Star Tribune
Metro Transit saw its busiest month of the year in August
Through Network Now, the agency plans to introduce 20 new routes in areas that currently do not have service, and bring on-demand service to six additional suburbs. Metro Transit is expanding its microtransit service to Roseville and Woodbury this year to provide better connections to regular-route transit.
In Woodbury, that means helping transit users access the new Gold Line, a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) line that will run along Interstate 94 between downtown St. Paul and Maplewood, Oakdale, Landfall and Woodbury, starting in 2025.
By 2027, Metro Transit plans to have four new rapid bus lines in service and open the Green Line Extension, the light-rail line running from downtown Minneapolis to Eden Prairie that is also known as Southwest LRT.
“We are making a significant investment in our transportation network, so it’s essential that we listen and respond to riders, local partners and community members across the region as we plan for the future,” Met Council Transportation Committee Chair Deb Barber said.
Feedback and input on the plan can be submitted online through Nov. 15. The agency also will hold a series of in-person public information sessions during October. They include 5:30 p.m. Oct. 1 at the Hopkins Pavilion, 11000 Excelsior Boulevard, and 11 a.m. Oct. 8 at Central Library, 300 Nicollet Mall, Minneapolis.
Online meetings will take place at 5:30 p.m. Oct. 7 and Nov. 7.
Star Tribune
St. Cloud man gets life in prison for fatally shooting co-worker he became ‘infatuated with’
FOLEY — A Benton County judge on Friday sentenced a 38-year-old St. Cloud man to life in prison for fatally shooting a woman outside her workplace in 2022 after she repeatedly rebuffed his advances.
In August, a jury found Michael J. Carpenter guilty on one count of first-degree premeditated murder and one count of second-degree murder, both felonies, in the homicide of 28-year-old Nicole M. Hammond of St. Cloud.
Hammond, the youngest of five siblings who loved animals and nature, was fatally shot by Carpenter the morning of Oct. 24, 2022 in the parking lot of Dubow Textile, the company in St. Cloud where they both worked.
“Our world has been shattered,” Nicole’s sister, Amy Hammond, said Friday during the sentencing hearing that was attended by about three dozen people, many of whom wore shirts adorned with Nicole’s picture. The back of the shirts, designed for a memorial walk that raised awareness for domestic violence, stated, “No Means No.”
Carpenter planned Hammond’s murder after becoming “infatuated with her,” said Erin Eldridge, a prosecuting attorney from the state Attorney General’s Office, during the sentencing.
As co-workers, Carpenter and Hammond became friends in summer 2022 but he then developed deeper feelings that she didn’t share, Eldridge said. The night before Carpenter shot Hammond, she had texted him saying she did not want to be touched by him and told him not to make things uncomfortable at work, documents state.
“He stewed about it all night,” Eldridge said. Carpenter then drove to work, walked up to Hammond in the parking lot and shot her in the neck with a 9-millimieter pistol.
“The defendant saw those last breaths and he took off,” Eldridge said. “[He] left her there to die.”
Two people were injured when a small plane crashed in a Shakopee park Friday afternoon.
City officials said the crash happened inside Scenic Heights Park about 12:30 p.m., and two people who had been aboard the aircraft were taken to Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis. The names of the people on board the plane and their medical conditions weren’t immediately available.
“Thankfully, the crash happened far away from the playground and the fitness court and the amenities of the park,” so no one else was injured, said Amanda McKnight, a spokesperson for Shakopee.
The Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board are taking over the investigation into what caused the twin-engine Piper PA-44 to crash.
The safety board said in a statement that “preliminary information available is the plane crashed in a field under unknown circumstances” and the wreckage will be taken offsite for further investigation. The FAA said its preliminary report should be available in the coming days.
An Iowa man visiting St. Paul was “targeted and executed” following a night out with friends earlier this week, according to murder charges filed against his alleged killer.
The Ramsey County Attorney’s Office charged 22-year-old Kueth Chuol Ngut with two counts of second-degree murder. His appeared in court Friday and is scheduled to reappear on Oct. 24. Judge Kelly Olmstead set bail at $3 million.
On Friday the St. Paul Police Department identified the victim as Lul Dak Chak, 32, of Ames, Iowa, who bowled with friends sometime before being gunned down. According to charging documents, Ngut and another suspect planned to kill Chak.
Just past midnight on Sept. 17, a caller reported hearing gunshots and someone lying on the ground the parking lot of an apartment building at 1222 University Avenue West. Police found Chak there with multiple gunshot wounds to his torso, neck and face. He was unconscious and not breathing. A cell phone, broken necklace and 19 bullet casings were nearby.
Medics pronounced him dead at the scene, and an autopsy by the Ramsey County Medical Examiner confirmed that Chak died from nine gunshot wounds.
Chak’s cousin witnessed the shooting, telling police that they were smoking outside the apartment complex after returning from a birthday party. Chak told her he was buying narcotics. Moments later, a man exited a Subaru parked in the lot and began shooting at them. The cousin dropped to the ground and said that Chak leaped in front to protect her.
A friend who also witnessed the shooting said the three were outside for a smoke when a person wearing all black got out of the front passenger seat of a vehicle and shot at them. They also claimed that the car was in the lot with its headlights off before shots rang.
Investigators reviewed surveillance footage which showed the Subaru driving in the area 20 minutes before the shooting, moving to different spots in the parking lot. When Chak walked outside, two peopled got out of the car and shot at him. He fell to the ground.
