Star Tribune
Police suspect inside job when 2 armed robbers held up Hopkins grocery, split with $45K
The armed robbers who hit a Hopkins grocery last month and fled with tens of thousands of dollars from the safe had help from an employee who was working at the time, according to police.
The revelations of a suspected inside job came in a search warrant affidavit filed this week in Hennepin County District Court and confirmed Tuesday by Police Chief Brent Johnson to the Star Tribune as a “corroborated and correct” version of what went down late at night on Feb. 15.
So far, the suspected robbers, Darius C. Elam, 29, of St. Paul, and Ryan M. Elam, 28, of Brooklyn Center, have been arrested and charged with holding up the US Grocery and Tobacco in the 500 block of N. Blake Road.
At the time of charges being filed, Johnson said that what the store employees endured at the hands of the Elams “was horrific and deeply affected them.”
The charges and an earlier related court filing say the Elams, who police believe are cousins, entered the store brandishing semiautomatic pistols. Two employees were bound and blindfolded with duct tape. The manager, threatened with her life and pistol-whipped in the head, gave the robbers access to the safe, which was left $45,000 lighter, the charges read.
The Elams took the employees’ cellphones and other possessions, including the manager’s gun, and stole an SUV that police later learned was owned by one of the four suspected conspirators.
A search warrant affidavit filed Monday by police that asked a judge for permission to search the SUV used as a getaway vehicle, however, now paints a clearer picture of how the crime was planned and executed:
Police and the FBI monitored Ryan Elam’s jail phone calls and heard her tell her girlfriend to “keep her mouth shut,” the court document read.
On Thursday, the girlfriend admitted to law enforcement that the Elams and two women — one of whom worked at the store and the other who owned the SUV — planned the robbery. She added that she was present when Ryan Elam discussed the plan, including to have an all-female crew working at the time of robbery “to avoid having any male employees working that would cause them greater difficulty,” the filing noted.
The girlfriend said the deal was for the Elams and the two women to split the stolen cash evenly. She added that the conspirator who worked there was spared injury during the holdup. As of Tuesday, “no significant amount of cash has been located,” the police chief told the Star Tribune.
After the robbery, the girlfriend continued, Ryan Elam called her on Facetime and held the stolen cash up to her head. The Elams also bragged about pistol-whipping the manager.
The employee in on the plot was arrested Friday and admitted to law enforcement before her release that she knew about the robbery beforehand. The owner of the SUV also confessed to colluding in the scheme.
Charges have yet to be filed against anyone other than the Elams as the investigation continues, Johnson said. The Star Tribune generally does not identify suspects before they are charged.
Star Tribune
Trump denigrates Detroit while appealing for votes in a suburb of Michigan’s largest city
NOVI, Mich. — Donald Trump further denigrated Detroit while appealing for votes Saturday in a suburb of the largest city in swing state Michigan.
”I think Detroit and some of our areas makes us a developing nation,” the former president told supporters in Novi. He said people want him to say Detroit is ”great,” but he thinks it ”needs help.”
The Republican nominee for the White House had told an economic group in Detroit earlier this month that the ”whole country will end up being like Detroit” if Democrat Kamala Harris wins the presidency. That comment drew harsh criticism from Democrats who praised the city for its recent drop in crime and growing population.
Trump’s stop in Novi, after an event Friday night in Traverse City, is a sign of Michigan’s importance in the tight race. Harris is scheduled for a rally in Kalamazoo later Saturday with former first lady Michelle Obama on the first day that early in-person voting becomes available across Michigan. More than 1.4 million ballots have already been submitted, representing 20% of registered voters. Trump won the state in 2016, but Democrat Joe Biden carried it four years later.
Michigan is home to major car companies and the nation’s largest concentration of members of the United Auto Workers. It also has a significant Arab American population, and many have been frustrated by the Biden administration’s support for Israel’s offensive in Gaza after the attack by Hamas against Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
During his rally, Trump spotlighted local Muslim and Arab American leaders who joined him on stage. These voters ”could turn the election one way or the other,” Trump said, adding that he was banking on ”overwhelming support” from those voters in Michigan.
“When President Trump was president, it was peace,” said one of those leaders, Mayor Bill Bazzi of Dearborn Heights. ”We didn’t have any issues. There was no wars.”
While Trump is trying to capitalize on the community’s frustration with the Democratic administration, he has a history of policies hostile to this group, including a travel ban targeting Muslim countries while in office and a pledge to expand it to include refugees from Gaza if he wins on Nov. 5.
Star Tribune
‘Take our lives seriously,’ Michelle Obama pleads as she rallies for Kamala Harris in Michigan
”We are looking at a health care crisis in America that is affecting people of every background and gender,” Harris told reporters before visiting the doctor’s office.
Meanwhile, President Joe Biden went to a union hall in Pittsburgh to promote Harris’ support for organized labor, telling the audience to ”follow your gut” and ”do what’s right.”
Harris appeared with Beyoncé on Friday in Houston, and she campaigned with former President Barack Obama and Bruce Springsteen on Thursday in Atlanta.
It’s a level of celebrity clout that surpasses anything that Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, has been able to marshal this year. But there’s no guarantee that will help Harris in the close race for the White House. In 2016, Hillary Clinton lost to Trump despite firing up her crowds with musical performances and Democratic allies.
Trump brushed off Harris’ attempt to harness star power for her campaign.
”Kamala is at a dance party with Beyoncé,” the former president said Friday in Traverse City, Michigan. Trump, the Republican nominee for president, is scheduled to hold a rally in Novi, a suburb of Detroit, on Saturday before a later event in State College, Pennsylvania.
Tired of hearing about north Minneapolis kids having to go trick-or-treating in the suburbs, business owner KB Brown started throwing a costume bash at the Capri Theater with the goal of bringing together families and the organizations that care for them.
Now in its fourth year, that Halloween party has become a stone soup of community organizations cooking out, roller skating and giving away tote bags of candy to tiny superheroes and princesses.
Elected officials, including state Rep. Esther Agbaje, DFL-Minneapolis, and Hennepin County Commissioner Jeff Lunde, dropped in on the festivities Saturday to get out the vote in the final stretch of door-knocking season. KMOJ’s Q Bear DJed the party.
KB Brown and his grandson Zakari, 3. Brown founded Project Refocus, a nonprofit dealing with youth mentorship, security along the West Broadway business corridor and opioid response in the surrounding neighborhoods. (Susan Du/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
Farji Shaheer of Innovative SOULutions provided a bounce house and inflatable basketball hoops. A violence intervention professional who offers community training on treating traumatic bleeding, Shaheer recently purchased land in Bemidji to redevelop into a retreat center for gun violence survivors.
He in turn invited Santella Williams and Dominque Howard to bring Pull and Pay, a former Metro Mobility bus retrofitted as a mobile arcade full of vintage games such as “NBA Jam” and “Big Buck Hunter.” The bus was a pandemic epiphany for Williams and fiancé Howard when they suddenly found themselves with four kids and nowhere to take them after COVID-19 shut everything down. Pull and Pay now shows up to community events throughout the North Side.
Pull and Pay owner Dominique Howard showed kids, squeezed elbow to elbow, how to play “Big Buck Hunter” inside his homebuilt mobile arcade. (Susan Du/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
“This is the first time I’ve been able to come through, but we figured we’d stop by check it out. It’s so perfect, and such a beautiful day,” said Shannon Tekle, a Northside Economic Opportunity Network board member attending with her two-year daughter, both of them dressed as monarch butterflies.
“North Side, we’re a big family,” said Brown, proudly toting his grandson Zakari (a 3-year-old Chucky with candy-smeared cheeks) on one arm. “Everybody here is from the community.”
Trump denigrates Detroit while appealing for votes in a suburb of Michigan’s largest city
‘Take our lives seriously,’ Michelle Obama pleads as she rallies for Kamala Harris in Michigan
North Minneapolis Halloween party for kids brings families together
Trump denigrates Detroit while appealing for votes in a suburb of Michigan’s largest city
‘Take our lives seriously,’ Michelle Obama pleads as she rallies for Kamala Harris in Michigan