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Police arrest five people in fatal Mall of America shooting

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Police arrested five people Saturday in connection with a fatal shooting the night before at the Mall of America, and Bloomington Police Chief Booker Hodges said all would face murder charges.

The victim, a 19-year-old man, was shot Friday night inside the Nordstrom department store at the Bloomington shopping destination, prompting an hourlong lockdown on one of the last nights of shopping ahead of Christmas. Police said the shooting was preceded by a disagreement between two groups of young men and juveniles.

Two 18-year-old men and three 17-year-old male juveniles were arrested, Hodges said. He said one of the 18-year-olds is believed to have been the shooter, but that one other person in the group may have also fired. Hodges said police are still looking for a sixth suspect.

The five were taken into custody Saturday morning at a residence in St. Louis Park by SWAT team officers from St. Louis Park, Edina and Minnetonka, Hodges said.

“In Bloomington, if you come here and murder people at our mall, you get one of these at Christmas,” Hodges said at an early evening press conference as he held up an orange prison jumpsuit. He said the suspects are refusing to describe what happened, but investigators believe it involved what Hodges called a longstanding feud between two groups.

Those arrested are likely to be charged on Tuesday, Hodges said. The victim’s name has not been released. Hodges said he and detectives have been in contact with the victim’s family members since last night.

Hodges said police have evidence that the five people they arrested stopped at a White Castle to pick up food after they fled the mall Friday night. “It appears they felt it necessary to get something to eat,” he said.

Mall of America officials said there was increased security and police presence at the mall Saturday, but did not detail whether security would increase or change going forward.

The mall was bustling Saturday evening. Sharita Robinson, who works at a store just outside Nordstrom, which was closed Saturday and had its metal grate pulled down, said the mall had been busy all day and that she saw lots of families with their children. Robinson, who’d been in the lockdown Friday night, said she would not have brought her own kids Saturday.

Gov. Tim Walz condemned the shooting Saturday.

“The violence at MOA last night is absolutely unacceptable,” Walz tweeted. “We are in touch with local officials to provide the support and resources they need.”

Hodges said Public Safety Commissioner John Harrington followed up with him and pledged help if requested. Hodges said the FBI, ATF and Hennepin County have been helping with the investigation.

The shooting sent nearby shoppers scrambling. Hodges said the first officer on the scene was on duty at a store near Nordstrom when he saw panicked shoppers running out of the department store’s entrance into the mall.

Some frightened shoppers shared video and details on social media Friday night. Several New York Giants players, including one of the team’s sportscasters, were visiting the mall ahead of their Christmas Eve game against the Vikings during the shooting. The team said in a statement that players were escorted out of the building by mall security and Bloomington police.

Friday’s shooting marks the third time within a year that gunfire erupted in Minnesota’s premier mall, one of the largest in the country. One man was shot in the leg and another was grazed by a bullet on the mall’s third floor last New Year’s Eve. An 18-year-old later confessed to the shooting, telling police that he was trying to escape pursuers who were upset with him about an earlier incident before firing when one of them nearly chased him down.

Months later another shooting sent the mall into lockdown for two hours when a dispute between two groups of people ended with several gunshots outside a Nike store. No injuries were reported. Weeks after that, a man armed with a long gun robbed a Lids store in the mall before being tackled and arrested by authorities.

Mall security had installed metal detectors at its north entrance on a trial basis, but it was unclear if those detectors were still in place Friday. Mall policy bans guns and fireworks from the premises, but gun-rights advocates have argued that permit-to-carry holders can bring firearms into the building’s common areas.

Around 40 million visitors explore the mall each year, according to its fact sheet, and about 40% are tourists. The mall contains more than 520 stores and rakes in nearly $2 billion in economic activity for Minnesota.

Hodges said authorities believe this is the second time since the mall opened in 1992 that someone was the victim of fatal violence there. The first was a domestic incident in 1999, he said.





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Pedestrian struck and killed by pickup truck in Shorewood

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A 65-year-old pedestrian was struck and killed by a pickup truck near Christmas Lake Friday afternoon as she was walking through a crosswalk, the Minnesota State Patrol said.

The woman was crossing Highway 7 around 1 p.m. when she was hit by a 2019 Ford F-150 turning left from Christmas Lake Road onto the highway headed east, the State Patrol said in its report. The intersection is just east of Excelsior, between Saint Albans Bay and Christmas Lake west of Minneapolis.

The Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office, Minnetonka police, and other agencies responded to the fatal collision. The State Patrol has not released the identity of the pedestrian.

The driver has not been arrested. Agencies are still investigating the collision, State Patrol Lt. Michael Lee said. Alcohol was not involved in the crash, the State Patrol said.



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Minnesota trooper charged with vehicular homicide no longer employed by state patrol

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Former trooper Shane Roper, 32, had his last day Tuesday, State Patrol Lt. Michael Lee said. Roper’s attorney did not immediately return a request for comment Friday evening.

In July, Roper was charged with criminal vehicular homicide and manslaughter. He was also charged with criminal vehicle operation related to five other people who were seriously injured in the incident.

The criminal complaint states that Roper had been pursuing someone “suspected of committing a petty traffic offense” as he exited Hwy. 52 onto 12th Street SW. As he neared the intersection with Apache Drive, he reportedly turned his lights off and continued to accelerate with a fully engaged throttle.

Roper was traveling at 83 mph with his lights and siren off as he approached the intersection, a Rochester police investigation found. The trooper’s squad car slammed into the passenger side of a car occupied by Olivia Flores, which was heading west and turning into the mall.

Flores died from the blunt force injuries. She was an Owatonna High School cheerleader and set to graduate June 7. There were two other people in the car with Flores.

Olmsted County Attorney Mark Ostrem said in a statement following the charges that Roper violated his duty in “a gross fashion.”

Roper told investigators he was not paying attention to his speed at the time of the crash, and that he believed his lights were still activated when he exited the highway.



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Park Tavern crash victim released from hospital, condition of 2 more improves

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Steven Frane Bailey, 56, of St. Louis Park was arrested in connection with the incident and charged with two counts of criminal vehicular homicide and nine counts of criminal vehicular operation. His blood alcohol content measured at 0.325% after officers administered a preliminary breath test at HCMC, according to charges filed in Hennepin County District Court.

In his first court appearance Wednesday, Bailey told a judge his use of alcohol is not a problem. He has an extensive history of drunken driving convictions, starting in 1985 in Wisconsin. Additional convictions followed in Wabasha County in 1993 and Hennepin County in 1998, according to court records. Two more convictions followed in 2014 and 2015.

A Hennepin County judge set his bail at $500,000 with several conditions, including that Bailey take a substance use disorder assessment, that he abstain from drinking alcohol, avoid Park Tavern and stay away from the victims and his family.

His next court appearance is tentatively scheduled for Oct. 1.

Staff writers Paul Walsh and Jeff Day contributed to this report.



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