Star Tribune
What prompted chaos at the Minneapolis 10th Ward DFL convention?
They thought they’d be able to vote. They were wrong. They got angry.
Then things got out of control.
That’s the simplest explanation for why chaos and scuffling erupted Saturday at a Minneapolis DFL ward convention, according to videos of the event and several people who witnessed what happened from different vantage points.
While police continued to investigate the incident Monday, senior members of the city and state DFL Party prepared for a meeting later this week to get a handle on what happened, in what amounted to an embarrassment for the party — and to figure out how to prevent it from happening again.
What happened?
Saturday’s events unfolded at the DFL’s 10th Ward convention at Ella Baker Global Studies & Humanities Magnet School in Uptown, held to endorse a candidate — or issue no endorsement — for the ward’s City Council seat in the November election. The contenders were Council Member Aisha Chughtai, in her first term, and Nasri Warsame.
As Chughtai’s supporters took to the stage, backers of Warsame began shouting objections. In events captured on video by Minneapolis blogger John Edwards that quickly gained national attention, a group of Warsame supporters stormed the stage while scuffles broke out on the floor.
The convention was abruptly ended and technically remains in recess, according to a party official.
Several people went to the hospital or sought medical attention for non-life-threatening injuries, ranging from a possible concussion to a shoulder injury when one woman tried to stop a female Warsame supporter from shoving a table off the stage. No arrests have been made.
A host of officials and participants — including Chughtai, Warsame, Council President Andrea Jenkins and her opponent Soren Stevenson, state DFL Chair Ken Martin and Minneapolis DFL Chair Briana Rose Lee — have issued statements condemning what happened.
Why did it happen?
A number of Warsame supporters didn’t understand the sometimes quirky proceedings for a political convention, according to several people present. The fact that many of them spoke only Somali didn’t help.
“The main thing, I believe, was the language barrier,” Warsame said in an interview Monday. “Elders who came down, because of the language barrier, were in tears. They felt the process was not fair.”
Many of those elders, as well as others supporting Warsame, went to the convention in hopes they could cast a vote for him even though they hadn’t signed up in advance to be voting delegates, according to Warsame and Lee.
Under the convention’s rules, some people in that situation can be elevated to become delegates, and some were. But not all of them.
Lee, who was present at the convention but wasn’t running it, said Monday that Warsame’s supporters were intentionally misled about the process by Abshir Omar, the candidate’s campaign manager, “which led to a lot of mistrust.”
Lee noted that Omar served as political director on Bernie Sanders’ 2020 presidential campaign in Iowa, “so it’s hard for me to believe he doesn’t understand the caucus system and can’t accurately explain that to his supporters.”
Omar could not be reached for comment Monday, and Warsame declined to comment on Lee’s accusation against Omar. In a Facebook post, Warsame said Omar was assaulted in the melee and added: “We deeply regret the unexpected and unfortunate events.”
Lee said that while unruly behavior, intimidation and violence must be condemned, she doesn’t blame Warsame’s supporters for being upset.
“If I felt like my vote was being taken from me I would be angry, too, but that isn’t what was happening,” she said.
Why so out of control?
Warsame, wearing a gray suit, can be seen in the video leaning against a wall by himself — arms crossed or hands in pockets — as his supporters begin to storm the stage. At one point, he begins recording the mayhem with his cellphone. At least three minutes pass before he goes to the stage, raises his arms and tries to calm his supporters — to little avail.
Warsame said Monday that he had been trying to assuage his supporters for some time, but eventually felt powerless to stop them.
“Things got out of hand,” he said. “I tried to talk to them but they felt unheard. At some point, there’s nothing you can do.”
What’s next?
The DFL could decide to resume the 10th Ward convention — in person or virtually — or it could abandon the endorsement process. The latter option is frowned upon by many, since it could send the message that disrupting a convention can succeed.
Nothing yet has been decided, Lee said. “The state executive committee will determine the next steps,” she said.
That meeting, scheduled for Thursday, will also feature a proposal by Martin, the state party chair.
“I will be proposing a bylaw to ban individuals engaged in violent assaults from the DFL Party and will then take immediate action to remove the folks involved in Ward 10,” he tweeted.
Staff writer Faiza Mahamud contributed to this story.
Star Tribune
Former Hubbard County official, school bus driver gets six-year sentence for sex crimes against students
A former Hubbard County commissioner and school bus driver was sentenced Friday to six years in prison for sex crimes involving minors.
Daniel J. Stacey, 60, was charged in April 2023 with criminal sexual conduct and electronic solicitation of a minor, both felonies, in Beltrami County District Court. He was then charged in November with nine additional felony counts related to criminal sexual contact with a minor.
Stacey pleaded guilty in June to four felony counts as part of a plea deal that dropped the remaining charges. His attorney, Joseph Tamburino, declined to comment Friday on the sentence, and officials with the Nevis school district did not immediately respond to requests seeking comment.
Stacey resigned from the Hubbard County Board in January 2023 and was placed on leave from his school bus job during an investigation by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) that began after the parent of a Nevis student filed a complaint.
In an email Friday, Hubbard County Administrator Jeffrey Cadwell said he had no comment other than that Stacey’s actions “did not occur within the course and scope of his duties with the County and the County was completely unaware of them.”
According to a criminal complaint, Stacey offered to mentor a 13-year-old male on his bus route. He brought the boy to his property, asked him to watch pornography and tried to touch him in a sexual manner, court documents state.
The boy told investigators that Stacey told him not to tell anyone, and helped him rehearse what to say about doing chores at his property. Investigators said they found footage showing times Stacey would deactivate the school bus camera when the boy was the only student left on the bus.
A second criminal complaint outlines similar allegations against Stacey with a minor who was 14 years old.
Star Tribune
Woman charged as investigation into attack on north Minneapolis homeless shelter continues
A 33-year-old woman has been charged with two felonies in connection with an attack on a north Minneapolis homeless shelter that forced 54 women and children to relocate last week.
Eureka D. Riser, 33, of Minneapolis, is charged with second-degree rioting with a dangerous weapon and first-degree damage to property, according to the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office. She was in custody Friday, a day after Minneapolis police confirmed her arrest.
Riser, also known as Eureka Willis, is alleged to have been in a group of at least three people who on Sept. 5 went to St. Anne’s Place, 2634 Russell Av. N., and threatened residents, smashing doors with a baseball bat.
Residents were forced to vacate the shelter, leaving it boarded with plywood and watched over by armed security. Building managers estimate that property damage amounts to more than $10,000, according to the county attorney’s office. Additional charges may be brought against others involved.
“This violent attack on some of our most vulnerable community members, unhoused women and children, in a place where they had gone to seek shelter and safety cannot be tolerated,” Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said in a statement.
Hoang Murphy, the CEO of People Serving People, which operates the shelter, said earlier this week that the four-hour episode was the culmination of an argument between shelter residents and neighbors over street parking that started days earlier and spilled over into violence.
According to the criminal complaint, which cites surveillance footage, Riser allegedly swung a baseball bat against the shelter’s doors, shattering glass while residents were inside. Another member of the group pointed what appears to be a gun at the front door of the building, the complaint says.
Residents have since been relocated to a hotel for safety reasons, costing People Serving People $9,000 a night — a figure that Murphy called unsustainable.
A man who was shot and wounded by sheriff’s deputies in east-central Minnesota while resisting arrest received a six-month jail term Friday.
Leo H. Hacker, 71, was sentenced in Pine County District Court in connection with his guilty plea in two cases of assault, and obstructing and fleeing law enforcement in connection with his clashes with deputies in February 2023.
Hacker’s sentences will be served concurrently and includes Judge Jason Steffen setting aside a three-year sentence sought by the County Attorney’s Office. Steffen’s terms also include five years’ probation and community work service.
According to the charges in each case and related court documents:
On Feb. 21, deputies tried to pull over Hacker’s pickup truck on a gravel road about a mile from his Pine City home. As two deputies approached his vehicle, he drove toward them. Both deputies opened fire on Hacker and wounded him.
Hacker was wanted at the time on charges of second-degree assault and obstructing law enforcement in connection with allegations that he pointed a gun at a deputy outside his home on Feb. 14 and angrily defied orders to drop the weapon.
At one point, Hacker warned the deputies that if they did not leave, he would return with “something bigger,” the charges quoted him as saying.
The deputy was there to seize Hacker’s SUV stemming from a dispute over his unpaid attorney fees, the charges read. However, law enforcement outside the home “determined that based on the totality of circumstances, it was in the interest of safety to leave the scene at that time” and instead seek a warrant for Hacker’s arrest, the criminal complaint continued.
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