Star Tribune
Drug use resource hub and safe injection site opens in north Minneapolis
Without a lot of fanfare, drug counselor Miles Hamlin opened a resource hub in north Minneapolis on Tuesday for drug users to get sterile needles, fentanyl test strips and Narcan. They can shower, do their laundry and cook a meal. People who come might even use drugs on site. The staff will be trained to reverse overdoses.
“We’re really trying to just focus on being a resource for people who use drugs to access no-barriers services,” Hamlin said, emphasizing that he would allow clients and the surrounding community to dictate how the center is used.
Hamlin founded the nonprofit Minnesota Overdose Awareness in 2022 after more than a decade holding vigils in Loring Park for friends and clients who have died, trying to bring attention to Minneapolis’ large racial disparities in overdoses. There were more than 1,000 fatal opioid overdoses in 2022 statewide, according to the Minnesota Department of Health. In the city of Minneapolis, Black people are four times more likely to die of an opioids than whites. For Native Americans, it’s 30 to 1.
To shift the public health response to one that embraces harm reduction — a medical philosophy that focuses on keeping drug users alive and reducing the spread of disease so they can eventually recover — last year the Legislature legalized and funded “safe recovery” start-ups that by definition include safe injection spaces, needle exchange and other health services.
Minnesota Overdose Awareness’ “Northside Hub” at 3859 Fremont Ave. N. technically includes every feature listed in the statute, but the nonprofit is keenly aware of the sensitivity surrounding ideas of “safe injection” or “overdose prevention” sites. Federal law still prohibits managing any facility “for the purpose of using a controlled substance,” and local communities don’t have much experience with them.
Last month, the Minneapolis City Council’s public health committee approved a joint grant application with Saint Paul to research and conduct community engagement around safe recovery sites, but the vote wasn’t unanimous, with. Council Member Michael Rainville opposed. He did not say why.
Before launching, Minnesota Overdose Awareness sought the approval of the Webber-Camden Neighborhood Association.
There was a lot of discussion. And while some community members attended the meeting to express their concerns and objections about how many people were going to congregate at the center and if there would be problems in the area after they left, the board felt their questions were answered “positively,” said Patricia Deinhart-Bauknight, the association’s executive director. “And you know, it’s a need in the community for sure.”
It’s no secret that public drug use exists in the neighborhood, and it would be helpful to have more candid resources, including naloxone training, she said.
“I just got a call [Tuesday] morning from a community member about drug dealing all around his house and he can’t get response from 311,” Deinhart-Bauknight said. “One of our past board members is having an issue because he owns a mini grocery store in the community and people are hanging out in the back and stuff.”
On Monday, Minnesota Overdose Awareness held an open house attended by dozens of harm reduction healthcare workers from across the metro. They showed off the renovated interior of what had been a dilapidated and water-damaged building that housed a former illegal nightclub run by the Zodiac Biker Club a decade ago. Board member John Roder fixed it up for about half a million dollars. There’s an office full of clean injection supplies, roomy bathrooms, washing machines, a kitchen and a den with a computer to browse job openings.
Other rooms are kept open for future partnerships. Board chair Paula DeSanto said the nonprofit is talking with Helix, a rapid homeless rehousing company, and the nearby Fremont Clinic, a primary care family practice.
“We have to try all kinds of things,” said Helix co-founder Adam Fairbanks. “So if the general population of Minneapolis is sick of having people on the streets, or super intoxicated at a bus stop … if we all decide that this is a good place for people to go, then I think there’s the support that’s needed to change the local laws to allow it.”
Jack Martin of Southside Harm Reduction Services, a group that delivers safe-use supplies, also attended the open house and came away with hope. In 2022, Southside Harm Reduction, as a sponsored organization of the Native American Community Clinic, received more than $5 million from the Bush Foundation to lay the groundwork for a south Minneapolis drop-in center that would provide a range of harm reduction services for people who use drugs, focusing on those who are also homeless and living unsheltered. That center is also envisioned as one that would be designed to pivot into a safe recovery center “if and when the community and city are ready.”
No Southside site has yet been identified, but the group is aiming to open in 2025.
“It’s beautiful,” Martin said of the Northside Hub. “And the services are absolutely needed over north, in terms of harm reduction, supplies, training and services staff. We’re really excited for them to open and can’t wait to see what happens.”
A 36-year-old Alexandria man was sentenced to about four months in jail after pleading guilty to secretly recording employees at a hospital where he previously worked as a custodian.
Corey R. Johns was arrested in May 2023 and charged with one gross misdemeanor count of interfering with privacy. He pleaded guilty in June, and on Monday Douglas County Judge Michelle Clark sentenced Johns to 364 days in jail.
Johns will serve 120 days in the Douglas County Jail and have the remaining 244 days stayed for two years of probation. Clark also ordered Johns to attend a sex offender treatment program. He was ordered not work in a location where women routinely change clothes, possess pornographic material or have unsupervised contact with vulnerable adults or anyone under the age of 18.
According to the criminal complaint filed against Johns, Alexandria police responded to a call at Alomere Health in May 2023 after three female employees found a phone propped up by a shoe and pointed toward the changing area in a locker room. Before police arrived, Johns asked the women to give his phone back to him, the complaint states.
Johns told police he started recording employees in February and had also recorded in a co-ed locker room. At the jail, staff found a pen on Johns that he said was another type of recording device he had used, according to the complaint.
After the arrest, a spokesperson from Alomere Health said Johns was no longer affiliated with the organization.
“The safety and security of our staff has always been of the utmost importance. We are devastated that this has occurred and even the thought of this behavior by anyone is reprehensible,” the spokesperson said in a written statement. “The Alomere Health Human Resources team is working directly with employees who may have been impacted.”
Star Tribune
Nearly 10-year term for man who posted pic of him driving 150 mph before causing fatal wreck
A man has received a nearly 10-year term for documenting himself driving 150 miles per hour and posting his feat on social media moments before he crashed into the rear of another car southeast of St. Cloud and killed a passenger in the other vehicle.
Hunter M. Buckentine, 24, of Avon, Minn., was sentenced Monday in Sherburne County District Court after pleading guilty to criminal vehicular homicide and criminal vehicular operation in connection with the collision about 1:10 a.m. on Aug. 19, 2023, along Hwy. 10 in Clear Lake Township.
With time in jail after his arrest, Buckentine is expected to serve the about 6¼ years of his 9⅔-year term in prison and the balance on supervised release.
Buckentine was heading west on Hwy. 10 near SE. 97th Street in his Infiniti Q50 and struck a Chevy Cobalt from behind, according to the State Patrol. The impact sent the Cobalt into a ditch to the right, where it rolled several times, the patrol said. Buckentine’s car left the road, caught fire and hit a line of trees.
The Cobalt’s passenger who died was identified as Jordan D. Kramer, 34, of Clarissa, Minn. Kramer died at the scene. He was not wearing a seat belt, the patrol said. Another passenger, Candice C. Pooler, 39, also of Clarissa, sustained critical injuries, according to the patrol. The Cobalt’s driver, Lindsey K. Soiseth, 35, of Lake Lillian, Minn., also survived her injuries.
Also suffering noncritical injuries were Buckentine and his passenger, 21-year-old Trenton C. Michels, 22, of Becker, Minn., the patrol said.
Court records show that Buckentine’s driving history includes three convictions for speeding and another for careless driving in connection with him crashing his car in May 2022 east of St. Cloud in Santiago Township.
Star Tribune
Man accused of Lyndale Avenue gunfire, homicide near Willmar is ID’d by law enforcement
A murder charge could come as soon as Thursday against a 25-year-old man who’s accused of firing shots from an apartment balcony in the heart of Minneapolis’ Lyn-Lake neighborhood before he fled and shot two people near Willmar as he attempted in vain to evade law enforcement in a high-speed chase.
The suspect, who is from Hopkins, remains held without bail in the Kandiyohi County jail on suspicion of second-degree murder in connection with a shooting Tuesday afternoon.
Kandiyohi County Attorney Shane Baker said he’s not expecting to file charges Wednesday. Charges are also pending in Hennepin County stemming from the early afternoon gunfire. The Star Tribune generally does not identify suspects before they are charged. Minnesota court records show nothing in the man’s criminal background other than a minor drug paraphernalia conviction and numerous parking and driving violations.
Tuesday’s events unfolded shortly before 1 p.m., when police were called to an apartment complex at the 2900 block of Lyndale Avenue S., where the man fired off several rounds into the street from the building’s top floor.
Police shuttered the busy intersection and surrounding blocks from W. 28th to Lake streets in the densely populated commercial and residential corridor as they attempted to negotiate his surrender.
According to a Tuesday night release from the Kandiyohi County Sheriff’s Office, the man traveled west through several counties and then shot and injured a man at a rural Kandiyohi County residence. Police say the suspect then fatally shot a motorist that he attempted to carjack at the Hwy. 71 and Hwy. 23 bypass southeast of Willmar. Police were eventually able to take the man into custody. He was jailed in Kandiyohi County on charges that include murder.
A medical examiner will release the victim’s name after an autopsy and family is notified.
“Today, multiple lives were put in harm’s way, with one person sadly losing their life,” Kandiyohi County Sheriff Spokesperson Imran Ali said in a statement. “Our hearts go out to the victim’s family. Please continue to hold the victims, their families and our first responders in your prayers today.”
