A grocery store cashier and Loring Park neighborhood fixture was killed by a man who allegedly impaled him with a golf club Friday afternoon, while the suspect with a history of mental illness is now jailed on suspicion of murder following a standoff.

Neighbors described the victim, 66-year-old Robert Skafte, as a friendly and familiar face at the Oak Grove Grocery for decades, leaving them shocked and saddened at the gruesome crime.

“We are broken; our hearts are broken,” said Manuela Torres, who lived next door to the store and said she was friends with Skafte.

Officers responded just before 1 p.m. to reports of a stabbing inside the store at 218 Oak Grove St. They found a man behind the counter with a golf club through his torso, Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said at a Friday night press briefing.

First responders provided aid until the cashier was transported to HCMC, where he later died, O’Hara said.

Early investigation found that the suspect had gathered some items in the store and went up to the counter before attacking the victim with the golf club, O’Hara said.

“It appears he then went behind the counter and then began to assault and bludgeon the individual behind the counter in a very grotesque way,” O’Hara said.

Police have not identified a motive, the chief added. “We will do our best to try and make sense of this, but this is horrific and absolutely senseless,” O’Hara said.

Stephanie Grey, who danced with Skafte as members of the Ballet of the Dolls troupe, said Saturday morning that he also was an occasional actor on local stages, and “was one of my dearest friends.”

Angela Otis, who lives across the street, said she saw through the window that the cashier had blood on his face. When he was brought out, she said, she saw he had a golf club sticking out from both sides.

Officers tracked the suspect to the apartment building across the street, where police say the 44-year-old barricaded himself.

After a nearly 6-hour-long standoff, he was arrested without incident, O’Hara said. Police used crisis negotiators, a SWAT team, drones and a bomb squad, according to police. The chief said he does not know if the suspect had any other weapons during the standoff. He was booked in the Hennepin County Jai on suspicion of murder, where his booking photo shows apparent cuts to his face. The Star Tribune generally does not identify suspects before they are charged.

According to emergency dispatch audio, the call at 12:55 to 218 Oak Grove Street originated as “unknown trouble” involving a victim where a metal pole was “stuck in him,” before medics confirmed it was a golf club. Police quickly identified the suspect at his residence across the street at 215 Oak Grove, who also was the subject of a person in crisis welfare check after he called 911 “wanting to speak to the FBI, refused to give further information.” He refused to come out of his 16th floor apartment when police arrived and a negotiator was called on scene.

Other than a drunken driving arrest, records show no criminal history for the suspect in Minnesota. He was ordered civilly committed for mental illness in Anoka County in January 2021, with a provisional discharge the following March. Court records show that at the time of the killing, he lived in a unit at neighboring 215 Oak Grove Street and was issued an eviction summons in November after his lease was not renewed. On Nov. 30 he failed to appear at a housing court hearing and was ordered evicted.

A memorial for Skafte was set up outside the store Friday night with candles, flowers and his photo. Torres was crying loudly as about a dozen neighbors gathered.

A similar outpouring of grief took place on social media, where Skafte was remembered someone who “cared deeply about his neighborhood and everyone in it—regardless of whether he knew you or not,” wrote one friend, Bill Holmes.

Skafte was not only graceful dancing ballet, Holmes continued, “he embodied grace in a human form throughout his life,” including when he started the Stevens Square Farmers Market roughly 16 years ago.

“Throughout the darkest moments of police and community violence, the civil uprising and the pandemic, Robert remained a beacon of glowing community and stability at Oak Grove Grocery,” Holmes wrote on Facebook. “He was there when I needed a soda, a social interaction, and someone to remind me of the power of goodness in the world. Though times were dark, the world was still good and Robert was living proof of that goodness with the most subtle yet powerful gestures.”

A couple apartments down, resident Justine Moran said she was having trouble processing the loss. She would often go inside for snacks and found all the employees to be friendly, she said.

“He was very kind, like everyone in there, honestly,” Moran said while sitting on a stoop with her dog. “It just feels very empty.”

Skafte would water the flowers along the sidewalk every day, Otis said, and she would often see him come outside to write a new saying on the chalk board outside the grocery.

“I looked at him as a brother,” Otis said. “I used to just sit in the store, BS with him, and he was always happy, he never made anyone sad.”

Torres said she wishes she could have been there to intervene, and that she thinks others in the neighborhood would have stepped in.

“I can tell you with certainty that if any one of us had been here, we would have taken a knife” for Skafte, Torres said.

Torres added that there was a period where he helped her out when she was struggling with mental illness.

“He picked me up,” she said. “And when I wouldn’t come in for two months, three months, he would say, where have you been?”

This was the 66th homicide in Minneapolis so far in 2023, according to the Star Tribune’s database. It’s also the fourth homicide in the last week.