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Brooklyn Center police: Man dies in dog attack
Police say the victim was attacked at his home by four Pit Bull Terriers he was watching for a family member.
BROOKLYN CENTER, Minn. — A Brooklyn Center man has died after being attacked by four dogs he was watching for a family member.
Brooklyn Center police said the attack happened Thursday afternoon at a home on the 5700 block of Halifax Avenue North. Squads responded after a neighbor called police to report a man yelling for help while being attacked by multiple dogs.
Police said the attack was still underway as officers arrived on the scene, with one firing a less-lethal round that struck one of the dogs and dispersed the others. Officers on scene reported the victim “had most of his clothing ripped off and had extensive bites on most of his body.” The victim was taken to a hospital, where he died later that evening.
According to a police news release, “the four dogs were of American Pit Bull Terrier dog breed.” The dogs were placed into quarantine following the attack.
Brooklyn Center authorities said the dogs did not live at the home where the attack happened, but they were staying there for the day. The victim was taking care of the dogs at the time.
KARE 11 reporters are working on speaking to people in the area to learn more about what happened.
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Minnesota cities extend early voting hours
Over 71,000 people have voted early in Anoka County, Minnesota.
ANOKA COUNTY, Minn. — Minnesota cities extended early voting hours so more people could cast their ballot early.
Anoka County Elections Director Tom Hunt said there’s a lot of excitement around this election.
“In-person absentee voting is just off the charts,” he said. “This year both parties have really been making a push to get people into vote early.”
He said the county’s city and town halls are busier than the county government center.
“We’ve seen lines like crazy at all of our city and town halls,” he said. “We just passed 71,000 absentee voters, so I think for us that’s a little over 30%,” he said.
Trevor and Michala Voss voted at Blaine City Hall.
“We wanted to come out and vote early because we both work and it’s a good day to get it done, get through the line before it gets too crazy on Tuesday and make sure our voices are heard,” Michala said. “Especially, as a pregnant woman with a daughter, it’s important for us to show that we can vote and our voices matter.”
They decided to bring their young daughter to show her how the election process works.
“She loved it. I thought it was really cool that she got to see it in person because she’s seen it in cartoons on her Daniel Tiger episodes and now she got to see what the process looked like in person,” Michala said.
Trevor said the show teaches kids how to vote. For example, in one episode the class had to decide if they wanted a swing or a slide, so they voted.
Now, their daughter wants to cast her own ballot.
“She sat on his lap while he voted and wanted to put her own votes in but she’s a little too young,” Michala said.
“That was a little challenging but not terrible,” Trevor said.
They both said voting early was easy and they didn’t mind the wait. They said it took about 20 minutes for them to vote.
“Nobody wants to wait especially on a weekend, those weekend days our precious but they understand, and they know how important it is and they’re absolutely willing to do it,” said Blaine City Clerk Cathy Sorensen. “It’s about a 30-to-40-minute wait. We’ve calculated yesterday at our peak we were probably processing a voter every three minutes.”
Sorensen said they’ve had over 7,300 early voters come through city hall. She said they’re processing almost 1,000 ballots a day.
“Right now, we’re about 18% of our total registered voters and that’s right now and we haven’t obviously done a tally or our mailed in ballots, we haven’t finished up today and of course tomorrow which is going to be our busiest,” Sorensen said.
She said they have been so busy her election judges barely have time to take a break.
“Last two weeks they really haven’t even taken a lunch,” she said.
She said all of her election judges are committed to helping as many people vote early as they can and choose to eat when they can.
Sorensen has been the city’s clerk for a decade, and she hasn’t seen so many people vote early in an election.
“I think it just means people are taking advantage of all the different ways you can vote whether it’s on Election Day, or early, they have lots of options and that’s great and it’s how it should be,” Sorensen said.
She said she anticipates Monday being their busiest early voting day and plans to have extra staff on hand to help keep the line moving.
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Local volunteers for both campaigns make final push
With the election seemingly razor-thin, volunteers will continue working until the final ballot is cast.
MINNEAPOLIS — With only a few days left until Election Day, volunteers from both campaigns are doing what they can during the final push.
On Saturday, Kamala Harris supporters canvassed in north Minneapolis. They knocked on doors encouraging those who hadn’t voted yet, to do so.
In Lakeville, Trump supporters gathered with Congressional District 2 candidates, as they geared up to reach those final voters.
“Donald Trump lost by a small margin here in Minnesota and we want that to be different this year, this time around,” said Crystal Mcdonnell. Mcdonnell canvases not only to try and sway voters to Trump but also to help them fulfill their civic duty.
“(We) offer assistance in registering to vote, give rides to fellow patriots who may not have the means to get out and vote,” Mcdonnell said.
In north Minneapolis, first-time canvasser Samirya Strong was doing her part to help her candidate win.
“We need to activate everyone who is able to vote, to vote up and down for freedom and justice and equality for all,” Strong said.
With the election seemingly razor thin, this type of leg work from both campaigns will continue until the final ballot is cast Tuesday night.
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Young children pulled from burning townhome Saturday
Four people, three children and an adult, were taken to the hospital Saturday night after a townhome fire on County Road D East.
VADNAIS HEIGHTS, Minn. — A witness said multiple children were pulled from a burning townhome in Vadnais Heights early Saturday evening.
Chief Chris Hearden with Vandnais Heights Fire said in a press release that four local fire departments were called to a fire in a townhome complex at around 5:40 on Saturday evening.
When crews arrived in the 1000 block of County Road D East, they saw fire and heavy smoke pouring from a townhome.
A neighbor told KARE 11’s Ian Russell that he ran to help, but the flames were too hot for him to go inside. He said he heard the kids screaming and then saw them pulled from the home.
“Tried my best to run in there… the fire, the smoke… don’t know the blueprint, don’t know the surroundings, couldn’t see nothing so I got out of there,” said Venjoseph Brown, obviously shaken. “I was no use… and there was still kids in there. If it was that bad on the outside, I could wonder what they was goin’ through.”
Officials confirmed two young children were pulled from the burning building by emergency crews. Two other victims, an adult and another child, were able to escape on their own. All four were taken to Regions Hospital and Hearden said their conditions are unknown at this time.
Engines from Vadnais Heights, Little Canada, Maplewood and White Bear Lake worked to knock down the fire, which appeared to be out as of 7:15 p.m. Crews on scene noted that damage to the first floor of the townhome was extensive.
The Vadnais Heights Fire Department, Ramsey County Fire Investigation Team and the State Fire Marshall’s Office are all investigating the cause of this fire.
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