Star Tribune
Plane crashes in Brooklyn Park, hits vehicle; minor injuries reported
A small single-engine aircraft lost power and crashed on a north metro highway Tuesday morning and struck a vehicle before coming to rest.
The Piper PA-28 went down about 10:30 a.m. near the intersection of County Road 81 and West Broadway while on approach to the Crystal Airport, Brooklyn Park Police spokesman Elliot Faust said.
The 23-year-old pilot, who was the only person on the plane, unsuccessfully attempted to restart the engine and radioed the control tower that he was going to make an emergency landing, Faust said.
The plane clipped power lines before landing on the southbound lanes of County Road 81 and hitting a vehicle on the road, Brooklyn Park Fire Chief Shawn Conway said.
The pilot, whose name has not been released, suffered minor injuries but was not transported to a hospital. The lone person in the vehicle, a 32-year-old man, was taken to a hospital with noncritical injuries, Faust said.
The area is a mix of residential and commercial properties, and could have been much worse, Conway said.
“It certainly seemed he handled the situation really well,” Conway said. “He went through the emergency checklist and put the plane down where he was not seriously hurt.”
The plane registered to Thunderbird Aviation departed the Crystal Airport at 7:13 a.m. and was returning to the airport at the time of the crash, according to the flight tracking website Flightaware.com.
A spokesman for Thunderbird Aviation confirmed it was one of the flight school’s planes, but offered no further information.
Investigators from the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) arrived on the scene by Tuesday afternoon.
About 1,100 Xcel Energy customers lost power for about an hour, but had electricity restored by 11:50 a.m., utility company spokeswoman Lacey Nygard said.
Motorists can expect traffic disruptions in the area for the next few hours as the southbound lanes of County 81 remained closed, Faust said.
A third wildfire burning within the Superior National Forest was discovered Tuesday near Bogus Lake in Cook County.
The fire, 45 acres in size, was active overnight into Wednesday as firefighters and aircraft continued suppression efforts, according to the U.S. Forest Service. The cause is unknown.
Bogus Lake is less than 20 miles northeast of Grand Marais.
A drought has put much of the upper Midwest, from northern Minnesota to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, under “above normal” conditions for potential wildland fire, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.
The Bogus Lake Fire is the second wildfire to be discovered in the Superior National Forest this week and the third one actively burning since early September.
Monday, a fire was detected on the eastern side of Shell Lake, about 4 miles north of Road 116 within the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, in St. Louis County. That fire is less than one acre, with the potential to spread east near Agawato Lake and the Sioux-Hustler Hiking Trail, the Forest Service said.
That fire grew to 45 acres and half of it was contained as of Oct. 1, according to the Forest Service. It is suspected of being caused by humans. Firefighters remain assigned to the fire.
Star Tribune
Duluth man involved in chaotic aftermath of fatal stabbing turns himself in 6 months later
DULUTH – On the mid-April night that Chantel Moose was fatally stabbed outside a downtown bar, Trayvon Joseph Walters fired at least two shots toward the fleeing suspect and a man who was pistol-whipping the accused. Then Walters took off for six months.
Walters, 27, traveled back from Colorado and turned himself in to local law enforcement officials on Wednesday morning, according to his attorney, assistant public defender Aaron Haddorff. He faces charges of second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon — along with unrelated charges of second-degree assault from 2020 — and appeared before Judge Eric Hylden in the afternoon at the St. Louis County Courthouse. His bail is set at $250,000.
Kimonte Travion Cadge, 26, who was taken to a hospital for the gunshot wound Walters allegedly inflicted, was charged with second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon. He was extradited from Cook County Jail in Chicago and was booked in St. Louis County Jail in September.
According to the criminal complaint: Moose and Plummer, who is friends with Moose’s ex-boyfriend, got into an argument after bar close on April 12 outside Spurs on 1st Street. A bouncer intervened, and Plummer reached over him to take a swipe at Moose with a knife with a 4- to 6-inch blade. Moose backed up and walked away before she dropped to the sidewalk.
When Plummer saw her fall, he took off running.
Cadge chased him, pistol-whipped him, then fired his gun at him. Walters, according to the criminal complaint, fired at least two shots toward both men, then left in a vehicle. Cadge retreated to a nearby apartment before he was transported to the hospital.
Moose was pronounced dead at a hospital, with a stab wound to the right side of her chest.
Meanwhile, dollars have been flowing to state, local and tribal governments from settlements with opioid manufacturers and distributors. And Minnesota lawmakers approved $200 million last year to address substance abuse over the following four years, according to Gov. Tim Walz’s administration.
The state launched a portal last year for groups to access free naloxone, and according to the Department of Health it gave out 124,000 kits between last September and this July. But DeLaquil said funding ran out and people can no longer order kits through the portal. Many other organizations, like Steve Rummler HOPE Network, continue to distribute the medicine.
