A 14-year-old St. Paul boy was fatally shot at a gas station in northeast Minneapolis early Friday morning, police said. Officers responded about 3 a.m. to reports of shots fired outside the gas station in the 2600 block of University Avenue Northeast. They found a 14-year-old on the ground near an SUV. Officers provided medical aid until paramedics arrived and took the boy to Hennepin County Medical Center. Fa’him Laron Miller died at the hospital about three hours later. The Hennepin County medical examiner’s office said he died of a gunshot wound to the chest. A preliminary investigation sh ..read more

By RYAN J. FOLEY, CARLA K. JOHNSON and SHELBY LUM (Associated Press) Demetrio Jackson was desperate for medical help when the paramedics arrived. The 43-year-old was surrounded by police who arrested him after responding to a trespassing call in a Wisconsin parking lot. Officers had shocked him with a Taser and pinned him as he pleaded that he couldn’t breathe. Now he sat on the ground with hands cuffed behind his back and took in oxygen through a mask. Then, officers moved Jackson to his side so a medic could inject him with a potent knockout drug. “It’s just going to calm you down,” an offic ..read more

A man shot multiple times by police Monday in a busy Woodbury shopping center was wielding a pistol-style BB gun when confronted by officers, according to the state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. The shooting happened Monday morning in the parking lot at Target in Woodbury Village, near the intersection of Interstate 494 and Valley Creek Drive. Donald Roche, 63, remains hospitalized in serious condition, the BCA said in a release with further details from the preliminary investigation. The officers who fired at him were Washington County sheriff’s deputy Brian Krook and Woodbury police offic ..read more

Twice in as many weeks, thieves have absconded — or attempted to abscond — with large bronze pieces from some of St. Paul’s most sizable parks sculptures, setting the stage for what some officials worry could be a difficult season. Police say the art thieves probably are not interested in their historic character so much as the price they’d fetch in the metal market. St. Paul Parks and Recreation Director Andy Rodriguez learned about two weeks ago that someone had run off with two large bronze plaques that for decades have adorned a war memorial on Summit Avenue. He’s still awaiting cost estim ..read more

A dog stolen from her owner in a St. Paul robbery has been found and is safe, police said Friday. Two young men approached Greta Deane in the Payne-Phalen area about 4 p.m. Wednesday and asked her about her dog. One of the suspects yanked her dog’s leash and the other shoved Deane onto the pavement, and they ran away with Clementine. The 7-year-old dog is a French bulldog-Boston terrier mix. Just after police reunited her with Clementine Friday afternoon, Deane said, “I’m just profoundly grateful and deeply thankful. I couldn’t imagine not getting her back.” She planned to take Clementine to t ..read more

By Lillian Mongeau Hughes, KFF Health News MANTI, Utah — Garrett Clark estimates he has spent about six years in the Sanpete County Jail, a plain concrete building perched on a dusty hill just outside this small, rural town where he grew up. He blames his addiction. He started using in middle school, and by the time he was an adult he was addicted to meth and heroin. At various points, he’s done time alongside his mom, his dad, his sister, and his younger brother. “That’s all I’ve known my whole life,” said Clark, 31, in December. On the day of her release from Sanpete County Jail in rural Uta ..read more

A woman feared she was going to die when a stranger broke into her St. Paul home, held a gun to her head and sexually assaulted her, according to charges filed Friday. Police reviewed residential security videos and one showed a pickup truck in the alley near the victim’s Macalester-Groveland residence at the time of the attack, and five of six license plate characters were visible. Police traced the license plate to a pickup truck registered to Deonte Marquon Thomas, 34, according to a criminal complaint. Deonte Marquon Thomas (Courtesy of the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office) St. Paul police a ..read more

The first of two men convicted in the murder of 22-year-old Alex Becker, who was shot as he returned to his St. Paul home from work, received a 30-year sentence Friday. Jurors convicted Detwan Cortell Allen, now 20, of St. Paul, in December of aiding and abetting second-degree intentional murder in the killing of Becker. Prosecutors argued he was ambushed in an apparent attempted robbery by Allen and two accomplices. Alex Becker (Courtesy of Hidy Hammarsten) The prosecution had argued for the maximum sentence allowed under state sentencing guidelines, 367 months, which is what Judge Paul Yang ..read more

The mother of an 8-month-old boy who died of a fentanyl overdose at a Roseville hotel in 2022 has been charged with manslaughter. Wynona Ann Littlewolf, 29, was charged by warrant Thursday in Ramsey County District Court with two counts of second-degree manslaughter in connection with her son’s death. Littlewolf, who is currently incarcerated at the Minnesota Correctional Facility-Shakopee on a second-degree burglary conviction out of Cass County, was listed as a resident of Cass Lake, Minn. Wynona Ann Littlewolf (Courtesy of the Minnesota Department of Corrections) According to Thursday ..read more

St. Paul police have made an arrest in a break-in and sexual assault at a home in the Macalester-Groveland area last week, the department announced Thursday. A woman told police she was sleeping when she heard someone pounding on the side door and a man she didn’t know forced entry into her home in the 300 block of South Snelling Avenue on April 15. The man robbed the woman of money, pulled out a weapon and sexually assaulted her, police said at the time. He ran away and she called 911 just before 4:30 a.m. The woman was taken to a hospital for evaluation. Police are holding a press conference ..read more