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Minneapolis Community Safety Commissioner says illegal July Fourth activity will ‘not be tolerated.’
City leaders say they’re ready for the extended holiday weekend, following last year’s Fourth of July chaos.
With Fourth of July weekend approaching, memories of last year’s holiday are still fresh in Minneapolis.
During the overnight hours last year on July 4 and 5, police responded to more than one thousand calls, including a burst of illegal fireworks in the Mill District and a shooting that injured seven people at Boom Island Park.
Community Safety Commissioner Cedric Alexander, who started his post in August 2022 after the Fourth of July chaos, promised changes this year.
“Illegal fireworks, illegal actions, destroying property, attempting to hurt other people, is not going to be tolerated in this community,” Alexander said in an interview. “Not as long as I am here.”
Already this week, on Wednesday night, an MPD said the department responded to at least one illegal fireworks report.
With an extended holiday weekend lasting basically from Friday evening through next Wednesday, Alexander said officers will be positioned strategically based on previous incidents. They’ll have a wide geographic area to cover. On Sunday and Monday, organizers for Taste of Minnesota say they’ll be assisted by 100 MPD officers at or near the festival. Also on Monday, the laser light show at Boom Island Park will draw thousands to the riverfront. The Park Police will act as the lead agency for that event.
“We are all working in concert with each other, whether it’s Transit Police, Park Police, our partners over at the state, the Sheriff’s Office, or federal partners,” Alexander said. “We’re all on the same team together. We all communicate with each other.”
Alexander said the city’s strategy will look a lot like last weekend when hundreds of thousands of people came to Minneapolis for Taylor Swift concerts and Twin Cities Pride.
“All of us made it work last week,” Alexander said. “It’s going to take all of us to make it work this weekend.”
To prevent groups from gathering during late-night and early-morning hours like last Fourth of July, the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board also announced this week it will close the Stone Arch Bridge overnight during the extended weekend. After pushback from the Marcy-Holmes Neighborhood Association, the Park Board adjusted the closure to 10 p.m. to 6 a.m., starting Friday, June 30 and lasting until Wednesday, July 5.
“Last year, large Fourth of July gatherings in riverfront parks and neighborhoods created unsafe, chaotic situations,” the Park Board said in a statement. “This proactive measure will help park staff and public safety agencies better manage crowds and safety during a very busy time for riverfront parks and neighborhoods. Riverfront trail users will be detoured to the Hennepin Avenue Bridge.”
Aileen Johnson, who organizes Safety Walks across Minneapolis, led a group of neighbors through the Mill District earlier this week ahead of the Fourth of July weekend. MPD First Precinct leadership joined the event, too, and reassured neighbors that they have a strategy for the weekend overnight hours that seems to be paying dividends this summer.
“Dramatic decrease in [shooting] victims,” Lt. Mark Klukow said, “because of the efforts of all these professionals we work with.”
Johnson said neighbors are still shaken by the last Fourth of July, but they’re focusing on the future — not the past.
“Based on what I’ve heard from the city, I feel very good. They are prepared. We’ve got as many officers on duty as possible,” Johnson said. “It’s not an easily forgettable night but we feel confident for this year.”
Katie Santry has lived at the east Columbus house for about a year. She said she stumbled upon the strange discovery while digging holes for fence posts.
COLUMBUS, Ohio — A Columbus woman has gone viral on TikTok after sharing a story about finding a rug buried in her yard. The discovery prompted the Columbus Division of Police to get involved.
Katie Santry has lived at the east Columbus house for about a year. She said she stumbled upon the strange discovery while digging holes for fence posts.
“We were building a fence, and we, through digging a post wall, came across a carpet. It was weird but I kind of let it go,” Santry told 10TV on Thursday evening.
LATEST UPDATES: Columbus police provide update after digging up rug from woman’s backyard; no remains found
Some time later, she said her computer was shattered and her desk strewn about in the middle of the night, but no one in the home reportedly did it.
“I jokingly said, ‘did the body in the rug do it?’ and I put that on TikTok, and now everyone at this point has seen it,” she said.
Santry said she was going to leave the carpet-like fabric alone but was influenced by TikTok viewers to call police to dig it up.
“When they first came out, they thought nothing of it, and I think because of the virality of the TikTok, they called me today [Thursday] when my friends and I were actually going to dig this rug up today out of curiosity,” she said.
Columbus police told her they wanted to bring K-9s to investigate.
Santry streamed some of the investigation on TikTok Thursday afternoon. More than 100,000 users tuned in to watch at times, as she showed video of the K-9s sniffing through her yard.
At one point, Santry watches as the dog sniffs a spot and then sits down. She can be heard gasping in the video.
“The world saw the dogs sit on the hole and it kind of ended there,” Santry said.
When asked about the previous owners of the home, Santry told reporters that they were in their 90s and had moved into a nursing home. She believes they were the only owners before her family moved in.
While viewers have tuned in to watch what happens next in the investigation, Santry has watched her following grow.
“The day I posted it I had 6,000 followers,” she said, “It happened like snap of a finger. I didn’t anticipate virality in the slightest.”
A nearby neighbor who has lived in his home for 20 years told 10TV that the attention has been disturbing and alarming.
“This is the loudest it has been in a long, long time,” he said. “I hope they find what they’re looking for and we can get back to life as normal and quiet and peaceful.”
Columbus police began excavating outside the home Friday morning. Officers provided an update in the afternoon saying that no remains had been found.
On Amy Schultz’s birthday, she finally got word their new house withstood catastrophic flooding in their town.
DALLAS — Amy Schultz was supposed to be in the mountains of Western North Carolina for what she called one of her speedbump birthdays – a year that ends in a five.
She lives in North Texas but used to be a Florida resident, so she doesn’t take hurricanes lightly.
She and her husband were scheduled on an American Airlines flight from DFW Thursday.
But when the airline waived its change fees because a hurricane was bearing down across the southeast, they took it as a sign to cancel their trip.
“I am so grateful that we didn’t go,” Amy said. “On the other hand, I’m so devastated by seeing people and their lives and their property. And the culture of that Asheville community is just been toppled and it’s catastrophic.”
Amy Schultz is an artist, and the Blue Ridge Mountains is a haven for the arts.
That’s one reason the couple started visiting years ago. Amy called the region “a national treasure.”
“It’s just so special. It’s out of a fairy tale. The natural beauty is extraordinary,” she said.
Regular visits turned into buying a home in the city of Black Mountain.
They closed on the home on Second Street two months ago. Then came deadly floods.
Buncombe County, where Black Mountain is, reports 57 lives lost and the search for survivors continues.
The Schultzes had become fast friends with their new neighbors, but without power or cell phone service across the region, they couldn’t reach any of them.
They left messages and held onto hope for days on end.
Finally, on Amy’s birthday, a neighbor who had driven to Raleigh finally got cell service restored and let them know their house was standing and only had minimal damage.
“Damage on our end of the street was due more to falling trees than flooding,” Amy said. “We are so relieved and grateful. And still so sad.”
“Our plan is to go back as soon as we can. As soon as it’s safe. As soon as we’re not taking gas away from people who want it, and as soon as we’re not taking water away from people who need it, That’s when we’re going to go back,” Amy said.
Surveillance video shows the car driving on the grass and sidewalk close by a busy playground.
MINNEAPOLIS — Editor’s Note: This video originally aired Aug. 19, 2024.
A 10-year-old is in custody after Minneapolis police said he drove a stolen vehicle recklessly across a crowded school playground.
Minneapolis police (MPD) said officers responded to Nellie Stone Johnson School on Sept. 20. Surveillance video shows the car driving on the grass and sidewalk close to the busy playground multiple times. School staff moved children out of harm’s way and no one was struck.
The 10-year-old boy was identified as the driver and was booked into the Hennepin County Juvenile Detention Center on Thursday for probable cause second-degree assault.
MPD stated that the boy has been arrested at least twice before for crimes related to auto theft. He is also a suspect in more than 12 cases ranging from auto theft to robbery to assault with a dangerous weapon.
MPD Chief Brian O’Hara said the family is cooperative with police and have asked for help working with their son.
“It is unfathomable that a 10-year-old boy has been involved in this level of criminal activity without effective intervention,” O’Hara said. “Prison is not an acceptable option for a 10-year-old boy. But the adults who can stop this behavior going forward must act now to help this child and his family.”
“This is only one example of the revolving door we’re dealing with – arresting and re-arresting the same juveniles for auto theft and other violent crimes,” he added. “This is a complex issue, and we need every entity involved in intervention to come together immediately to establish short- and long-term solutions.”
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