Star Tribune
Federal grand jury investigating how Burnsville shooter acquired guns used to kill first responders last month
A federal grand jury is investigating last month’s deadly shooting of three first responders in Burnsville, according to an ex-girlfriend of the shooter who said she testified during the secret proceedings this week.
Noemi del Carmen Torres said she was the first of five people called by prosecutors on Tuesday for questioning before the panel. She said she was asked about Shannon Cortez Gooden’s history of possessing firearms and whether he would have been able to force her to buy any guns on his behalf.
“No, I don’t want any of that because I feel like he was gonna kill me,” Torres said in an interview Tuesday, noting that Gooden was abusive toward her. “I feared for my life, and that’s what I told them.”
Gooden, 38, was legally barred from possessing firearms or ammunition when he used multiple firearms to unleash 100 rounds during an hourslong Feb. 18 standoff in the 12600 block of S. 33rd Avenue that claimed the lives of officers Paul Elmstrand and Matthew Ruge, both 27, and firefighter-paramedic Adam Finseth, 40, before Gooden fatally shot himself.
Torres said she lived with Gooden from 2006 to 2016 and shared three children with him, each of whom were among the seven children present with Gooden at the time of the shooting. Torres’ youngest daughter, age 12, was in the room with Gooden as he turned his gun on himself. Gooden lived at the Burnsville home with another woman with whom he shared multiple children. Officers responded to the home shortly before 2 a.m. on Feb. 18 after receiving reports of a sexual assault.
A conviction in 2008 for second-degree assault in Dakota County prohibited Gooden from possessing firearms or ammunition. In August 2020, Gooden petitioned the court unsuccessfully to regain his right to a gun. He said that he wanted to protect himself and his family, according to court records.
One of the firearms seized by law enforcement was bought illegally in what is commonly called a “straw purchase,” the owner of the gun shop where the weapon was obtained weeks before the shooting has previously said. John McConkey told the Star Tribune last month that an AR-15 lower receiver was picked up by the purchaser at the Modern Sportsman Gun Shop and Range in Burnsville, roughly 6 miles from where Gooden lived. McConkey said at the time that he did not know whether that weapon was fired during the standoff.
“Straw purchasing” is a state and federal crime and occurs when a person legally able to buy a firearm does so on behalf of a prohibited person, and in the process lying on required federal paperwork at the time of the sale.
The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension reported seizing several firearms and a large amount of ammunition at the scene of last month’s shooting. They also recovered cartridge casings that showed Gooden had fired “more than 100 rifle rounds at law enforcement and first responders,” the agency said.
Torres said she received her subpoena last Thursday and testified Tuesday without a lawyer. She said a prosecutor asked about her history with Gooden, whether he would have been able to force her to buy guns for him and whether he still wanted to possess guns despite being barred from doing so.
“I told them, yeah, he still wanted the gun rights. He was very adamant,” Torres said, adding that he was abusive towards her. “I told him flat out: No, I don’t want guns in the house. You’re gonna kill me or I’m gonna kill you. It’s gonna be one or the other.”
Torres said Gooden would instead carry knives for protection, which she deemed dangerous enough. “I was scared of that, too.”
A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Minnesota said the office cannot confirm or deny the activity of a grand jury, a secret process that is required to bring criminal indictments.
Torres said she did not recognize the other four people called to testify on Tuesday.
A message was also left seeking comment from McConkey, the gun store owner. He said last month that the AR-15 lower receiver “was purchased from an out of state online retailer and shipped to our shop for transfer” to the buyer. “The purchaser passed the [FBI] background check and took possession of the firearm on January 15th.”
McConkey emphasized that his gun shop “had no way of knowing the lower receiver would end up in a convicted felon’s/prohibited person’s possession. [Gooden] was not there during the transfer process, nor was his name on any of the enclosed documents.”
Staff writer Paul Walsh contributed to this report.
Star Tribune
Biden calls out Musk over a published report that the Tesla CEO once worked in the US illegally
NEW YORK — President Joe Biden slammed Elon Musk for hypocrisy on immigration after a published report that the Tesla CEO once worked illegally in the United States. The South Africa-born Musk denies the allegation.
”That wealthiest man in the world turned out to be an illegal worker here. No, I’m serious. He was supposed to be in school when he came on a student visa. He wasn’t in school. He was violating the law. And he’s talking about all these illegals coming our way?” Biden said while campaigning on Saturday in Pittsburgh at a union hall.
The Washington Post reported that Musk worked illegally in the country while on a student visa. The newspaper, citing company documents, former business associates and court documents, said Musk arrived in Palo Alto, California in 1995 for a graduate program at Stanford University “but never enrolled in courses, working instead on his startup. ”
Musk wrote on X in reply to a video post of Biden’s comments: ”I was in fact allowed to work in the US.” Musk added, ”The Biden puppet is lying.”
Investors in Musk’s company, Zip2, were concerned about the possibility of their founder being deported, according to the report, and gave him a deadline for obtaining a work visa. The newspaper also cited a 2005 email from Musk to his Tesla co-founders acknowledging that he did not have authorization to be in the U.S. when he started Zip2.
According to the account, that email was submitted as evidence in a now-closed California defamation lawsuit and said that Musk had apllied to Stanford so he could stay in the country legally.
Musk is today the world’s richest man. He has committed more than $70 million to help Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and other GOP candidates win on Nov. 5, and is one of the party’s biggest donors this campaign season. He has been headlining events in the White House race’s final stretch, often echoing Trump’s dark rhetoric against immigration.
Trump has pledged to give Musk a role in his administration if he wins next month.
The only debate between DFL U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar and GOP challenger Royce White started Sunday on the street outside WCCO Radio.
As White approached the building, he loudly called some two dozen flag-waving and cheering Klobuchar supporters a “whole lot of commies.” The 33-year-old provocateur and podcaster also told them to thank Republican former Vice President Dick Cheney — who endorsed Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris — because there was “no chance in hell” that Harris would defeat Republican former President Donald Trump on Nov. 5.
Klobuchar, 64, had arrived moments earlier, smiling and wishing “good morning” to her supporters. Once inside, the two took questions for an hour from moderator Blois Olson. Their tone was generally polite with White often interrupting a Klobuchar response with, “rebuttal,” indicated he wanted to respond.
The senator repeatedly raised White’s claims on X, formerly Twitter, that “The bad guys won in World War II” and that there were “no good guys in that war.” She called that stance offensive to veterans.
U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar arrives at WCCO Radio for a debate with Royce White in Minneapolis on Sunday, Oct. 27. (Richard Tsong-Taatarii)
Klobuchar, who is seeking a fourth six-year term, portrayed herself as a pragmatist. She opened by saying that we live in “incredibly divisive times politically” but that she has listened and worked with Republicans to bring down shipping costs, drug prices for seniors and to help veterans and push for more housing and child care.
“Courage in this next few years is not going to be standing by yourself yelling at people,” she said, her opening allusion to White’s rhetoric, which she said is often vulgar.
White, a former NBA player, is a political novice, but a close ally of Steve Bannon, the jailed former chief strategist for Trump and right wing media executive. Last summer, White won the state GOP endorsement to run against Klobuchar.
“Our country’s coming undone at the seams. I think we can change that,” White said in his opening statement. He said he threatens the status quo, decried the “permanent political class” and referred to the two major parties as the “uniparty.”
Other buildings destroyed at Khojir and Parchin likely included buildings where Iran used industrial mixers to create the solid fuel needed for its extensive ballistic missile arsenal, Eveleth said.
In a statement issued immediately after the attack Saturday, the Israeli military said it targeted ”missile manufacturing facilities used to produce the missiles that Iran fired at the state of Israel over the last year.”
Destroying such sites could greatly disrupt Iran’s ability to manufacture new ballistic missiles to replenish its arsenal after the two attacks on Israel. Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, which oversees the country’s ballistic missile program, has been silent since Saturday’s attack.
Iran’s overall ballistic missile arsenal, which includes shorter-range missiles unable to reach Israel, was estimated to be ”over 3,000” by Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, then-commander of the U.S. military’s Central Command, in testimony to the U.S. Senate in 2022. In the time since, Iran has fired hundreds of the missiles in a series of attacks.
There have been no videos or photos posted to social media of missile parts or damage in civilian neighborhoods following the recent attack — suggesting that the Israeli strikes were far more accurate that Iran’s ballistic missile barrages targeting Israel in April and October. Israel relied on aircraft-fired missiles during its attack.
However, one factory appeared to have been hit in Shamsabad Industrial City, just south of Tehran near Imam Khomeini International Airport, the country’s main gateway to the outside world. Online videos of the damaged building corresponded to an address for a firm known as TIECO, which advertises itself as building advanced machinery used in Iran’s oil and gas industry.
