April 2011 Archives

The suspect of the hit-and-run of three University of Minnesota students in Dinkytown last week was taken into custody Thursday, Kare 11 reported.

On April 15, three University of Minnesota students were victims of a hit-and-run. Ben Van Handel, 23, of Appleton, Wis., one of the victims, died after being taken off life support just hours before the arrest was made, the Star Tribune reported.

According to court records, the suspect, a 29-year-old man from Roseville, had just gotten off probation from a drunken-driving conviction when the hit-and-run took place, the Star Tribune reported. Court records also state that the suspect has had previous run-ins with the law involving drunk driving and marijuana possession.

The suspect's identity will not be revealedd until he is formally charged which will be early Monday.

A St. Paul teen was shot in the stomach on Saturday night after a birthday celebration.

Anthony Conner, 18, was attending a friend's birthday party when he was shot as fights broke out and ended the celebration, Fox 9 News reported.

According to Fox 9 News, Keena Powell was throwing her son, 15, a birthday party but ended the party by kicking everyone out when people she didn't know began to arrive at her home.

Police were called to report a fight when gunshots were fired, the Star Tribune reported. St. Paul Police arrived to find Conner in the home with the wound.

Conner was taken to Regions Hospital where he is in stable condition.

According to the Star Tribune, Police are still investigating the shooting.

The boyfriend of Duke Lacrosse accuser, Crystal Mangum, 32, died Wednesday from stab wounds incurred from a fight with Mangum, the Associated Press reported.

Mangum has been in jail since an incident on April 3 that lead to the stabbing of Reginald Daye.

According to the Sacramento Bee, the case is still under investigation and charges may be upgraded.

According to the Associated Press, Mangum was at the center of the Duke Lacrosse scandal five years ago when she accused three members of the Lacrosse team of rape. The charges were dropped and the case dismissed when there was no credible evidence of an attack taking place.

Mangum's bail is set at $300,000.

A judge sentenced a St. Michael man to five years in prison on Saturday for a fight that lead to another man's death.

Alexander Tuomisto, 24, was involved in a bar fight last May with Adam Baker, 32, when the punch he gave Baker resulted in his death, the Star Tribune reported.

According to KSTP Eyewitness News, the Grand Forks (N.D.) Herald reported that under a plea deal, Tuomisto will serve no more than five years in prison and pay no more than $20,000 in restitution to Baker's family.

Three University of Minnesota students were hospitalized early Friday morning after a car veered onto a sidewalk and struck them.

According to the Star Tribune, the driver of the vehicle was going the wrong way on SE. 5th Street near the campus when he or she struck the students near 12th Avenue at about 2 a.m. Fifth Street is a one-way street going eastbound.

Katelynn Hanson, 21, and friend, Sarah Bagley, 21, both were hit however they received minor injuries. Hanson left the hospital with bruised legs and soreness and Bagley chipped her tooth, cut her face on her glasses and may need knee surgery, the Minnesota Daily reported.

Another student, Benjamin Van Handel, 23, is in critical condition at Hennepin County Medical Center with a severe brain injury and multiple broken bones, his family told the Star Tribune.

Investigators searched Friday for an early 2000s, white, four-door Toyota Camry or Solara with front-end damage, Minneapolis police Sgt. Stephen McCarty told the Star Tribune.

As of Sunday night, Fox News reported that no driver has been found.

A bicyclist was struck by a car on Lyndale Avenue N. in Minneapolis on Friday night, the Star Tribune reported.

The victim was riding his bike near the intersection of 14th and Lyndale Avenues N. when he was hit by a vehicle. The victim was brought to Hennepin County Medical Center with life-threatening injuries.

According to Kare 11, investigators are struggling to come up with a description of the hit-and-run vehicle. Police are asking for people to contact the Minneapolis Police Department if they know anything.

The Maryland House of Delegates passed a bill on Friday that allows immigrants to pay in-state tuition if they meet certain conditions, The Washington Post reported.

The House voted 74-66 on the measure.

According to the Associated Press, illegal immigrants would have to complete two years at a community college and show that their parents paid state income taxes for the three years before they enroll to qualify for in-state tuition.

The Associated Press also reported that Democrats said it creates opportunity for people who have lived in Maryland for years, whereas Republicans say it rewards illegal behavior at taxpayers' expense.

According to The Washington News, in-state tuition is $8,416 annually, and out-of-state students pay $24,831 a year. With such a significant difference, the two chambers will have to work out difference before the measure will be signed by Gov. Martin O'Malley.

A man opened fire in a Rio de Janeiro elementary school on Thursday killing 12 children and injuring at least 12 others, ABC News reported.

Ten girls and two boys were killed in the shooting, and another 12 children were injured, the Associated Press reported. All the victims were 10 to 15 years old. The suspect, Wellington Menezes de Oliviera, 23, killed himself after being shot in the leg by police.

Family members of Oliviera said that he had a history of psychological problems. The Associated Press also reported that he was introverted and spent most of his time on the computer "watching videos about firing weapons."

According to ABC News, Oliviera was a former student of the school. His motives for the shootings are unclear and police are currently putting the pieces together from the evidence they were able to gather, one of which is a rambling letter with instructions for his own burial.

The Associated Press reported after the incident, congressional representatives have begun calling for even greater control over the sale of guns and ammunition in Brazil.

After allegedly shooting two people in a grocery store in Brooklyn Park Friday night, the suspect killed himself after a car chase with police ended on the University of Minnesota campus.

Earlier in the evening on Friday night, the suspect, unidentified, allegedly shot two store employees in a Festival Foods break room, the Star Tribune reported. One victim was pronounced dead and the other was rushed to a nearby hospital.

Brooklyn Park Deputy Chief Craig Enevoldsen told the Star Tribune that the victim who died had been in a previous relationship with the suspect. When the suspect showed up at Festival Foods, the two went into the break room to talk. Shortly afterward, shots were heard.

The suspect was able to flee the scene and took police on a car chase that ended on the Washington Avenue bridge on the University of Minnesota campus where he took his own life, the Minnesota Daily reported.

University of Minnesota students watching the incident unfold told the Minnesota daily that they "later saw a body sprawled on the sidewalk on West River Parkway near the bridge."

The increase in wild turkeys roaming the Twin Cities metro and surrounding suburbs are due to a booming population and the seeking of safer habitats.

On Tuesday, three turkeys were seen roaming near the McNamara Alumni Center, the Minnesota Daily reported.

Despite being in an urban surrounding away from its natural habitat, wild life specialists predict their presence in the cities will be more pronounced in the future, according to the Minnesota Daily.

A turkey is less likely to be killed by predators or shot by hunters in the city than in its natural habitat, the Minnesota Daily reported.

A century ago, wild turkeys were driven to extinction due to hunting and habitat loss, USA Today reported. Repopulation efforts paid off in the 1970s and today there are 7 million turkeys in the United States.

According to USA Today, Shoreview, a suburb of Minneapolis was victim to the roaming of wild turkeys, so much to the extent that parents were afraid for their children's safety. The Minnesota Daily also reports that a wild turkey in Shoreview was was raiding bird feeders and crab apple trees.

As more turkeys become comfortable in urban settings, they also become more comfortable with human contact. Karl Tinsley, a graduate student at the University of Minnesota who is currently researching why turkeys are moving into urban environments told the Minnesota Daily that wild turkeys pose no significant danger to humans but rather they will be a nuisance. "They are very stubborn birds," Tinsley said to the Minnesota Daily.

A fire that destroyed a sober house in the Whittier neighborhood of south Minneapolis on Thursday left two of its five residents fleeing for their lives, the Star Tribune reported.

No one was injured in the fire.

Emergency crews determined that the fire started in the basement and worked its way up into the attic. The cause of the fire is under investigation, but it's believed to be electrical, FOX 9 News reported.

Assistant Fire Chief Cherie Penn told the Star Tribune that it took firefighters 90 minutes after the emergency call to extinguish the fire in the 2 1/2 story home as a result of the wild flames within the walls.

The sober houses which operates through Nuway House take in people who have completed the halfway house program, which offers counseling and other services to people recovering from alcoholism and drug addiction, the Star Tribune reported

Two suicide bombers killed 42 civilians and injured more than 100 others on Sunday in a Pakistani shrine, police said in a CNN article.

One bomber killed himself when his explosive detonated at the entrance of the Sakhi Sarkar shrine while the other was arrested at the shrine before a second attack could take place, CNN reports.

"Twenty of the wounded are in critical condition," Natiq Hayat, emergency coordinator, told the Associated Press.

According to the Associated Press, Government Administrator Iftikhar Saho said several thousand people were marking the 942nd anniversary of the death of the saint Ahmad Sultan, better known as Sakhi Sarwar, at his shrine in the Dera Ghazi Khan district of Punjab province when the bombers attacked crowds waiting outside.

CNN reports that Dera Ghazi Khan is not a stranger to attacks and bombings. An attack in December 2009 killed dozens of people when a bomb went off through a market. Dera Ghazi Khan also had another bombing earlier that year that killed many people.

Jenni-O Turkey Store of Wilmar, Minn. has issued a recall of 50,000 pounds of frozen raw turkey burgers Saturday due to concerns of salmonella contamination, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service said in a CNN article.

Sold exclusively at Sam's Club stores, the recall is specific to the "All Natural Turkey Burgers with seasonings Lean White Meat." They come in 4-pound boxes with 12 individually wrapped burgers with a "use by" date of December 23, 2011, CNN reports.

Purchasers of the product are advised against eating it and to return it to Sam's Club stores for a full refund.

The first case of salmonella relating to Jenni-O was reported in Wisconsin. Soon after there were reports of a dozen people in Arizona, California, Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio, Washington and Wisconsin. All cases showed the individuals having the same illness between December 2010 and March 2011, the Star Tribune reported.

"The victims' ages range from 1 to 86," Alison Patti, a spokeswoman for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta told the Star Tribune.

So far no one has died as a result of consuming the burgers.

Jennie-O has created an online resource for consumers at www.jennieo.com/recall.