Star Tribune
Duluth NAACP asks county prosecutor to drop charges against felon who turned in gun
DULUTH — Rummaging through his recently deceased brother’s vehicle last July in Duluth’s East Hillside neighborhood, Steven Cooper found a pistol.
Cooper, a 31-year-old felon who had been convicted of a violent crime as a teenager, knew he wasn’t supposed to possess a gun. So, he called his parole officer to turn it in, he said Thursday at a news conference on the steps of the St. Louis County Courthouse.
“I was honest from the start,” he said. “By doing the right thing, I am being punished.”
Cooper was arrested and then charged with felony possession of a firearm by the St. Louis County Attorney’s Office. He faces a return to prison for a minimum of five years.
The Duluth NAACP is calling on St. Louis County Attorney Kim Maki to drop the charges, alleging he’s being treated “unreasonably harshly” because he is Black.
Duluth NAACP President Classie Dudley said the charge sends a message to the community and to law enforcement working to keep guns off of streets.
“What this tells me is if you have an unregistered gun or if you are someone who has a gun that shouldn’t be in your possession, don’t turn it in,” she said.
In an unusual move, the St. Louis County Attorney’s Office released a lengthy statement about the case shortly after the news conference concluded.
The office stands by its charging decision based on initial evidence, the statement said, and with the investigation incomplete, it would be “premature to take action regarding the outcome of this case.”
“We remain open to whatever options are warranted when the investigation is completed. We will not, however, make legal decisions based upon community pressure or false and unfounded allegations of racism in charging decisions,” it said.
In 2006, when Cooper had just turned 15, he shot two convenience store clerks in their backs as he robbed a Duluth store. According to the Duluth News Tribune, both victims survived, but suffered collapsed lungs. Cooper was convicted of attempted murder and sentenced to 20 years in prison. He was released after serving 13.5 years.
The criminal complaint from the July incident says Cooper told his parole officer about finding the pistol and some ammunition among things left behind by his brother, who died the previous April. He had wrapped the gun in a sweatshirt and put it in a secure place inside his apartment building before calling the parole officer, who notified police.
An excerpt of police body camera footage released by the NAACP shows the responding officer telling Cooper, handcuffed in the back of a squad car, that he did “the right thing,” but he shouldn’t have touched the gun. The officer also told Cooper that his honesty about the situation “is probably going to go a long way.”
Dudley questioned why the County Attorney’s Office went forward with charges when the Minnesota Department of Corrections opted against sending Cooper back to prison.
“It would have been safer for him personally to throw [the gun] in the ditch or give it to someone else,” she said.
Cooper, who now lives in St. Louis Park, said he was placed on an on-call status for his job building tanks for the federal government following the new charge. He had to pawn his possessions to post bail in July. The prospect of returning to prison triggers fear and PTSD from his years spent there, and the trust in the justice system he emerged with upon release has “completely disappeared,” he said.
“I have no faith in the system,” Cooper said.
The case was charged by Tony Rubin, son of former St. Louis County Attorney Mark Rubin. Tony Rubin was hired by his father controversially in 2019 over more experienced prosecutors, the Duluth News Tribune reported then.
Cooper’s next hearing is May 12. The County Attorney’s Office said it expects the investigation to be complete by the end of April.
The Lynx are in the hot seat.
The team lost Game 3 of the WNBA Finals series against the New York Liberty on Wednesday night 77-80, setting the stage for a decisive match at Target Center on Friday night. Fans in the arena reacted with resounding disappointment after Sabrina Ionescu sunk a three-pointer to break away from the tie game and dashed the Lynx’s chance at forcing overtime.
Before we get to the reactions, first things first: The Lynx set an attendance record, filling Target Center with 19,521 spectators for the first time in franchise history. That’s nearly 500 more than when Caitlin Clark was in town with the Indiana Fever earlier this year.
Despite leading by double digits for much of the game, the Lynx began the fourth quarter with a one-point lead over the Liberty and struggled to stay more than two or three points ahead throughout.
The Liberty took the lead with minutes to go in the fourth quarter and folks were practically despondent.
Of course, there were people who were in it solely for the spectacle. Nothing more.
The Lynx took a commanding lead early in the first quarter and ended the first half in winning position, setting a particularly jovial mood among the fanbase to start the game.
Inside Target Center, arena announcers spent a few minutes before the game harassing Lynx fans — and Liberty fans — who had not yet donned the complementary T-shirts draped over every seat.
DULUTH – The Minnesota and Wisconsin transportation departments will make upgrades to the Richard I. Bong Memorial Bridge in the summer of 2025, in preparation for the structure to become the premiere route between this city and Superior during reconstruction of the Blatnik Bridge.
Built in 1961, the Blatnik Bridge carries 33,000 vehicles per day along Interstate 535 and Hwy. 53. It will be entirely rebuilt, starting in 2027, with the help of $1 billion in federal funding announced earlier this year. MnDOT and WisDOT are splitting the remaining costs of the project, about $4 million each.
According to MnDOT, projects on the Bong Bridge will include spot painting, concrete surface repairs to the bridge abutments, concrete sealer on the deck, replacing rubber strip seal membranes on the main span’s joints and replacing light poles on the bridge and its points of entry. It’s expected to take two months, transportation officials said during a recent meeting at the Superior Public Library.
During this time there will be occasional lane closures, detours at the off-ramps, and for about three weeks the sidewalk path alongside the bridge will be closed.
The Bong Bridge, which crosses the St. Louis River, opened to traffic in 1985 and is the lesser-used of the two bridges. Officials said they want to keep maintenance to a minimum on the span during the Blatnik project, which is expected to take four years.
Red Wing will celebrate the grand opening of its first permanent set of pickleball courts next week with an “inaugural play” on the six courts at Colvill Park on the banks of the Mississippi, between a couple of marinas and next to the aquatic center.
Among the first to get to play on the new courts will be David Anderson, who brought pickleball to the local YMCA in 2008, before the nationwide pickleball craze took hold, and Denny Yecke, at 92 the oldest pickleball player in Red Wing.
The inaugural play begins at 11 a.m. Tuesday, with a rain date of the next day. Afterward will be food and celebration at the Colvill Park Courtyard building.
Tim Sletten, the city’s former police chief, discovered America’s fastest-growing sport a decade ago after he retired. With fellow members of the Red Wing Pickleball Group, he’d play indoors at the local YMCA or outdoors at a local school, on courts made for other sports. But they didn’t have a permanent place, so they approached the city about building one.
When a city feasibility study came up with a high cost, about $350,000, Sletten’s group got together to raise money.
The courts are even opening ahead of schedule, originally set for 2025.
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