A 15-year-old boy was shot and injured while he was walking with his mother and siblings to a gas station in St. Paul on Sunday afternoon.

The incident took place around 3 p.m. as the woman and her three children were headed to the Speedway in the 300 block of Maryland Avenue, according to criminal charges  filed against an 18-year-old suspect in Ramsey County District Court.

As the family neared the gas station at Maryland and Arkwright Street, a white Ford Escape sped from the parking lot, nearly hitting them. Then gunshots rang out, according to the woman’s account to police.

While she and her children were fleeing the bullets, the woman noticed that her 15-year-old son had been hit in the left thigh when he suddenly fell to the ground.

The family took shelter at the Marathon gas station on the other side of Arkwright and called police.

The teen told officers that he noticed a male with long dreadlocks and all-black clothing shooting from the Speedway parking lot.

The shooting was caught on surveillance video, and police identified Dajuan Lamar Miller II as the suspect, according to second-degree murder charges filed against him Tuesday. Miller also was charged with ineligible possession of a firearm.

Miller was arrested Monday after Minneapolis police pulled over a “speeding” Chevrolet Impala and Miller fled from the back seat, according to the charges.

After he was chased down and apprehended, police found a 9-millimeter handgun near him. Ten 9-mm shell casings were found at the scene of the St. Paul shooting, according to the charges.

Miller is an EKB gang member, according to the charges, and was previously adjudicated guilty of first-degree burglary.

The conviction makes it unlawful for him to possess a firearm.

Miller is currently being held in Hennepin County. No attorney was listed for him in court records.

A St. Paul man is accused of unintentionally killing his mother after authorities say he gave her a dose of heroin to help her sleep after her surgery in the fall of 2018.

Police responded to an East Side residence in the 1200 block of Etna Street around 6 a.m. Oct. 31, 2018, after Franklin Martin Nelson called 911 to report an overdose, according to the criminal complaint filed this week in Ramsey County District Court.

Officers arrived to find medics working on Nelson’s 56-year-old mother, Sheri Ann Swits, and a syringe on the floor.

Two bottles of Narcan, medication used to reverse the effects of an opioid overdose, were nearby.

Nelson’s speech was slurred and he vomited while telling police that he had given his mother “a bump” of heroin around 5 a.m. that morning because she was having trouble sleeping after rotator-cuff surgery, according to the complaint charging Nelson with third-degree murder.

He reportedly said he used a syringe in the basement to shoot up after giving his mother the drugs and then fell asleep. When he woke up, he said, he heard Swits gurgling and called 911 before attempting CPR and giving her two shots of Narcan to try to reverse the overdose, according to the complaint.

Despite medics’ attempts to resuscitate her for about 30 minutes, Swits was pronounced dead.

When Nelson spoke with investigators again later that morning, he said he received the drugs from a man he and his mother had let stay with them. At one point he started weeping, telling an officer, “I know my mom didn’t overdose — I only gave her that amount,” while making a small hand gesture, the complaint said.

Nelson’s story changed when he talked to investigators later, according to the criminal charges. At that time, Nelson reportedly said both he and the other man had given his mother the drugs.

Police found the man Nelson referred to at the same residence as Nelson and interviewed him about the overdose.

The man said he paid Nelson and his mother $20 to stay at their place but that he didn’t use or sell heroin, nor was he there when any overdose took place.

An autopsy conducted by the Ramsey County medical examiner’s office revealed that Nelson’s mother died of acute heroin toxicity.

No attorney was listed for Nelson in court records. He has no prior criminal history.

Steven Eull has been working both his jobs at Hy-Vee and Target through the COVID-19 outbreak, but the 35-year-old St. Paul man still doesn’t feel like he’s doing enough.

So earlier this week, Eull, who has Down syndrome and lives with his mother, dumped the contents of his piggy-bank out on his kitchen counter and started counting.

Then he jammed all the coins and bills he’s collected in tips bagging groceries into an envelope, wrote “President Trump” and “Congress” on the front with “For all the people to help with coronavirus” underneath, and told his mom, Patsy Eull, he plans to send it off.

Crammed with coins and lacking an address, Patsy Eull suspects it won’t get far. But she plans to write a check for the amount — about $28 — and send it off herself.

She shared the story with the Pioneer Press Wednesday morning, saying it was a bright spot amid lots of bad news, adding that Steven Eull is an avid newspaper reader.

That’s how he’s been staying abreast of coronavirus news.

“So he knows just enough at this point to be a little dangerous,” Patsy Eull joked. “He is just obsessed with it and very concerned about all the people.”

She was getting dinner ready when Steven Eull plunked down his piggy-bank, which is shaped like a chocolate bar.

Math is a challenge for Steven Eull, so it took him about an hour to sort the coins into various piles, Patsy Eull said, adding that his count was off by about $1,000.

“This is coming from a young man who makes about $600 a month but is willing to give everything he has to help others,” she wrote in her email describing her son’s gesture.

While heartwarming, Steven Eull’s plan didn’t surprise his mother, who said the young man is known for his generosity and kind heart.

He asks her sister to take him shopping anytime any occasion, big or small, comes up to buy gifts for his mom and others.

“I just retired from 3M after 40 years and he was all bent out of shape because he couldn’t have a retirement party for me (because of the pandemic), so I come home on my last day and there is this big sign on my door that says “Happy Retirement Mom,” Patsy Eull recalled, adding that he also never fails to have a Starbucks coffee waiting for her when she picks him up from his job at Hy-Vee because he knows she loves coffee. There is a location inside the grocery store.

“It’s just those little things. He is just very thoughtful.”

In addition to working at the grocery store and retailer a combined five days a week — where Eull does everything from bagging groceries to cleaning carts these days — he also is active in the Special Olympics.

Sports and work are two of his great passions, his mom said. While sports have stalled amid the pandemic, Steven Eull has continued to happily go to work uninterrupted despite his awareness of the risks.

He was eager to discuss his donation Wednesday afternoon, but it can be difficult to understand what he’s saying for those who don’t know him, so his mom helped relay his responses.

When asked how he hopes it will help, he jumped right in, talking excitedly for over a minute.

“He says he wants to have a victory because they keep saying this is a war against a hidden enemy so he wants a victory and more donations,” Pasty Eull said. She added, after Steven Eull chimed in again, that he’s particularly hopeful that the money will help speed up vaccine trials so one can get developed sooner. Vaccines are something the two have talked a lot about lately.

He also shared that the pandemic doesn’t scare him, personally, but he does fear for other people, and said he hopes the number of those infected will start coming down soon.

In addition to his piggy bank contribution, Steven Eull said he plans to donate his next Target paycheck plus the additional earnings he makes when he gets a raise from the retailer for hitting his 10-year-mark in September.

“Do you think we are going to get through this,” he was asked at the end of the interview. “Yes, that’s right we are,” he said.

Criminal justice officials in Ramsey County and advocates against sexual assault are continuing their push for passage of legislation to preserve key evidence in such cases for longer periods.

Ramsey County Attorney John Choi, St. Paul Police chief Todd Axtell as well as a representative from Minnesota’s Coalition Against Sexual Assault and others emphasized the legislation’s urgency during a press conference held online Monday.

The bill is aimed at ensuring proper processing and storage of so-called rape kits. The kits consist of evidence collected by Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners from rape victims who report to hospitals after sexual assaults.

Recent reports have revealed a massive backlog of untested kits across the state, as well as inconsistent protocols and timelines for storing them.

That has sometimes meant that victims who decide to pursue charges long after their sexual assaults come to find out that their kits have been destroyed, leaving them and prosecutors without critical evidence.

NEW LEGISLATION

The legislation tries to address at least part of that problem by requiring the state’s crime lab at the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension to store all untested rape kits for more than two years. It also calls for corresponding data be kept in an online database that victims can access and track.

The original bill also sought to mandate law enforcement to test every rape kit, but advocates said Monday they are no longer pursuing that component due to its associated cost at a time the state’s budget is stretched thin due to the coronavirus pandemic.

“Across the state there is just no consistency, so what we are seeing oftentimes is that communities just run out of (storage room) so sexual assault kits are being destroyed in three to nine months,” said Jude Foster of MNCASA.

That’s a problem because many victims aren’t ready to pursue criminal charges until several months or more have passed.

Axtell echoed Foster’s remarks.

“(Our) 87 counties need to be on the same page and this law will allow us to do that,” he said. “Sexual assault trauma has no timeline and has no boundaries and we have an obligation to investigate … the survivor’s timeline … not ours.”

Recognizing the “patchwork” approach to the issue in Ramsey County, Choi cobbled together resources to buy an extra refrigerator to expand kit storage.

The added space will allow Regions Hospital to store untested kits for up to two years, whereas its previous policy allowed for destroying them after 90 days if patients hadn’t reported to law enforcement, said Ellen Johnson, SANE program supervisor for the hospital.

Despite the policy, Johnson always tried to call patients six times to see if they wanted it preserved before taking action, she said.

Ramsey County also recently added a deputy squarely focused on sexual assaults and committed to preserving kits.

Deputy Jessica O’Hern saved a kit from destruction at Hennepin County Medical Center in 2018 after getting a call from a woman who was ready to pursue charges against a man she met on Facebook who raped her seven months prior, O’Hern said Monday.

The DNA evidence collected during her exam was critical to the woman’s case, which she ended up winning after the man who raped her pleaded guilty to third-degree criminal sexual conduct, according to the Ramsey County attorney’s office.

He was sentenced to 48 months in prison.

BROADER SOLUTIONS

While Ramsey County has found a short-term fix, a broader-scale solution is necessary, Choi said.

“We should not have a local community trying to scramble to find safe storage, … We really need to have one centralized framework … to ensure this is taken care of across the state,” Choi said.

The language is included in the House’s public safety and criminal justice reform finance and policy division’s appropriations bill, which is slated to be heard this week, said Lindsay Brice, MNCASA’s law and policy director.

No information was immediately available about how much it would cost to implement, Brice said.

“Obviously, there are going to be financial considerations that go into all of this, just like there are any year, and COVID-19 is absolutely providing an added challenge around that but as far as I know (the bill) is moving forward,” she said.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota filed a lawsuit against the state corrections department Wednesday for “failing to perform (its) legal and moral duty” to keep inmates at its Moose Lake facility safe from COVID-19.

The petition, filed in Carlton County District Court on behalf of three inmates, comes as the virus has already begun circulating in the facility. The Minnesota Public Defender’s Office joined the ACLU in the lawsuit.

The Department of Corrections issued a statement about the court filing Wednesday night, saying the department “shares the sentiment that ‘COVID-19 has created exceptional circumstances’ as is noted in the court filing.”

“The agency continues efforts to implement early work and conditional medical release processes that fall within the parameters of current Minnesota law,” Minnesota Department of Corrections Commissioner Paul Schnell said, per the statement. “Our work continues to make adjustments to conform longstanding correctional practices with their emphasis on public safety to meet the compelling public health and fast moving challenges that result from COVID-19.”

The department added that the “DOC’s efforts to date have been developed in close collaboration with the Minnesota Department of Health in accordance with CDC guidance for correctional settings.”

Twelve inmates at the roughly 1,000-inmate facility have contracted COVID-19 as of April 15, with 31 other presumed positive cases, which includes inmates experiencing symptoms of the virus who have had contact with someone who has it. At least 11 correctional staff also have been infected, according to the ACLU.

Despite the spread, the state has been negligent in attempts to contain the virus and protect the prison’s population from exposure, according to the ACLU.

The Moose Lake facility is still holding up to eight men in one cell, for example, and has imposed no restrictions on the use of showers, communal phones, vending machines or other facilities, according to the lawsuit, adding that the prison just recently closed down its cafeteria.

The lawsuit goes on to say that the virus has now made its way into every unit of the prison, leaving no viable means for social distancing. It also says staff are no longer testing inmates for the virus.

“The prison and DOC have failed to take even rudimentary measures to prevent and stop the spread of COVID-19 at Moose Lake, endangering inmates, staff and the surrounding communities. Detention should not mean a death sentence,” ACLU-MN staff attorney Dan Shulman said in a statement Wednesday.

The lawsuit asks the court to order the department to release all inmates who have release dates in the near future or are considered high risk due to medical concerns and who have safe places to go.

It also asks the court to “require (the DOC) and the prison to perform their legal duty to keep all incarcerated individuals safe,” as well as appoint someone to oversee that responsibility.

The three plaintiffs named in the lawsuit are Roger Foster, Kristopher Mehle and Adam Dennis Sanborn. Foster and Mehle both have release dates in the near future, as well as potential employment lined up, according to ACLU staff. Foster has been reportedly showing signs of COVID-19 since early April, but so far prison staff haven’t tested him for it.

Sanborn is a smoker with asthma who has continued to be held among people showing symptoms of the virus, according to the ACLU, adding that all three individuals have safe places to stay should they be released.

The lawsuit represents them, as well as “other (inmates) like them” who are enduring violations of their “Minnesota constitutional rights to security and protection, freedom from cruel or unusual punishment, and due process” due to conditions in the Moose Lake facility, according to the ACLU.

While Moose Lake has the worst outbreak in the state’s prison system to date, the Willow Lake facility now has three positive cases and five other presumed cases.

The state’s response to the virus among its incarcerated population has been a “blind spot” amid the “extraordinary steps” it’s taken to slow the spread in other arenas, according to the lawsuit.

Local counties are seeing a new trend in child abuse cases amid the coronavirus’s spread: the number of reports are going down.

But that’s not good news, say county staff and advocates for children’s safety.

With schools’ closed and youth organizations and activities suspended, the number of staff who regularly see children and look out for their well-being are largely out of commission right now. At the very least, they’ve been interacting with children significantly less.

That means it’s much harder to spot signs of abuse and report it, said Marcia Milliken, executive director of the Minnesota Children’s Alliance.

“Kids aren’t in school right now, they are aren’t going to after-school programs or worship services … So the places where kids are seen and where they feel safe to disclose just aren’t available,” Milliken said.

‘EXTREMELY WORRIED FOR KIDS RIGHT NOW’

And parents are under more stress these days. Many are juggling full-time workloads while providing childcare and even home-school for their children without breaks as families stay indoors, Milliken said.

In other cases, parents have lost jobs and are dealing with mounting financial stress.

The combination leaves kids more vulnerable to abuse and neglect these days, not less, Milliken said, adding that she is “extremely worried for kids right now.”

She added that and she and her staff expect to see “huge increases” in child abuse reports once kids return to school and youth activities.

FEWER CASES SEEN IN APRIL

Ramsey County is among the counties on track to see a significant drop in child abuse cases since Gov. Tim Walz ordered schools closed in March, according to data provided by a county spokesperson.

The county screened in 231 total cases last month, for example, but had just 61 cases in April as of Tuesday.

Washington County’s cases dropped from about 131 cases in March and April of 2019 to an anticipated 82 in March and April of this year, county staff said.

Sarah Amundson, division director for the county’s child protection department, said the numbers involve some conjecture because April is only halfway over. Also, Washington’s figures only include family investigations and assessments, not all of the county’s child protection cases.

Hennepin County also has seen dramatic drops, according to numbers provided by a county spokesperson. Officials there screened in 700 cases last month, compared to 186 through April 13 of this month. Dakota County also has seen a decrease, though not as substantial.

PROTECTION WORKERS STILL DOING AT-HOME VISITS

Ramsey County’s social services director, Anne Barry, pointed out that while far fewer mandated reporters are interacting with kids, some still are, including law enforcement officers and medical staff, both of whom often see the most egregious cases of child abuse.

Kim Cleminson, Ramsey’s division director for children and family services, added that the county has recently started getting reports from teachers who interface with students online, as well as neighbors and concerned residents who’ve seen children alone in parks, for example.

County child protection workers are still doing at-home visits when necessary, albeit taking special precautions, and staff monitoring ongoing cases continue to check in on children and families virtually.

“Our doors are still open and we are checking with kids every day,” Cleminson said.

UNIQUE TIME, UNIQUE STRESSES

Joan Granger-Kopesky, director of children and family services, said this “unique time” is causing “unique stresses” for everyone, children and parents alike.

“We all have to figure out ways that we can be supportive of each other differently then we have been in the past … It’s a strange time right now,” she said.

To that end, Milliken urged all adults to see themselves as essential reporters of abuse right now, including delivery workers, neighbors, cashiers, teachers and other adults interacting with kids online.

Milliken urges adults to trust their gut, and to remember that filing a report is an act of care, not an accusation against a parent.

Reports can be made to a child’s local county’s child protection agency. A directory of phone numbers for county departments across the state can be found online here.

Adults who believe a child to be in immediate danger should call 911.

‘WE ARE NOT ALONE’

Ideally, parents and children in crisis will reach out for help before abuse begins. Adults or children feeling overwhelmed by the added stress can call Ramsey County’s Adult Mental Health Services 24-hour crisis line at 651-266-7900 or access it online here. It’s children’s crisis line is at 651-266-7878 or accessible online here. Staff said both lines are seeing an increase in calls these days.

Alternatively, parents can call the Greater Minneapolis Crisis Nursery’s hotline at 763-591-0100.

Staff are available round the clock to help parents who feel they have reached their limit and/or need deescalation or coping strategies, according to the organization’s communications director, Jennifer Harrison. She added that staff can also help connect parents with food, housing and other resources.

Feeling overwhelmed and anxious is expected these days, Harrison said.

“There are a lot of people right now who have never experienced anything like this … so it’s important to know that we are not alone and that we are in this together and the Crisis Nursery is here … to walk alongside parents in this journey.”

When police finally entered the home of an armed man who engaged in an overnight standoff with officers in New Brighton this week, they found a message waiting for them.

Along with a shotgun in the garage and a rifle with a scope in the lower level of the home, there was a “thin ice” warning sign posted on the corner of the property.

Only this one read: “To New Brighton Police. Back off!! You are on extremely … Thin Ice. I will annihilate you,” according to the criminal complaint filed Friday in Ramsey County District Court.

Peter Dziuk, 67, was charged with multiple crimes, including second-degree assault, terroristic threats, false imprisonment and domestic assault.

The incident was the culmination of a “documented history of hostility” Dziuk has shown toward New Brighton and its police force over the years, authorities say. Their run-ins have included burning and firearm citations as well as notices for disorderly conduct and trespassing.

Dziuk has also vented his views in emails regularly sent to city officials in which he refers to police as “Nazi, Zionest Traitors,” the criminal complaint said.

Early Wednesday — the day of the standoff — New Brighton police got an anonymous call from someone claiming to be close to Dziuk who warned that Dziuk had plans to shoot police from a concealed location after luring them to his home with a bonfire, according to the charges.

The caller said Dziuk had mentioned suicide and a desire to “take the police with him,” noting that Dziuk had guns and was high on mushrooms, marijuana and alcohol, according to the charges.

Police referred the case to Ramsey County Mental Health for follow-up.

About 7 p.m. that night, officers responded to a 911 call at Dziuk’s address on the 1500 block of Long Lake Road from a woman who also lives there and used to be romantically involved with Dziuk.

She said Dziuk had been drinking and became angry with her when she didn’t want him to use her printer to make copies of a letter he wanted to distribute, according to the charges.

He reportedly threatened her with a pair of pruners, knocked her down and repeatedly struck her before smashing her printer outside and grabbing a shotgun that he pointed under his chin, according to the charges.

He threatened to “blow his brains out” if police were called, she said, according to the complaint.

Officers tried to talk by phone to the man and woman while the Ramsey County SWAT Team responded. When the team was in position, the woman escaped from a window. That’s when police say Dziuk fired at SWAT officers from a back deck of the house.

Police fired back. No one was injured.

The standoff finally ended about 6 a.m. Thursday after SWAT officers went inside and, with the assistance of tear gas and a police canine, found Dziuk in the lower level and arrested him.

In a later interview with officers, Dziuk reportedly admitted to pushing the woman down and hitting her. He said he was only trying to “make a point” when he put his shotgun under his chin and that he never intended to shoot himself or threaten her, according to the charges. He added that he fired a “warning shot” in the air when he saw SWAT officers running across his yard because he wanted to “let them know it (was) dangerous,” the complaint said.

Dziuk is expected to make his first appearance on the charges Friday afternoon. No attorney was listed for him in court records.

A Woodbury woman broke up with a boyfriend she met online a year earlier after learning he’d been arrested for felony-level stalking of his ex.

Then she became his next target, according to charges filed in Washington County District Court this week.

David Earle Roberts, 54, was charged Tuesday with one count of felony level stalking after police put a tracker on his vehicle and watched him travel to the woman’s Woodbury home earlier this month despite the order for protection she had in place against him and the state’s order to Stay at Home except for essential business and travel, charges say.

A surveillance system set up at the woman’s home by law enforcement also captured someone matching Roberts’ appearance exit a vehicle at her house and vandalize another vehicle parked at the address, the complaint said.

The second time police observed him near her address, they pulled him over. Roberts was found wearing dark clothing, including a dark stocking cap and gloves, charges say. He had a long candle lighter in his pocket and two screwdrivers and a dark-colored ski mask were found in his glove compartment, charges say.

The incident followed more than two years of “terrorizing” behavior toward the woman, the complaint said.

It started with unwanted phone calls and texts after she broke up with him in November of 2017, charges say. When the woman blocked his number, Roberts reportedly got a new number and started texting her from that.

A couple months later, she saw him sitting in a vehicle outside her then Mahtomedi residence, but he quickly sped off when she came out of her garage, according to the complaint. A 10-page letter from him quickly followed. Then things took a peculiar turn.

The woman and her loved ones started receiving odd, anonymous messages. There was the time the woman returned from a race in Arizona and found a print-out of her race results on her front door, followed by social media images of her sent to her parents.

The woman received a Mardis Gras mask and beads in the mail shortly before she and her fiance were planning to leave on a trip for New Orleans.

One time, when her fiance showed up at a business trip in Iowa, the conference organizer said they’d been contacted by an anonymous caller who said the man has a history of abusing women, charges say.

The woman eventually got an order for protection against Roberts through a Washington County judge in September of 2019, but the troubling behavior continued, the complaint said.

Police say the case is particularly troubling because it shows a pattern of behavior. Roberts was convicted of felony level stalking in Hennepin County in 2018 due to his actions toward a previous girlfriend after he broke up with her.

That woman also eventually secured a restraining order against Roberts, but his behavior continued undeterred. He was once found outside her residence dressed all in black and carrying binoculars, authorities say. He was suspected of vandalizing her vehicle, killing her plants and grass and sending letters and pictures of her to her family.

At the time of the harassment, the woman’s dog suddenly became ill and died after she took him to an emergency veterinary clinic. The vet pathologist determined the dog had been poisoned with anti-freeze, the complaint said.

While law enforcement were watching Roberts in the more recent case, they spotted him driving past his old ex’s residence as well, charges say.

Roberts made his first court appearance on the current charges Tuesday. His bail was set at $400,000 without conditions and $200,000 on the condition he have no contact with the woman, stay out of Woodbury and be required to wear a GPS device to monitor his movements according to Woodbury police commander, John Altman.

In addition to felony-level stalking, Roberts was charged with felony-level violation of a harassment restraining order as well as violating the state’s Stay at Home order.

No attorney was listed for him in court records.

“Our hope is that the arrest of Mr. Roberts gives victims some peace of mind,” Altman said this week. “Roberts behavior is very concerning, considering that he has been tried and convicted for stalking a different person, and yet continues to do so. The measures in which Roberts had taken to stalk and harass victims became increasingly complex and alarming.”

He added that detectives are continuing to examine evidence for other potential victims.

Almost immediately after Laura Willemsen answered the phone to talk to a reporter about what it’s been like to work her full-time job from home while helping teach her two kids, one of them interrupted her with a question about the speed of light.

“Just a second,” Willemsen said, diverting her attention to her 11-year-old son.

“Remember that it’s in seconds, not hours,” the St. Paul mother and college professor reminded him before resuming the interview.

A NEW NORM

The constant interruptions and distractions are the new norm for parents across Minnesota.

Many have been serving as at-home teachers to their children while juggling full-time jobs from home since Gov. Tim Walz closed schools in March in response to the spreading coronavirus pandemic.

They found out Thursday that the closure will continue for the rest of the school year.

The extension of distance learning was expected, parents said, and understandable. Still, it’s a hardship for some families.

‘GLIMMER OF HOPE’

Jennifer Hamri, a Minneapolis mother who works full-time as a managing vice president at a staffing firm and is a single mother to three, heard the news from her 5th grade son.

After the boy got a text from a friend saying “No school for the rest of the year” with a bunch of exclamation points and smiley face emojis, he excitedly shared the update with his mom.

Hamri was decidedly less thrilled.

“I was absolutely devastated,” Hamri said, adding that she’d been holding on to a “glimmer of hope” that school might resume.

“I mean I understand why it’s not. I get it. I support it,” she continued. “I know (Walz) is doing his best to keep people safe, but now I am trying to figure out how I am going to do this for another month.”

KINDERGARTNERS

Hamri’s kids are in kindergarten, 5th and 8th grade. For the older kids, it’s been manageable. They have been working pretty independently after checking in with their teachers in the morning and getting their assignments for the day.

But for the kindergartner, it’s a different story.

“It’s just really different for her to do the work on her own,” Hamri said, “unless it’s on the computer online — but even then her attention span is about 15 minutes.”

That means Hamri has been trying to start her online work meetings at 7 a.m. each day so she has a solid three hours done before she tries to get her kindergartner started on lessons.

But she still has meetings to juggle the rest of the day.

“There are days she might be sitting in front of the TV watching ‘Paw Patrol’ for much longer then I would like her to,” Hamri said, “but I have to work.”

‘THE GUILT IS TERRIBLE’

While her employer is understanding of the new balancing acts parents are facing, Hamri said there’s added pressure working for a staffing company amid an economic crisis.

“The guilt is terrible because you feel like you want to give the best you can to your kids so they are not falling behind and you feel, especially in today’s economic situation, that you want to give your work 150 percent because it’s important,” Hamri said. “It’s just a lot of pressure to try and be a full-time teacher, a full-time worker, a full-time mom and a short-order cook.”

The guilt is heavy for Willemsen too, who says she feels like she’s constantly “scrambling” to try and get her work as a professor at Concordia University done while being both a mother and a teacher to her kids.

Since some of Willemsen’s actual students — college students — are defending their dissertations online right now, Willemsen has had to close the door on her children when those are underway because distractions aren’t an option.

“I have struggled with a lot of guilty feelings,” she said, “like I am doing everything really poorly.”

SENIORS WON’T BE ABLE TO REUNITE WITH CLASSMATES

The governor’s news landed especially hard for high school seniors who learned Thursday that they won’t be able to reunite with classmates and friends one last time for the finale of their K-12 education. Graduation ceremonies are also impacted, as well as spring sports and activities, as well as fun times like prom.

The Rev. Kisten Thompson’s daughter, Becca, wrapped herself in a blanket on the couch at their New Brighton home after learning the news.

“She’s kind of all turtled in,” Thompson said. “She knew it was coming, we all knew it was coming … but it’s really hard.”

Becca found out about the governor’s decision on Irondale High School’s senior-only Facebook page, which reportedly started “blowing up” after the news began spreading.

The announcement was the latest in a series of blows for the senior, who first had her band and choir’s spring break trip to Italy canceled, followed by the news of no prom this year. The plug has also been pulled on a list of public activities the New Brighton ambassador was supposed to participate in this summer, including the city’s summer festival in August, which has also been canceled.

Becca and her family huddled around the television on Thursday afternoon to listen to Walz explain his decision, and share a special message with seniors.

“He said that this is an experience that will bind (seniors) together in a shared experience that (they) will all be part of,” Thompson said. “It’s sort of like the Halloween snowstorm of 1991 and the stories everyone has about where they were, but this will be ‘Where were you for the 2020 graduation and how was that” … It’s a shared story and I think that shared stories are important.”

She added that in some ways getting the news was a relief because it ends part of the uncertainty.

“Now we know,” Thompson said, “and we move on from here.”

PICKING UP OTHER LIFE SKILLS

Molly Broshar counts herself among the lucky ones amid the new normal. The St. Paul mom of three is a stay-at-home mother who happens to have a teaching certificate, so transitioning from Expo for Excellence for Elementary to distance learning has been pretty manageable so far.

Her children — a preschooler, a kindergartner and a second grader — get up early and start the day with a family workout. After that, the kids help make breakfast — usually either breakfast sandwiches or pancakes — and then the school day officially begins.

The kids check in with their teachers on their iPads for their morning meetings and then get to work — albeit not always without pushback. They usually wrap things up a couple hours later and then spend the rest of the day playing.

Broshar says she’s not worried about the loss of classroom time, adding that she’s always been a big proponent of play and sees this time as a chance for her kids to pick up other life skills.

They are cooking more, for example, and doing a lot more chores around the house.

“That doesn’t mean it’s been super easy to, you know, get all the school work done and have a four-year-old that wants attention, but we’re just trying to keep structure and make sure school work gets done so there is still plenty of time for play,” she said.

An apparent dispute over headphones led to a 21-year-old woman getting shot in the back in Roseville earlier this week, according to criminal charges.

The woman sustained non-life threatening injuries.

The man authorities say shot her, Jahree Mashoun Walker, was charged Friday with two counts of second-degree assault, according to the criminal complaint filed in Ramsey County District Court.

The incident took place Wednesday evening just before 9 p.m. on the 2700 block of Rice Street shortly after a group of six to eight individuals got into an altercation outside of an apartment building, said Roseville Deputy Chief Erika Schneider.

Just as people were started to disperse, Walker fired a round into the air, Schneider said, and then fired a second round as people jumped into vehicles, according to authorities. That’s when the 21-year-old woman was struck.

Law enforcement identified Walker as the shooter after collecting statements from people at the scene and reviewing video footage that someone recorded on a cellphone, Schneider said.

Walker, who lived in the apartment building where the shooting took place, was arrested later that night.

He reportedly admitted to firing the first round in a subsequent interview with police, but said his brother fired the second one. His brother told police Walker fired both rounds, charges say.

The dispute appears to have started over a pair of Beats by Dre headphones, Schneider said.

“We are not sure if there was more to it, but that is the information we have so far,” she said.

Walker made his first appearance on the charges Friday morning. The attorney listed for him in court records did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

His next hearing is scheduled for May 4.

Drivers in the Woodbury, Maplewood and Oakdale areas will run into lane closures and detours this weekend as reconstruction of the Interstate 94/494-694 interchange.

To accommodate the ongoing road work, I-94 will close in both directions at the I-94/494/694 interchange from 7 p.m. Friday until 5 a.m. Monday, according to information posted on the Minnesota Department of Transportation’s web site.

Westbound I-94 traffic will be detoured from I-694 to 10th Street to I-694 to I-94.

Eastbound traffic will be detoured to I-494 to Tamarack Road to I-494 to I-94.

Ramp closures went into effect at noon Friday, including the westbound I-94 to southbound I-494 loop, which will detour to I-694 to westbound 10th street to southbound I-694.

The southbound I-494 to eastbound I-94 loop also closed, sending traffic to southbound I-494 to eastbound Tamarack Road to northbound I-494.

Both ramps will reopen by 5 a.m. Monday.

Four other ramps also closed this week will remain closed through September, including the eastbound I-94 to I-694 loop, the northbound I-494 to I-94 loop, the Tamarack Road entrance to southbound I-494, the northbound I-494 exit to Tamarach Road and the 10th Street to northbound I-694 ramp . Detours will be posted.

MnDOT reduced Tamarack Road to a single lane between Weir Drive and Bielenberg Drive, and eastbound 10th Street to a single lane between Highway 120/Century Avenue and Inwood Avenue.

That change will also remain in effect through September.

For Lauren Pearson, inpatient treatment was the easy part of her recovery journey.

Other than the six days she spent detoxing at Hazelden Betty Ford’s Plymouth center, the 20-year-old recovering cocaine addict mostly liked the residential program. By the end, she was elected unit leader by her peers, and a supervisor tapped her to tell her story to a visiting psychology class from Apple Valley High School.

She continued to follow the recommendations of her program when she was discharged in late February, moving into a sober house and beginning Hazelden’s day treatment program.

Her days were filled with group therapy, counseling sessions, meetings, walks to see friends who lived in nearby sober houses, trips to Rochester to see her mom and visits to a dog park with her brother.

Then, about three weeks later, the coronavirus pandemic hit Minnesota, and Pearson’s recovery regimen came to a screeching halt.

Her day treatment program closed and shifted online. She could no longer show up at narcotics anonymous meetings and hold hands with fellow addicts as they recited the Serenity Prayer; those, too, had gone virtual. Visits to sober friends’ houses were out, as were trips to see her mom.

These days, other than walks with her housemates, whom Pearson says she feels extra grateful to have right now, she is largely confined to her house. The change has taken a toll on her mental health and intensified her urges to use.

“It’s like the feeling of being isolated is bringing back what it felt like when I was using, when I would be in my bed not doing anything other than texting someone to bring me drugs,” Pearson said. “It’s just really hard, and for me, when my mental health is deteriorating, the ruminating thoughts are like my downfall.”

FALLOUT FROM CORONAVIRUS STRAINING RECOVERY EFFORTS 

Pearson is not alone. Several recovering addicts and alcoholics, as well as local providers who support them, said the pandemic is taking a particularly hard toll on the recovery community. Maintaining sobriety often depends on community, structure and personal accountability.

Much of that was turned on its head when businesses closed and services shifted online to help slow the spread of the virus.

Karla Juvonen is an author from White Bear Lake who quit drinking in 2013 and wrote about it in the memoir “From the Brink of the Drink: A Personal Story of Tribulations and Triumphs of Alcoholism.” The mother of five now runs a health care recovery meeting and serves as sponsor to recovering addicts.

Though she’s not having serious cravings of her own, she’s witnessed the fallout from the pandemic push others to relapse. She is particularly worried about the newly sober.

“I am just so frightened that these newcomers are not going to make it and I can’t see them and I can’t l look into their faces and know they are OK and offer that real true connection,” Juvonen said.

Lydia Burr, director of clinical service at Hazelden Betty Ford in St. Paul, said the pandemic fosters isolating behaviors, which are an anathema to recovery.

“Addiction is a disease of isolation, so having a …  system in place right now that makes people stay home really has the potential to activate people’s diseases because they can’t leave the house to go to meetings, or to come to appointments. It’s forcing them back into habits of isolation which people generally have to work really hard to break,” Burr said.

RECOVERY HELP GONE VIRTUAL

Hazelden and other recovery support programs around the metro area have been filling the gaps virtually, though Hazelden’s residential treatment center remains open to new patients.

All of its outpatient programs, though, are now online, according to Samantha Moy-Gottfried, the organization’s communications and public affairs manager.

Some 1,500 people were transitioned to the virtual format, and Hazelden has seen a 10 percent jump in new admissions since the pandemic. It’s also started offering a one-day virtual family program at its residential sites.

The leader in the treatment and recovery field saw a need for online services long before the pandemic and started working on an online platform about a year ago, said William Moyers, vice president of public affairs and community relations.

Hazelden coincidentally planned to release it around the time the pandemic hit, but with the virus afoot it accelerated its rollout.

The platform “harnesses the very best technology along with the core fundamentals of our clinic model and the 12-step approach to recovery,” Moyer said, adding that the virtual platform — called RecoveryGo — vastly widens Hazelden’s reach, noting that interest in the platform, which is less expensive than in-person programs, has “exploded.”

“Now people in Minnesota and the other six states where we are licensed to operate … can come to Hazelden without physically coming to Hazelden. … They can do it with their computers or their phones,” Moyers said.

Other providers, such as the Minnesota Recovery Connection, have switched to video conference calls or regular phone calls to stay in touch with clients. The nonprofit provides peer support to people in recovery.

NOT THE SAME AS IN-PERSON SUPPORT

It’s better than nothing, but it’s not the same as in-person meetings, said Wendy Jones, Minnesota Recovery Connection’s executive director.

“People are taking advantage of the virtual support, but we have had a lot of our peers reporting people returning to use,” Jones said. She added that in addition to the loss of in-person support, the pandemic has taken other hits on people in recovery.

Many people work in the service industry and have lost employment during the pandemic, for example. Others lost jobs while they were using and are struggling to find new ones.

Some have been forced to shelter in place in environments not supportive to their sobriety.

“Having this disease has already made the life around you pretty fragile, and having something like this happen really exposes that fragility,” Jones said.

Nina Marchessault, 23, can relate. She racked up lots of debt during her addiction to heroin, and her dental health nosedived.

She wants to get a job so she can start paying back her bills, but she can’t find one right now, and the dental work she’d been getting done had to stop. She’s attending her outpatient program online, but she’s not interested in doing virtual narcotics anonymous meetings as the format feels less meaningful for her.

She didn’t get a key tag when she hit 90 days of sobriety a couple weeks ago the way she did at her 60-day milestone.

“It kind of feels like life has stopped … It’s just hard every day,” she said.

RAMSEY COUNTY JUDGE OFFERS SUPPORT

Ramsey County District Judge Nicole Starr has started posting YouTube videos to encourage participants in the county’s treatment court whom she typically sees in person every week.

In one, she suggested writing letters or making a list of things that combat boredom to a participant who sent a question asking for advice on how to handle loneliness and fear right now.

She is hopeful the recovery community she sees through the program will get through this, adding they have what it takes.

“I think a lot of folks in recovery have been training for this moment,” she said. “The recovery experience is about being mindful of what is uncomfortable and being able to hold two feelings at once, worry and anxiety and hope. They are constantly working to accept life on life’s terms and, boy, is this ever one of those experiences where you’re reminded of that.”

Starr also encouraged those in the program to remember that “this too shall pass” and that she has their back.

“Every day and every minute they are sober and safe, I am proud of them, their team is proud of them, and they should be proud of themselves too,” Starr said.

HOPE AND HELP WITHIN REACH

Other providers and members of the recovery committee echoed Starr’s comment, saying that while support looks different right now, it’s still there for anyone who wants to commit to sobriety.

With that in mind, Burr encouraged anyone thinking about quitting to do it.

“No matter what is going on there is never a better time than now to start your recovery, and there is help available and there is hope even in times like this,” she said.

In addition to Hazelden and Minnesota Recovery Project, several other organizations and nonprofits are offering virtual support.

Those in recovery offered additional suggestions, such as finding creative ways to stay social, being gentle with oneself, talking walks and reaching out for help when you need it.

“I know if I use I am going to die. I know that for a fact, so I’m keeping myself busy and surrounding myself with friends who I know will keep me accountable,” said Valyncia Manheimer, 34, of Minneapolis.

Marchessault is clinging to that perspective too.

“I am grateful that I am sober right now because I couldn’t imagine being in active addiction right now. That probably wouldn’t end well,” she said.

A Watertown, Minn., man fatally shot a 39-year-old man in St. Paul Friday after the two men exchanged words following a minor traffic collision, according to criminal charges.

Police arrived at the scene of the shooting on the 1300 block of Burns Avenue around 9:30 p.m. and found “Good Samaritans” rendering aid to a man on the ground suffering from multiple gunshot wounds.

The man, who police identified Monday as Douglas Cornelius Lewis, was taken to Regions Hospital in St. Paul, where he died in surgery around 11 p.m.

Responding officers learned that the suspected shooter was still at the scene and spoke with him.

Anthony James Trifiletti, 24, reportedly told officers that Lewis’ vehicle bumped his truck from behind while he was turning off U.S. Highway 61 onto Burns Avenue.

Trifiletti pulled to the side of the road and he and Lewis starting exchanging words. He said Lewis got out of his vehicle and was coming toward him when he saw Lewis put his hand underneath his shirt near his waistband, according to Trifiletti’s account.

Scared that Lewis was going for a gun, Trifiletti said he grabbed his own firearm and fired several shots at Lewis, according to authorities.

Police did not find a weapon on Lewis, charges say. Trifiletti had a permit to carry.

Trifiletti was charged Monday with one count of second-degree murder.

CONTRADICTORY STORY

A Good Samaritan, also interviewed, gave a different account of what happened. The woman told police she saw a silver car about 50 feet behind a red pickup truck.

That’s when she said Trifiletti ran to his pickup truck and grabbed a handgun as Lewis ran toward the silver car, the woman reported, charges say.

Then she reportedly saw Trifiletti start firing at Lewis, who quickly fell to the ground.

She said she never saw anything in Lewis’ hands nor could she feel anything in his waistband when she rendered aid, the complaint said.

She estimated the two men were about 10 feet apart when Trifiletti starting shooting.

The Ramsey County Medical Examiner said Lewis was shot four times.

SHOOTER TOLD POLICE HE FEARED FOR HIS LIFE

Trifiletti originally left the scene and called his dad, who encouraged him to return, he told police, according to the complaint.

In his interview with officers, he told police that Lewis was angry when the two vehicles pulled over following the collision, the complaint said.

He refused to hand over his insurance information when Trifiletti twice asked for it, instead saying he was “G.D.,” which Trifiletti took to mean Lewis was involved in a gang, charges say.

After taking photos of the damage to both vehicles, Trifiletti said he started walking back to his truck, telling his friends who had pulled over behind him it was OK to leave.

He pulled out after Lewis and “unintentionally” followed him, prompting Lewis to “thr(o)w” his vehicle in park and get out, Trifiletti said.

He started firing when he saw Lewis coming toward him with his hand beneath his shirt, believing Lewis was going for a gun, Trifiletti told officers, the complaint said.

Trifiletti made his first appearance on the charges Monday morning. No attorney was listed for him in court records.

He has no felonies on his criminal record, but received a stayed 90 day sentence for a misdemeanor-level DWI in Washington County last January and was placed on probation for two years.

FATHER OF FOUR

Lewis was a father to four children and worked as a delivery driver for Amazon, Door Dash and other services, according to his sister, Valerie Lewis.

She said her younger brother followed her from Illinois to Minnesota more than 15 years ago, and lived in St. Paul’s West Side with his long-time girlfriend.

She last saw him in April, when he came over to help her move some furniture. The day before he grilled for her daughter’s birthday.

On Saturday morning, a police officer showed up at her door to tell her he was dead.

“My family is taking this really hard. We are very devastated and we are in disbelief that we are even having this conversation about my little brother,” Valerie Lewis said Monday. “Dougie didn’t hurt nobody. He had a fun energetic personality … He was a thinker. He was always thinking and concerned … He did not deserve that.”

Valerie Lewis said she will most remember her brother’s quick sense of humor, easy smile and devotion to his children.

“He was all about raising his kids and just wanted to be the best dad to keep his kids safe,” she continued. “That’s how he would express it. ‘I just want to be a good dad. I just want to be there for my kids.'”

Family gathered at a scenic lookout in St. Paul on Sunday to release balloons in Lewis’ memory.

His death was the second of two of homicides that took place within half an hour of each other in St. Paul Friday night.

A fatal shooting in St. Paul Friday night started over a disagreement over two men’s places in a gas station line, according to criminal charges.

The incident took place shortly after 9 p.m. when authorities say Darius K. Van, 28, and Ts’John Thomas Reed, 22, exchanged words while waiting inside a Mobile gas station on the 1100 block of Maryland Avenue East in St. Paul.

Two women also inside the store at the time told officers the argument began after Van briefly left his place in line to talk with them and then went back to reclaim his spot in front of Reed.

Angry, Reed said something to Van, but Van proceeded ahead of him anyway, bumping him, according to surveillance footage of the incident.

The two men started arguing, getting in “each other’s faces and shouldering one another,” charges say.

Then Reed allegedly pulled out a handgun and pointed it at Van.

“These bullets work. I’ll be out by the time I’m 40. I’ll kill you. I don’t give a (expletive),” he threatened, according to one woman’s account provided to officers. Undeterred, Van, who was reportedly larger then Reed, told Reed he wasn’t scared, called Reed a name, and challenged him to fight outside.

At some point, Reed reportedly had guns in both hands and started walking toward the back of the store as Van walked toward the front.

Then Van briefly left the store, took off his sweatshirt, and came back inside. Van started walking toward Reed, charges say. A woman held Reed back as he yelled at Van and raised one of his guns, but Van kept approaching, according to the criminal complaint.

Then Reed yelled something, and Van turned around and made his way back toward the front of the store.

He stopped short of exiting, though, and instead turned around and reportedly “rushed” at Reed.

That’s when Reed fired twice, and fled the store, according to the criminal charges.

Responding officers found Van lying in a pool of blood on the gas station floor with two gunshot wounds to his torso. Van died at the scene.

Reed retreated to his mother’s house, but called to turn himself in shortly afterward.

During his interview with police, he told officers that he had a permit to carry and that he shot Van in self-defense after Van rushed him and threatened to take his gun, charges say. Police later located his permit to carry while executing a search warrant.

Reed said he was scared his life was in danger and that Van would get his gun from him, when the firearm went off during their scuffle, according to the criminal complaint.

Reed went on to say that he “lost control” of the situation when Van refused to back down, and added that he could have also opted to back down, authorities say.

Reed was charged Monday with two counts of second-degree murder.

He made his first appearance Monday in Ramsey County District Court. No attorney was listed for him in court records.

Van’s family could not be reached for comment.

A Maple Grove man was charged with murder Tuesday after police discovered his wife’s body in a crawl-space under their home.

Joshua Fury, 28, reported his wife missing April 30. At the time he told officers she was gone when he returned from work, with her cellphone left behind on their kitchen counter, according to the criminal complaint filed in Hennepin County District Court.

He reportedly said he last saw her earlier that day while she was talking on the phone with her mother and getting ready to leave on a walk.

Law enforcement conducted an extensive search of the area, including canvasing the neighborhood as well as woods and lakes and conducting helicopter flyovers.

During their efforts, they talked to family and friends, several of whom reported marital problems between between the couple. The woman’s mother said her daughter had planned to leave Fury, charges say.

A subsequent search of the couple’s home on the 11000 block of Red Fox Drive in Maple Grove, aided by K9s trained to detect human remains, uncovered the woman’s body early Saturday morning in a lower-level crawl space, the complaint said.

It took officers hours to exhume it, charges say.

Before he was arrested, Fury insisted he had not harmed his wife and tried to blame her ex-boyfriend, but then admitted to killing her once he was in custody, the complaint said.

He said he strangled her during an argument about her leaving him, placed a plastic bag over her head, and then dug a hole in the crawl space, where he subsequently buried her body, charges say. He reportedly went on to say that he suffers from depression and has attempted suicide in the past.

Given the “extremely violent nature of the offense,” the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office indicated it intended to request a $2 million bail amount in a statement issued by the office Tuesday.

Fury faces one count of second-degree murder. He has no prior criminal record in Minnesota.

The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office declined to provide the victim’s name, but property records list Joshua and Maria Fury as the owners of the property searched by law enforcement.

The initials of the victim, which were included in the criminal complaint, are M.F.

Fury’s attorney, Patrick Tamburino, could not be immediately reached for comment.

A woman who went to her friend’s North St. Paul apartment to celebrate his birthday last month ended up beaten and held against her will for hours, authorities say.

The attack started around midnight on March 11 when the woman told her friend, Adena Ali Omer, 24, that she was going to head home after spending about four hours at his place, according to charges filed via warrant in Ramsey County District Court this week.

Omer became upset, according to the charges, and took her phone and pushed her to the floor. He refused to let her leave for the next 15 hours, repeatedly threatening and assaulting her, the woman told police, the charges said.

At one point, the woman ran to the bathroom, but Omer dragged her back to the living room by her hair and pressed against her throat until she passed out when she screamed, according to the charges.

When the woman regained consciousness, she tried to run out the apartment door, but Omer grabbed two knives from under a mattress, held one to the woman and another to his own throat, threatening to kill them both, according to the charges.

The woman sat with Omer on the couch for hours and eventually got him to calm down, according to the charges. The following day the woman convinced Omer to go with her to turn himself in to police.

After walking outside together, the woman ran to her car and locked the doors. Omer climbed on her hood and beat on her window until her windshield started to cave in, she told police, according to the charges.

She started to drive away with Omer on top of her vehicle and stopped in an intersection, hoping someone would call police. Then she kept driving until Omer fell off the hood car on Delaware Avenue, according to the charges.

The woman drove to the police station, where she was initially taken into custody for assaulting Omer. She was released after officers investigated the incident and found injuries on the women’s body and damaged to her vehicle consistent with her account of what happened, according to the charges.

Omer initially filed charges against the women in the case, but never showed up for follow-up interviews.

He was charged Tuesday with one count of second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon, terroristic threats, and false imprisonment.

No attorney was listed for Omer in court records. He has no prior criminal history in the state.

The father and son behind a north metro meat-processing business have been charged with illegally selling wild venison products, according to court documents filed Wednesday in Anoka County District Court.

The charges against Matt and Mark Sand come after more than a year and a half of investigation into operations at Circle Pines Sausage Haus, according to court documents.

Matt Sand, 34, the current owner of the business, was charged with four gross misdemeanor counts for violations of state game and fish laws related to the buying and selling of wild deer.

His father and former Circle Pines Sausage Haus owner, Mark Sand, 62, was charged with two misdemeanor counts of possessing untagged deer, as well as a gross misdemeanor violation of the state’s game and fish laws.

Matt Sands’ attorney, John Price, said the Sands are innocent and called the investigation a “complete farce” that the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources spent far too much money pursuing.

“My client is not guilty of any crime whatsoever. I would like to know what the Minnesota DNR spent tracking down this case for the past two years,” Price said, adding that he had heard the agency went so far as to send officers to Naples, Fla., where clients of the processor winter to try to interview them.

An undercover DNR officer reportedly purchased wild venison products from Matt Sand at the Sausage Haus sometime before the fall of 2018. The officer told Matt Sand at that time that while the business was allowed to sell venison products back to customers who processed their wild game at the shop, it was not allowed under state law to sell any excess wild venison products, according to the criminal complaints.

But on Aug. 30, 2019, Matt Sand again sold excess wild venison, this time to other undercover DNR officers, charges say.

The officers brought 12 pounds of wild game deer trimmings to be processed at the shop that day and were told by Matt Sand at the time that for “easy math” he would run the trimmings for up to 15 pounds and throw in an equal amount of pork to the trimmings during processing, meaning the trimmings would be returned as 30 pounds of product, the complaints said.

The officers also ordered other various venison products while they were there, including 10 pounds of Mark’s Original Smoked Summer Sausage, 20 pounds of Mark’s Original Beer Sticks, 25 pounds of Cooked and Smoked Jalapeno Cheese Bratwursts and various other products, charges say.

In total, the extra venison products added more than $500 to the bill.

One of the officers returned to pick up their processed venison on Oct. 16, reportedly adding to his bill at that time another $300 worth of beer sticks.

The sale of excess wild deer meat is illegal in Minnesota. Processors can charge fees for butchering a hunter’s deer, and preparing products like sausage can cost extra. But a hunter shouldn’t be sold more meat than his deer can yield, and hunter-killed deer meat can’t be sold to walk-in customers who tagged no deer themselves.

Authorities had the illegally sold venison products tested at the Wyoming Game and Fish Wildlife Forensic Health Laboratory and found that a few of the samples tested “originated from cattle,” the complaints said.

The suspected shooter involved in the fatal drive-by shooting of a St. Paul man late last month has been arrested, authorities say.

Orlando Franklin was arrested early Friday in Memphis, Tenn., by the U.S. Marshals Gulf Coast Regional Fugitive Task Force on a warrant out of Ramsey County for second-degree murder in the death of 21-year-old Anthony Boelter.

No criminal complaint was found in Minnesota’s online court filing system, meaning the criminal complaint against Franklin likely was sealed pending his arrest.

Franklin is the second person to be arrested in the case since police found Boelter dead inside his vehicle in St. Paul last April 25.

Bobby Leroy Woody, 43, was charged days following the slaying after authorities say they found him at his Glencoe, Minn., home along with a .45-caliber handgun.

He is accused of driving the vehicle involved in the drive-by and was charged by the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office with two counts of aiding and abetting second-degree murder.

St. Paul police responded to a report of a shooting just before 10 p.m. on April 25 at the intersection of Minnehaha Avenue and Cypress Street, and found Boelter fatally shot inside a yellow Volkswagen Beetle.

Two people with him in the vehicle that night told police that Boelter had a longstanding feud with people who lived in his ex-girlfriend’s home near the intersection, and that he “made a point of driving by the home” on a “regular basis,” charges say.

That’s what he was doing the night of the shooting, only that evening a dark SUV reportedly started following his vehicle.

Boelter tried to lose them by heading down an alley, but someone in the SUV reportedly fired a gun at them, striking Boelter in the head.

In addition to a bullet in the headrest, investigators found a bullet hole in the vehicle’s rear fender and five spent .45-caliber casings on the sidewalk and street.

Investigators learned Woody had been “upset and found it disrespectful” that Boelter “repeatedly drove” by the home, and had reportedly been at the home drinking with a “large handgun in his pocket” the night of the shooting, charges say.

Surveillance video showed Woody sitting in the driver’s seat of the SUV when Boelter drove past. Another man ran and got into the SUV’s passenger seat, and the SUV followed the Volkswagen.

A witness watched as the two vehicles approached the intersection and saw “muzzle flashes” coming from the back passenger side of the SUV.

The witness said he saw someone in the driver’s seat and another person in the back of the SUV before it “took off.”

Woody has past convictions for fleeing police and domestic violence.

Woody was denied a public defender at a recent hearing in his case, and no attorney is listed for him in court records. His next hearing is scheduled for May 21.

Franklin was tracked by investigators in Minnesota to the West Memphis area, where he was found at a home, the U.S. Marshals Service reported.

He was arrested without incident and is being held a detention facility in Tennessee.

No information was immediately available about when he’ll be extradited to Minnesota.

A Maple Grove man broke into a local Homeland Security and Emergency Management office in downtown St. Paul and stole personal items from inside, according to criminal charges.

Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension agents were alerted to the burglary by the office’s operations branch director. The director reported that the building, located on the 400 block of Minnesota Street in St. Paul, had been burglarized between the evening of April 19 and the early morning hours of April 20, according to a criminal complaint filed in Ramsey County District Court Friday.

Computer equipment, as well as personal belongings, were reported taken.

Left behind, though, was a blue handbag not owned by Homeland Security staff that contained a black Samsung cell phone. A forensic examination of the phone led authorities to Andrew William Hyde, Jr, charges say.

Agents also recovered Metro Transit video that showed a person wearing dark clothing, red tennis shoes and carrying a blue bag arrive at Sixth and Cedar streets around 3:30 am. on April 20.

The person was then seen entering the Homeland Security office — located about a half block from the intersection — about five minutes later, charges say.

Agents executed a search warrant at Hyde’s Maple Grove home, and found the 23-year-old inside along with his mother and brother.

Red tennis shoes were also found in the house, as well as a military style bag that contained many of the personal items stolen during the burglary, the complaint said.

Hyde’s mother and brother told agents that Hyde is addicted to methamphetamine and stays at the house intermittently. Hyde initially said he didn’t know anything about the burglary, but then said he might “hypothetically” have information, depending on what the agents could do for him, according to the charges.

The interview ended when Hyde became upset and started ranting unintelligibly, according to the charges.

He was charged with one count of second-degree burglary of a government building. No attorney was listed for him in court records. Hyde’s past convictions include first and third-degree burglary.

Three teenage boys are charged with harassment and low-level assault in connection with a recent attack on a woman on a light-rail platform in St. Paul.

The incident was captured on video and circulated via social media.

Ramsey County prosecutors charged three 15-year-olds with aiding and abetting both gross misdemeanor-level harassment with intent to injure and fifth-degree assault.

There was insufficient evidence to support a felony-level charge in the case at this time and prosecutors did not find any indication that “racial or ethnic bias was involved,” according to a statement released Monday.

The teens were arrested after a video posted on social media showed a male kick a woman in the face on the light-rail on May 4.

Teens surrounded the woman at the Dale Street Station about 12:20 a.m. and one kicked her once in the face in an incident streamed live on Facebook.

The Asian American Organizing Project, based in St. Paul, issued a statement on the incident Friday prompted by concerns some community members were expressing that the attack appeared racially motivated or related to COVID-19. In the statement, the group noted that though the incident involved people of color, “the context of the incident” was still unclear.

The woman was Asian and the suspects black, according to the group.

It went on to condemn racially-motivated violence against members of the Asian and Black communities.

“We oppose violence perpetrated against Asians and anyone else and we also stand firmly against anti-Blackness. We’re asking our community members to stop using anti-Black language and condemn any and all anti-Black behaviors,” the organization said in a statement posted to Twitter.

The organization did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday about the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office charging decision.

The three teens made their first court appearance in Ramsey County Juvenile Court Monday.

State law protects the defendants’ names from being released due to their young age.