Star Tribune
Brawl inside Dinkytown tobacco shop led to shooting that killed 2, injured clerk
A brawl inside a Dinkytown tobacco shop early Sunday preceded a shooting that left two dead and a clerk injured, according to social media posts that showed the moments leading up to the deadly encounter, which came amid other weekend gun violence in Minneapolis.
Bystander videos filmed inside Royal Cigar & Tobacco at 14th Avenue and 4th Street SE. depicted a melee involving at least seven men, with two exchanging punches on the floor as products spilled from shelves. Two men in ski masks were seen with their arms extended toward the scuffle — apparently aiming firearms — followed by a pop.
In a two-second clip, two of the men previously seen fighting lay motionless on the floor. Both died at the scene.
The Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office identified the victims late Monday as Bryson Lamarr Haskell and Jamartre Michael Sanders, both 24 and from Minneapolis.
Chaos erupted between two groups of customers in the tiny smoke shop just outside the University of Minnesota campus around 2:15 a.m., shortly after its posted closing time. It marked the continuation of a bloody stretch in Minneapolis, where at least 12 people have been shot and killed since Nov. 1 — an unusually high death toll for this time of year.
A store employee, also in his 20s, was taken to HCMC with at least one noncritical gunshot wound. None of the three shot are believed to have been University of Minnesota students.
Minneapolis police declined to comment on the videos or speculate on possible motives, noting that the case remains under investigation. No arrests have been made.
City officials say they have no records to indicate that Royal Cigar was allowed to operate at the hour of the shooting.
In Minneapolis, municipal codes govern what hours a certain type of business can operate based on their zoning district. Standard hours in that area would have required Royal Cigar to close by 11 p.m. on a Saturday. Local establishments can apply for a permit that allows them to extend their hours, but approval is contingent on a public hearing before the City Council.
“I’m not finding any record of an extended hours license for that location,” said Amy Lingo, the city’s manager for licenses and consumer services. Only one tobacco shop – A to Z Tobacco in downtown — holds an extended hours license until midnight.
The triple shooting has jump-started an investigative process between the city’s licensing office and Royal Cigar, which could ultimately lead to stricter enforcement measures, citations or even revocation. During a face-to-face meeting with the business owner, city officials plan to review their expectations and articulate “that they are not meeting them if people are coming in and getting into gunfights,” said Erik Hansen, the new director of Community Planning and Economic Development (CPED).
“We work to gain compliance. We do not want to see [violence] happen again,” Hansen continued, noting that compliance doesn’t always suffice. Sometimes, the city is forced to pull a business’ license.
Records indicate that Royal Cigar, whose license was first approved at that location in 2004, was cited in August for illegally selling its products to customers under 21 years old.
The shop reopened by Sunday afternoon.
On Monday, as classes resumed, a steady steam of students filtered past. Inside, the business appeared tidy, with no sign of the shootings that occurred less than 36 hours before.
A shop clerk declined to comment when approached by a Star Tribune reporter Monday, saying only: “We are OK.”
The registered business owners could not be reached for comment.
Lottie Madson popped into Royal Cigar on Monday afternoon with a friend, where they regularly shop for vapes and cigarettes. They heard about the shooting through word of mouth and media reports, but questioned why the University of Minnesota hadn’t pinged students about it through the SAFE-U emergency alert system.
“It doesn’t prevent me from going about my normal routine, but it’s sad,” said Madson, a senior architecture major. “They’re really nice in there.”
She recalled an incident in the shop last summer when a heated altercation spilled inside the store and the clerk advised she leave because “everyone is strapped” — meaning they were carrying firearms.
The tobacco shop falls just outside the area covered by that alert system, according to a map on the University of Minnesota’s website.
Public safety concerns in Marcy-Holmes, the neighborhood encompassing Dinkytown and surrounding areas where many U students live, have long been fueled by unruly teenagers out past curfew. However, MPD’s data dashboard shows that overall crime, including assaults, burglaries, thefts, robberies and shots-fired calls, are all down this year.
There have been 64 homicides in the city this year, according to a Star Tribune database.
Star Tribune staff writers Greta Kaul and Josie Albertson-Grove contributed to this story.
Northern State 35, Concordia (St. Paul) 34: Wyatt Block’s 2-yard TD run and the PAT with 10 seconds remaining lifted the Wolves past the host Golden Bears. Block’s touchdown capped an 11-play, 72-yard drive by the Wolves, who trailed 24-7 in the second quarter. Jeff Isotalo-McGuire’s 34-yard field goal with three minutes, 32 seconds remaining gave the Golden Bears a 34-28 lead.
Winona State 31, Bemidji State 28: Cade Stenstrom rushed for two TDs and passed for 150 yards and a TD to help the host Warriors outlast the Beavers. Stenstrom’s 1-yard TD run and the PAT with two minutes, 10 seconds remaining gave the Warriors a 31-21 lead. The Beavers responded with an 11-play, 93-yard drive to pull within 31-28 with 18 seconds remaining but the Warriors recovered the ensuing kickoff.
Div. I-AA
North Dakota State 59, Murray State 6: The top-ranked Bison built a 42-3 lead in the first half and went on to defeat the host Racers in Murray, Ken. CharMar Brown ran for 97 yards and three TDs for the Bison.
South Dakota State 20, South Dakota 17 (OT): Amar Johnson’s 3-yard TD run in overtime lifted the host Jackrabbits to the victory. The Coyotes opened the OT with a 40-yard field goal.
Youngstown State 41, North Dakota 40 (OT): The host Penguins went first in OT and scored and then stopped North Dakota’s two-point conversion to hold on for the victory. The Penguins sent the game into OT on a 35-yard field goal with 12 seconds remaining.
Div. III
Augsburg 35, St. Olaf 34 (OT): The host Auggies stopped a two-point conversion in overtime to outlast the Oles. The Auggies went first in the overtime and scored on a 25-yard pass from Ryan Harvey to Tyrone Wilson. It was Harvey’s fifth TD pass — the fourth to Wilson. After the Auggies’ PAT, the Oles scored on a 25-yard TD pass from Theo Doran to Braden Menz. But the Oles’ pass attempt for the conversion failed.
After splitting their two-game West Coast trip to begin the season, the Wolves improved to 2-1 with a 112-101 win over Toronto in their home opener. It was a wire-to-wire win that featured some strong bursts of play from the Wolves and other times when their decision-making was suspect. But those moments when they were on, specifically the start of the game and most of the third quarter, were enough to carry them against a shorthanded Raptors team that was without RJ Barrett, Bruce Brown and Immanuel Quickley.
Julius Randle had 24 points while Anthony Edwards had 24 on 21 shot attempts. Donte DiVincenzo had 16 off the bench. Nickeil Alexander-Walker left the game in the fourth quarter and did not return, though he was in the bench area for the final minutes after going to the locker room briefly.
The Wolves’ starting lineup had its best stretch of basketball on the season after that unit started off sluggish in the first two games. Mike Conley, who was 3-for-16 to open the year, hit two early threes to set the tone, though Conley would finish 2-for-8.
Donte DiVincenzo replaced him at point guard halfway through the quarter and continued the hot shooting from the point guard slot with three threes of his own. The Wolves forced five Toronto turnovers and had a 32-18 lead after one.
Coach Chris Finch toyed with some different lineup combinations in the first half as he had Conley and DiVincenzo begin the quarter together while having Joe Ingles run the point later in the quarter. It led to an uneven second, and the Wolves led 56-44 at halftime.
But the Wolves played inspired coming out of the break. Jaden McDaniels, who didn’t take a shot in the first half, had nine points in the opening minutes of the third. Edwards hit a pair of threes as they pushed their lead to 22. The Wolves weren’t sharp closing the night, and the Raptors had the game within right inside of two minutes, but the Wolves had built enough of a cushion.
Rudy Gobert. Gobert had 15 points and 13 rebounds and was the beneficiary of some lobs from his teammates like Edwards, Conley, Nickeil Alexander-Walker and Joe Ingles. Gobert also finished with four blocks.
Gobert had two blocks on one possession in the fourth quarter that got the crowd off its feet and Gobert pounding his chest. Gobert blocked D.J. Carton and Jamison Battle.
Star Tribune
Trump denigrates Detroit while appealing for votes in a suburb of Michigan’s largest city
NOVI, Mich. — Donald Trump further denigrated Detroit while appealing for votes Saturday in a suburb of the largest city in swing state Michigan.
”I think Detroit and some of our areas makes us a developing nation,” the former president told supporters in Novi. He said people want him to say Detroit is ”great,” but he thinks it ”needs help.”
The Republican nominee for the White House had told an economic group in Detroit earlier this month that the ”whole country will end up being like Detroit” if Democrat Kamala Harris wins the presidency. That comment drew harsh criticism from Democrats who praised the city for its recent drop in crime and growing population.
Trump’s stop in Novi, after an event Friday night in Traverse City, is a sign of Michigan’s importance in the tight race. Harris is scheduled for a rally in Kalamazoo later Saturday with former first lady Michelle Obama on the first day that early in-person voting becomes available across Michigan. More than 1.4 million ballots have already been submitted, representing 20% of registered voters. Trump won the state in 2016, but Democrat Joe Biden carried it four years later.
Michigan is home to major car companies and the nation’s largest concentration of members of the United Auto Workers. It also has a significant Arab American population, and many have been frustrated by the Biden administration’s support for Israel’s offensive in Gaza after the attack by Hamas against Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
During his rally, Trump spotlighted local Muslim and Arab American leaders who joined him on stage. These voters ”could turn the election one way or the other,” Trump said, adding that he was banking on ”overwhelming support” from those voters in Michigan.
“When President Trump was president, it was peace,” said one of those leaders, Mayor Bill Bazzi of Dearborn Heights. ”We didn’t have any issues. There was no wars.”
While Trump is trying to capitalize on the community’s frustration with the Democratic administration, he has a history of policies hostile to this group, including a travel ban targeting Muslim countries while in office and a pledge to expand it to include refugees from Gaza if he wins on Nov. 5.
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