Star Tribune
Trooper charged in fatal Rochester crash had history of reckless driving
ROCHESTER – Thirteen months before state trooper Shane Roper was involved in a crash that killed an Owatonna high school student, he had been reprimanded for another on-duty wreck less than a half-mile away.
And like the fatal crash in May, Roper was cited in the previous incident for using excessive speed without emergency signals while in pursuit of a driver suspected of committing a petty traffic violation.
But the parallels between the two events end there.
On May 18, Roper slammed his squad car into the side of a vehicle attempting to make a turn at a busy Rochester intersection, killing 18-year-old Olivia Flores and seriously injuring five others. He was charged Tuesday with second-degree manslaughter and criminal vehicular homicide in Flores’ death.
Before the wreck, Roper had been reprimanded by his supervisors four times in eight years for his role in crashes that happened while on duty. In each event, Roper was faulted for reckless or careless driving, according to public records obtained by the Star Tribune. In at least two of the incidents, he was found to have been traveling well above the speed limit without the use of his lights or siren.
Roper’s discipline for the four crashes amounted to two days of unpaid suspension and two written warnings.
On April 10, 2023, just over a year before the fatal crash, Roper was on patrol along a busy stretch of Hwy. 52 in Rochester when he spotted a driver suspected of speeding. Roper accelerated to more than 90 miles per hour before cutting across all lanes of the highway to follow the car onto an off-ramp. He lost control of the squad car, left the roadway and crashed into a cable median barrier.
Investigators later determined that Roper failed to activate his emergency signals to notify other drivers on the road, a violation of State Patrol policy. He was suspended for one day without pay for his actions.
“Troopers are expected to operate department vehicles with exemplary driving behavior,” the incident complaint reads. “Trooper Roper’s excessive speed inhibited the ability to safely exit the highway.”
The 2023 incident had been the latest in a series of reckless driving decisions on Roper’s part.
In February 2019, Roper was issued a written reprimand for reckless driving after his squad car collided with another state vehicle, causing significant damage to both vehicles and injury to the other driver.
Then in May 2021, Roper was cited for striking another driver with his vehicle after going through a stop sign without his emergency signals on. Roper claimed not to have seen the stop sign, despite the fact that a “stop ahead” sign was posted 400 feet before the intersection. He was suspended for one day without pay.
Later that same year, Roper damaged his squad car by colliding with a deer, resulting in another written reprimand. The report says Roper was responding to an order for protection when he accelerated his vehicle to 77 mph while traveling on snow-packed roads. He was cited for not notifying dispatch of the call and failing to turn on his lights or sirens.
The State Patrol declined to answer questions about how Roper was allowed to continue with the patrol despite four prior reprimands for careless driving.
An investigation into the May fatal crash found that Roper was traveling 83 mph coming off Hwy. 52 onto a busy Rochester intersection near Apache Mall when he slammed into the passenger side of a car occupied by Flores, who died as a result of blunt-force injuries.
The investigation also revealed that earlier that same day, Roper — who had a 20-year-old passenger participating in a “ride-along” — had engaged in high-speed driving without emergency signals four times, at one point reaching 135 mph.
Olmsted County Attorney Mark Ostrem, whose office filed the charges Tuesday against Roper, said the trooper’s conduct violated the State Patrol’s core values.
“As with any other person driving recklessly and without regard to very basic rules of the road, Mr. Roper’s conduct cannot be tolerated,” Ostrem said in a statement.
Attorneys for the Flores family said Tuesday that they are weighing legal action against Roper. They also called on state leaders to launch an “open and independent investigation of the organizational failures” that led to the crash.
“It is heartbreaking and unacceptable to the Flores family that the state of Minnesota allowed Trooper Roper to be on the road in [a State Patrol] squad car after knowing that he posed a clear danger to others,” the attorneys wrote.
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.
