Star Tribune
Red Lake hosts vigils, ceremonies for two young boys killed in house fire
The Red Lake community is grieving two young boys who died in a house fire there last week, while their mother stands charged with the abuse and neglect of their younger brother.
Remi and Tristan Stately, ages 6 and 5, died following the house fire March 15, the day their youngest brother Ethan, 3, was the subject of a statewide Amber Alert. Their mother, Jennifer Stately, 35, has been charged with abuse, neglect and torture in Todd County after deputies arrested her shortly after the alert was issued and found the toddler covered in wounds.
Jennifer Stately remains in custody in Todd County jail.
The FBI is leading the investigation into the house fire and declined to repeated requests to provide any additional information. Officials would not say if the fatal house fire and Amber Alert are connected.
Red Lake fire and police departments are deferring all questions to FBI.
The Todd County Attorney’s Office declined to comment beyond the criminal charges and wouldn’t say if further charges were pending against Stately.
“It would be a very slow process for his healing,” hospital staff said of the toddler, according to charges. Staff said the wounds were not a skin condition and could be from a burn caused by heat or chemicals.
According to their obituaries, the brothers “travelled to the spirit world on March 16.” They were members of the Eagle Clan who granted their names Remi Leland Stately, Manidoo Inini “Spirit Man” and Tristan Collin Stately, Manidoo Gwiiwizens “Spirit Boy.”
Both boys were born in Bemidji to Jennifer Stately and Brian Graves Jr. The obituaries, shared Friday morning by Red Lake Nation News, describe their personalities and interests.
“Remi was a smart, funny, loving little boy who loved to play with his brothers, Tristan and Ethan. He loved Jessie from Toy Story and Molly from Bubble Guppies.”
“Tristan was an outgoing spirited little boy who loved playing with his brothers, Remi and Ethan. He loved anything “Sonic” and was protector of his brothers, even though he was the middle child.”
Red Lake Schools Superintendent Tim Lutz said the brother were in Head Start and first grade.
He said the school district was already planning to host a healing ceremony to commemorate the 19th anniversary of the Red Lake school shooting, but Lutz said they combined it “to pay respect and to support each other in the wake of the death of those two children.”
“We wanted to provide support for staff and our students who are aware of what happened with Tristan and Remi, but also getting ready for the remembrance of the shooting,” Lutz said in a phone interview this week.
Thursday marked the anniversary of Minnesota’s deadliest school shooting in 2005 when Jeff Weise, 16, had shot his grandfather, Red Lake police officer Daryl Lussier, and his companion, Michelle Sigana, before driving Lussier’s squad car to the high school. He shot security guard Derrick Brun, teacher Neva Rogers and five ninth-graders: Chase Lussier, Thurlene Stillday, Chanelle Rosebear, Alicia Spike and Dewayne Lewis.
Lutz said the ceremony in the middle of the school day for the Stately brothers was healing.
“People have been saying that they felt it was done well and was a positive experience,” he said. “While we want it to be a healing opportunity, we at the same time we don’t want to further traumatize people either.”
Also on Thursday, a walk of remembrance was held throughout Red Lake followed by a candle light vigil at the new community center. A staff member there said the family has asked for everyone to respect their privacy at this time.
A traditional wake will begin at noon Friday and continue until Sunday morning.
Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan and her daughter were among the throngs Friday as President Joe Biden delivered the apology that many Indigenous Americans thought would never come.
“I think he really said the things that people have been waiting to hear for generations, acknowledged just the horror and trauma of literally having our children stolen from our communities,” said Flanagan, a member of the White Earth Band of Ojibwe. “It’s a powerful first step towards healing.”
Hundreds of boarding schools operated in the 19th and 20th centuries, separating Indigenous children from their families and forcing them to assimilate to European ways. Many children were abused, and at least 973 died, according to a report from the U.S. Department of the Interior.
Other Minnesotans reacted similarly to Flanagan, saying they welcomed the apology but that additional action is needed to help Indigenous people move forward.
Anton Treuer, a professor of Ojibwe at Bemidji State University, wrote in a newsletter that the apology was “a welcome first step on the journey to healing.”
“There is no way to truly right historical injustices for the children buried at Carlisle, Haskell, and other schools, but these words set a new tone for the country and will help heal the anguish so many Natives have carried for so long,” Treuer wrote. “It gives me hope that we can come together to reconcile and heal our troubled nation.”
Sen. Mary Kunesh, DFL-New Brighton, the first Indigenous woman to serve in the state Senate, called Biden’s apology encouraging.
“This recognition of past wrongdoings is an important step towards healing relationships between the United States and the sovereign nations affected by these past systems,” Kunesh said in a statement. “This dark period of American history must be remembered and taught.”
“I have done everything in my power to remedy this situation, and it continues to get more and more violent by the day,” Moturi wrote. “There have been numerous times when I’ve seen Sawchak outside and contacted law enforcement, and there was no response. I am not confident in the pursuit of Sawchak given that Sawchak attacked me, MPD officers had John detained, and despite an HRO and multiple warrants — they still let him go.”
On Friday, five City Council members sent a letter to Mayor Jacob Frey and Police Chief Brian O’Hara expressing their “utter horror at MPD’s failure to protect a Minneapolis resident from a clear, persistent and amply reported threat posed by his neighbor.”
Council Members Andrea Jenkins, Elliott Payne, Aisha Chughtai, Jason Chavez and Robin Wonsley went on to allege that police had failed to submit reports to the County Attorney’s Office despite threats being made with weapons, and at times while Sawchak screamed racial slurs. Sawchak is white and Moturi is Black.
The council members also contend in their letter that the MPD told the County Attorney’s Office that police did not intend to execute the warrant for “reasons of officer safety.”
At a Friday afternoon news conference at MPD’s Fifth Precinct, O’Hara said police had been working to arrest Sawchak since at least April, but “no Minneapolis police officers have had in-person contact with that suspect since the victim in this case has been calling us.” The chief pointed out that Sawchak is mentally ill, has guns and refuses to cooperate “in the dozens of times that police officers have responded to the residence.”
O’Hara put aside the option to carry out “a high-risk warrant based on these factors [and] the likelihood of an armed, violent confrontation where we may have to use deadly force with the suspect.” The preference, he said, was to arrest Sawchak outside his home, but “in this case, this suspect is a recluse and does not come out of the house.”
ROCHESTER – The Federal Transit Administration has green-lighted an $85 million grant supporting the development of the city’s planned Link Bus Rapid Transit system.
The FTA formally announced the grant on Friday during a ceremonial check presentation outside of the Mayo Civic Center, one of the seven stops planned for the bus line. The federal grant will cover about 60% of the project’s estimated $143.4 million price tag, with the remaining funds coming from Destination Medical Center, the largest public-private development project in state history.
Set to go live in 2026, the 2.8-mile Link system will connect downtown Rochester, including Mayo Clinic’s campuses, with a proposed “transit village” that will include parking, hundreds of housing units and a public plaza. The bus line will be the first of its kind outside the Twin Cities — with service running every five minutes during peak hours.
“That means you may not even need to look at a schedule,” said Veronica Vanterpool, deputy administrator for the FTA. “You can just show up at your transit stop and expect the next bus to come in a short time. That is a game changer and a life-transformational experience in transit for those people who are using it and relying on it.”
The planned Second Street corridor is already one of the busiest roads in Rochester, carrying more than 21,800 vehicles a day, and city planners have talked for years about ways to reduce traffic congestion in the city’s downtown. Local officials estimate that the transit line, which will rely on a fleet of all-electric buses, will handle 11,000 riders on its first day of operation and save eight city blocks of parking.
Speaking to a crowd of about 100 people gathered on Friday, Sen. Amy Klobuchar said the project shows Rochester is thinking strategically about how it handles growth.
“If you just plan the business expansion, and you don’t have the workforce, you don’t have the child care, the housing or the transit, it’s not going to work very well as a lot of communities across the nation have found,” Klobuchar said.
