Office, the National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration continue investigating the fatal crash. “Our deepest sympathies a ..read more

The adult son of U.S. Sen. Kevin Cramer pleaded not guilty Wednesday to homicide and other charges in connection with a Dec. 6 crash that killed a North Dakota sheriff’s deputy. Ian Cramer (McLean County Sheriff’s Office via AP) Ian Cramer, 43, waived his preliminary hearing and entered his not guilty plea to felony charges of homicide while fleeing a peace officer, preventing arrest, reckless endangerment and fleeing an officer, as well as three misdemeanor drug charges and other low-level offenses of driving under suspension and marijuana possession. A jury trial is scheduled for July. Crame ..read more

Authorities are investigating a fatal motor vehicle collision in Coon Rapids. According to the Anoka County Sheriff’s Office, the crash occurred at about 5:45 p.m. Tuesday at Main Street and Wedgewood Drive Northwest. The sheriff’s office said a man driving a hatchback car on eastbound Main Street entered the westbound lane and collided head-on with a westbound pickup truck. The hatchback driver, who wasn’t immediately identified, was declared dead at the scene. A man and a boy in the pickup suffered minor injuries. The collision remains under investigation by the Coon Rapids Police Department ..read more

As law enforcement agencies struggle to find new officers, St. Paul police and the Minnesota National Guard are teaming up to work on recruitment and find career paths for soldiers when they leave the service. The Army has a long-standing program called Partnership for Your Success (PaYS) that works with private industry, academia and federal, state and local government. People who are ending their service with the Army, along with Minnesota National Guard members and Reserve Officers’ Training Corps cadets, are guaranteed five job interviews for potential employment. “It serves as a bridge be ..read more

A sentencing date has been scheduled for Nicolae Miu, who was found guilty last week of fatally stabbing 17-year-old Isaac Schuman and wounding four other tubers on western Wisconsin’s Apple River in 2022. Miu, 54, of Prior Lake, will be sentenced in St. Croix County Circuit Court in Hudson at 8:30 a.m. July 31, two years and a day after his confrontation with two groups of tubers in Somerset. A jury of six women and six men deliberated for about six hours over two days last week before finding Miu guilty of first-degree reckless homicide with a dangerous weapon, four counts of first-degree re ..read more

The family of a Minnesota man who was killed by a state trooper during a traffic stop filed a federal civil rights lawsuit Wednesday, alleging that the fatal shooting was unjustified and unlawful. The lawsuit names Troopers Ryan Londregan, who shot Ricky Cobb II, and Brett Seide, who made the initial stop. Londregan, a white officer, was already facing murder charges for killing Cobb, a Black man, in what has become a politically charged case in the city where the murder of George Floyd by police nearly four years ago sparked global protests demanding racial justice. “Ricky Cobb was a producti ..read more