Star Tribune
Willmar man under observation at hospital stabbed employee multiple times
A 31-year-old Willmar man is facing felony charges for reportedly stabbing an employee multiple times Monday while he was under observation at CentraCare-Rice Memorial Hospital.
Darrick M. Whelan was charged with one felony count of second-degree assault and one felony count of third-degree assault Wednesday in Kandiyohi County District Court.
According to court documents, officers were dispatched to the hospital’s emergency room just after 11:30 a.m. Monday for an “out-of-control patient who was being combative.”
The responding officer found hospital staff attempting to secure Whelan in a restraint chair and learned Whelan had stabbed a 53-year-old female employee with a a nine-inch spring-loaded folding knife.
The officer observed several stab wounds on the woman’s left chest, one of which was very deep and gushed blood as he tried to document it.
A security guard in the emergency room said Whelan was acting “pretty shady” and, while Whelan was in a hospital room, started “digging around his back side and grunting, as if he was trying to pull something out of his backside or buttocks,” according to the charges.
Multiple witnesses said Whelan emerged from his room suddenly and immediately attacked the employee, who was sitting in a chair and unable to retreat because the chair was pushed up against medical equipment.
Security footage shows Whelan swinging his arm back toward the security guard who was trying to restrain Whelan, documents state. Once Whelan was restrained, staff stitched up cuts on his left hand. He was then transported to Kandiyohi County Jail.
A news release issued Monday by Willmar Police Department stated Whelan was at the hospital for “an apparent mental health issue” and “has a significant history of erratic behavior and is currently on probation for a different second-degree assault case.” Court records show Whelan was previously convicted of property damage, disorderly conduct, drug possession and theft.
As of Tuesday, the woman was still hospitalized and documents state she required one additional night at the hospital. Records indicate she was stabbed in the breast, left chest, left shoulder and left forearm.
CentraCare spokesperson Karna Fronden on Wednesday said the safety and health of employees, patients and visitors are the organization’s top priorities.
“Events like this are happening far too frequently at health care facilities around the country, and we are not immune,” Fronden said. “Our thoughts are with the employee who is recovering from their injuries as well as the staff who suffered emotional distress as a result of this incident.”
Whelan was issued a public defender at his first court hearing Wednesday. His next hearing is scheduled for June 11.
Star Tribune
Trump wanted generals like Hitler’s and said Nazi leader ‘did some good things,’ John Kelly claims
WASHINGTON — Donald Trump’s longest-serving chief of staff is warning that the Republican presidential nominee meets the definition of a fascist and that while in office, Trump suggested that Nazi leader Adolf Hitler ”did some good things.”
The comments from John Kelly, the retired Marine general who worked for Trump in the White House from 2017 to 2019, came in interviews with both The New York Times and The Atlantic. They build on a a growing series of warnings from former top Trump officials as the election enters its final weeks.
Kelly has long been critical of Trump and previously accused him of calling veterans killed in combat ”suckers” and ”losers.” Still, his new warnings came just two weeks before Election Day, as Trump seeks a second term vowing to dramatically expand his use of the military at home and suggesting he would use force to go after Americans he considers ”enemies from within.”
”He commented more than once that, ‘You know, Hitler did some good things, too,”’ Kelly recalled to The Times. Kelly said he would usually quash the conversation by saying ”nothing (Hitler) did, you could argue, was good,” but that Trump would occasionally bring up the topic again.
In his interview with The Atlantic, Kelly recalled that when Trump raised the idea of needing ”German generals,” Kelly would ask if he meant ”Bismarck’s generals,” referring to Otto von Bismarck, the former chancellor of the German Reich who oversaw the unification of Germany. ”Surely you can’t mean Hitler’s generals,” Kelly recalled asking Trump. To which the former president responded, ”Yeah, yeah, Hitler’s generals.”
Trump’s campaign denied these stories on Tuesday, with Steven Cheung, a Trump campaign spokesman, arguing Kelly has ”beclowned himself with these debunked stories he has fabricated.”
Polls show the race is tight in a string of swing states, and both Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris are crisscrossing the country making their final pitches to the sliver of undecided voters.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Harris’ running mate who served 24 years in various units and jobs in the Army National Guard, quickly used the interviews to assail Trump on Tuesday night.
Star Tribune
Officials await word on whose remains were found in camper that burned in Aitkin County
Officials are awaiting word on whose remains were found in a camper that burned overnight this week in northern Minnesota.
The Aitkin County Sheriff’s Office said it was alerted about 8:15 a.m. Monday by a caller about the camper having caught fire roughly 10 miles north of McGregor at a residence in Shamrock Township.
Law enforcement showed up and found the remains inside, the sheriff’s office said. They have since been sent to the Ramsey County Medical Examiner’s Office for identification.
The State Fire Marshal is heading the investigation into what led to the fire.
You hear a lot of women saying they’d rather be alone in the woods with a bear, not a man, because they considered the man to be more dangerous.
I always chose the man, because my interactions with men have generally been positive, and a man wandering through the woods seemed likely to be a hunter or a naturalist or just someone out enjoying nature. Someone reasonable. Someone more likely to harbor a save-the-maiden fantasy than a desire to harm. Bears, on the other hand, if they have it in their head to attack, there is little you could do but try to survive.
A recent visit to Ely’s North American Bear Center changed my mind. Not that I think less of men, but that I think more of bears. Black bears, at least.
The Bear Center provides refuge to three black bears, at least one of whom would have been otherwise euthanized. There’s Lucky, abandoned or orphaned as a cub, who was begging for food near Madison, Wis., and who came within an hour of being put down before a rescuer whisked him off to Ely. There’s Tasha, fat, sleek, and gorgeous, discovered in 2015 in Kentucky trying to nurse on her dead mother, who was believed to have been hit by a vehicle. And Holly, separated from her mother during an Arkansas fire, and who had slipped off to hibernate before our visit.
The bears were fascinating, delicately lipping up cranberries and shelling out nuts with their back teeth during our visit. We learned that their sense of smell is seven times stronger than that of a bloodhound, and that they can smell through an organ on the roof of their mouths.
In fact, sometimes they’ll stand erect and open their mouths – which looks threatening, but it’s really just to get a better sense of their surroundings, said Spencer Peter, assistant director and biologist at the center.
Hollywood trains them to stand like that for movies, he said. “But they’ll dub in the sound.”
