Star Tribune
$10K reward posted in hopes of finding driver who fatally struck doctor as she walked her dogs
Family members joined the Minnesota State Patrol and the Mille Lacs County Sheriff’s Office on Wednesday to announce a $10,000 reward in hopes the money will lead to the discovery of the driver who hit and killed a longtime family doctor one month ago.
The hit-and-run crash occurred about 4:50 p.m. Nov. 13 on northbound Hwy. 169 about halfway between Vineland and Onamia near the southern shore of Lake Mille Lacs, while Cathy Ann Donovan, 56, and her dogs were out for a walk.
Donovan died at the scene. One of her dogs did not survive the crash; the other was not hurt, the Sheriff’s Office said.
Donovan was a doctor for the past 27 years in Onamia with Mille Lacs Health System, where she served as vice chief of staff for the health system and as medical director of its clinics.
“Mom was the best thing that ever happened to me,” Donovan’s 23-year-old son, Shan Donovan, said during a news conference in St. Paul announcing the reward.
“I started out my life [at] a little bit of a disadvantage,” he said, explaining that he was born in China with one arm, abandoned as a 1-year-old and placed in an orphanage with thousands of other kids.
“And then along came my mom,” he said. “She adopted me. She showed me what it was like to be loved, and accepted and what a family was.”
On the day he learned of his mother’s death, Shan Donovan revealed, he quit his job that night as a Fargo emergency medical technician and gave up his dream of working in health care beside his mother. He said the grief was more than he could bear.
“I’m struggling a lot right now,” he said at the one-month mark of his mother’s death.
Mille Lacs County Sheriff Kyle Burton said Donovan was well known in the community of 27,000, and served many through her practice, including himself.
“This has been a huge hit to our community, almost every single first responder that came to the scene personally knew her, so that was very difficult for them,” Burton said.
“I guess my ask for the community, as we move into the holidays,” the sheriff continued, “is somebody’s been keeping a secret since the 13th of November; somebody knows something, Dr. Donovan’s family is going to have to spend their first Christmas without her, and think about that as you spend time with your loved ones this Christmas season.”
Donovan’s father, George Donovan, attempted to read a statement before he was overcome with emotion.
“I’m having a hard time accepting the fact that Cathy is dead,” he said before her twin sister, Dr. Robin Councilman, took over reading his statement. “She’ll never be on the other end of the phone again, never at our weekly Zoom get togethers or family events.
“I cannot get my head around how anybody can drive off and leave someone in the road to die. I know Cathy cannot be replaced, but knowing why might help.”
In late November, the patrol released on social media a fuzzy image of the vehicle it has been looking for and described it as darker in color, either blue or metallic gray, with full-width taillights.
The patrol’s chief, Col. Matt Langer, followed Donovan’s son to the podium and said, “Someone out there knows something. … If it was you who was driving, and you were involved, the right thing to do is get this off your chest and come forward.”
Langer also directed his plea to anyone with an inkling of the driver responsible for Donovan’s death.
“So, if doing the right thing doesn’t motivate you, and money motivates you on top of it,” Langer continued, “thanks to the generosity of the family and others, there’s a $10,000 reward available if it puts us on the path to finding out who is responsible.”
The patrol said its contact on the case, Sgt. Jason Brown, who is standing by and can be reached at (218) 316-3026 or jason.brown@state.mn.us.
“Cathy lived a life of compassion and integrity,” Councilman said, “and we are asking that the public demonstrate that same compassion and integrity as we seek the person who killed her.”
Star Tribune staff writer Abby Simons contributed to this report.
Two men are dead and one woman was injured in a shooting at a homeless encampment in south Minneapolis on Sunday afternoon, police said. It was the second shooting at a Minneapolis encampment this weekend.
At about 2:20 p.m. Sunday, police responded to a reported shooting in the 4400 block of Snelling Avenue near the railroad tracks at the small encampment between Snelling and Hiawatha avenues. At the scene, officers found two men with fatal gunshot wounds, said Sgt. Garrett Parten Minneapolis Police spokesman. Responders rendered aid, but both men died at the scene.
A woman was found at the scene with life-threatening injuries and was taken to a local hospital where she was being treated Sunday night, he said. Police have yet to say whether the three were living at the encampment.
Officers detained three people, who Parten said have since been released after police found they were not believed to be involved in the shooting. No suspects had been identified as of 6:30 p.m. Sunday.
The shooting is the second at a southside homeless encampment this weekend. One man died and two were critically injured early Saturday at an encampment shooting near E. 21st Street and 15th Avenue S. On Sunday, the man was identified as Deven Leonard Caston, 31, according to the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office.
“We don’t know if there’s a connection between this homeless encampment shooting and the one that occurred yesterday,” Parten said on Sunday. “That is a consideration of the investigation. We can’t rule it out.”
Ward 12 Council Member Aurin Chowdhury, who represents the area and lives nearby, was at the site of the shooting Sunday afternoon. She said officials need information about what happened to better understand how to address situations like this long-term.
“This is an absolute tragedy, and this type of violence should never occur within our city,” she said. “It really makes me think about how we need to look at this more systemically and not just take a whack-a-mole approach and expect the problem to go away.
During Sunday’s Twitch stream, Walz and Ocasio-Cortez played Madden while discussing making homebuying more accessible, building affordable housing, eliminating student loan debt and raising the federal minimum wage.
After the match, Walz showed off his Sega skills in a round of “Crazy Taxi,” the Y2K-era racing game where gamers play as a taxi driver picking up passengers and taking them to their destination for cash.
Walz called himself a “first-generation gamer” and recalled playing “Crazy Taxi” when he bought a Sega Dreamcast. He also mentioned the Minnesota Star Tribune’s coverage of how his old game console was sold and ended up with a Plymouth resident, who still has it.
Afterward, Walz and Ocasio-Cortez watched a short clip of Trump denying on Rogan’s podcast that he lost the 2020 presidential election. Democrat Joe Biden won that year.
Ocasio-Cortez during the livestream also showed viewers her farm on the cozy, indie game Stardew Valley. Walz said the game reminded him of Minnesota: “You’ve got mining,” he said. “You’ve got agriculture. You’ve got snow.”
Before Walz headed out to a rally in Nevada, he pleaded with viewers to vote. More than 12,000 viewers tuned into the livestream on Ocasio-Cortez’s Twitch channel. More watched from Harris’ channel.
”Hey guys, they’re now scrambling and trying to call us Nazis and fascists,” said Alina Habba, one of Trump’s attorneys, who draped a sparkly ”MAGA” jacket over the lectern as she spoke. ”And you know what they’re claiming, guys? It’s very scary. They’re claiming we’re going to go after them and try and put them in jail. Well, ain’t that rich?”
Declared Hogan in his characteristic raspy growl: ”I don’t see no stinkin’ Nazis in here.”
Trump has denounced the four criminal indictments brought against him as politically motivated. He has ramped up his denunciations in recent weeks of ”enemies from within,” naming domestic political rivals, and suggested he would use the military to go after them. Harris, in turn, has called Trump a ”fascist.”
The arena was full hours before Trump was scheduled to speak. Outside the arena, the sidewalks were overflowing with Trump supporters in red ”Make America Great Again” hats. There was a heavy security presence. Streets were blocked off and access to Penn Station was restricted.
In the crowd was Philip D’Agostino, a longtime Trump backer from Queens, the borough where Trump grew up. The 64-year-old said it was appropriate for Trump to be speaking at a place bills itself as ”the world’s most famous arena.”
”It just goes to show ya that he has a bigger following of any man that has ever lived,” D’Agostino said.
