Star Tribune
Minneapolis police shot, injured man with projectile at bus stop during unrest
A recently filed lawsuit claims that a 56-year-old man was waiting for the bus — not protesting the police murder of George Floyd — when Minneapolis police fired a projectile at him from the Third Precinct roof.
More than three years later, the lawsuit contends, Abdi Edan Adam struggles with vision problems in his right eye and bears a conspicuous dent on his head. The math tutor living in Minneapolis said his injuries are “akin to the government-sponsored brutality he had sought refuge from in this country when fleeing Somalia.”
Attorney Paul Applebaum filed the lawsuit last week in Hennepin County District Court, but the case has since moved to Minnesota’s federal District Court. It seeks more than $1.5 million in damages from Minneapolis for violating Adam’s civil rights for excessive, unlawful use of force. The city, the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) and eight unnamed officers are listed as defendants.
Minneapolis has paid millions of dollars to settle claims of police brutality or officer misconduct in the aftermath of Floyd’s murder on May 25, 2020.
The day before protesters sent the Third Precinct up in flames, Adam, now 59, was in the vicinity of Minnehaha Avenue and Lake Street attempting to catch the bus home when he was struck, according to the lawsuit.
Applebaum in a statement said Adam was committing no crime and “utterly compliant.”
“What the MPD officer did was a grotesque use of unwarranted deadly force. Unfortunately, this episode was just another example of decades of abuse by the MPD against the citizens of Minneapolis.”
City spokesperson Casper Hill said in an email that the city is “declining any comment on this litigation at this time.”
According to the lawsuit, Adam was outside the precinct around dusk when the scene was calm. At the time, there was no order to disperse or curfew announced.
“Suddenly and without warning of provocation … officer John Doe 1 fired a rubber bullet, or 40 mm impact projectile, from the roof of the Third Precinct, striking Mr. Adam in the forehead,” the lawsuit reads.
No officials rendered aid to Adam. Instead, protesters took him to the hospital. He suffered a concussion, emotional trauma and medical bills, according to the lawsuit.
MPD and city officials said they supported peaceful protests, but at the same time police commanders and supervisors were authorizing “indiscriminate and unreasonable use of weapons against civilians,” the lawsuit maintains. Under MPD policy, officers are forbidden from deploying 40mm projectiles for crowd control purposes. Further, supervisors are required to respond any time one is used.
Officers violated MPD policy by not filing a use-of-force report. Had the report been filed, the identity of the shooter and witness officers would be known. The officers involved also had body-worn cameras. That video should have been included in the report.
Instead, supervisors turned a blind-eye and failed to hold officers accountable, the lawsuit claims. “[S]uch matters ensures that the Blue Wall of Silence remains intact.”
In findings released this summer, the U.S. Department of Justice determined that MPD routinely uses excessive force, fails to render aid to people against whom they have used force, and its inadequate review system contributes to a pattern of unlawful use of excessive force.
Applebaum referenced several other cases of civilians suffering similar injuries by MPD during the unrest, including Jaleel Stallings. Last year, Minneapolis paid Stallings $1.5 million in a federal lawsuit against the city and MPD for shooting him with a rubber bullet. When he returned fire at the unmarked van, not realizing they were police officers, he was beaten despite his immediate surrender.
Among other payments by the city:
Star Tribune
The story behind that extra cheerleading sparkle at Minnetonka football games
Amid the cacophony and chaos of the pregame preparation before a recent Minnetonka High School football game, an exceptional group of six girls is gathered together among the school’s deep and talented cheerleading and dance teams.
The cheerleaders, a national championship-winning program of 40 girls, dot the track around the football field. As the clock ticks down to kickoff and their night of choreographed routines begins, the six girls, proudly wearing Minnetonka blue T-shirts emblazoned with “Skippers Nation” and shaking shiny pom-poms, swirl around the track, bristling with excited energy.
Their circumstances are no different from any of the other cheerleaders with one notable exception: The girls on this team have special needs.
They’re members of the Minnetonka Sparklers, a squad of cheerleaders made up solely of girls with special needs.
A football game at Minnetonka High School is an elaborate production. The Skippers’ recent homecoming victory over Shakopee brought an announced crowd of 8,145. And that is just paying attendees; it doesn’t include school staffers, coaches, dance team, marching band, concession workers, media members and others going about their business attached to the game.
The Sparklers program, now in its 12th season, was the brainchild of Marcy Adams, a former Minnetonka cheerleader who initiated the program in her senior year of high school. Adams has been coach of the team since its inception, staying on through her tenure as a cheerleader at the University of Minnesota.
She started the program after experiencing the Unified Sports program at Minnetonka. The unified sports movement at high schools brings together student-athletes with cognitive or physical disabilities and athletes with no disabilities to foster relationships, understanding and compassion through athletics. Many Minnesota schools offer unified sports.
“I grew up in a household that valued students with special needs and valued inclusion,” Adams said. “I saw a need to give to those students. At Minnetonka, we have a strong Unified program, and this was a great opportunity to build relationships and offer mentorship opportunities.”
Star Tribune
Here’s how fast elite runners are
Elite runners are in a league of their own.
To get a sense of how far ahead elite runners are compared to the rest of us, the Minnesota Star Tribune took a look at how their times compare to the average marathon participant.
The 2022 Twin Cities Marathon men’s winner was Japanese competitor Yuya Yoshida, who ran the marathon in a time of 2 hours, 11 minutes and 28 seconds, for an average speed of 11.96 mph. He averaged 5 minutes and 2 seconds per mile.
That’s more than twice the speed of the average competitor across both the men’s and women’s categories, of 5.89 mph, according to race results site Mtec. The average participant finished in 4 hours, 26 minutes and 56 seconds. That comes out to an average time of 10 minutes and 11 seconds per mile.
And taking it to the most extreme, the fastest-ever marathon runner, Kelvin Kiptum of Kenya, finished the 2023 Chicago Marathon in 2 hours and 35 seconds, for an average pace of about 13 mph. Kiptum averaged 4 minutes and 36 seconds per mile.
Here is a graphic showing these differences in average marathon speed.
Star Tribune
Liberty Classical Academy sues May Township after expansion plans put on hold
The school said in its lawsuit that both Hugo and May Township consider the land rural residential zoning, and that the codes identify a school as a conditional use. Hugo officials have generally supported the LCA plan, granting a building permit in 2022 that allowed LCA to invest $2.1 million into the former Withrow school for renovations.
The school said in its lawsuit that the existing septic system is failing and needs to be replaced, regardless of expansion plans.
The school said it notified neighbors of the property in 2022 and again in 2023 about its land purchase. About 50 residents in total attended those meetings, and just two expressed concerns over the issues of traffic and lights, according to the suit. The school met with the May Township board in May of 2023, and minutes from that meeting show that the board had no concerns beyond lighting at the time, according to the suit. The board asked if the school could use “down lighting” for its athletic fields and the school said it would.
In June, Hugo City Council approved a conditional use permit for the school, but the May Township board voted to extend the decision deadline to early August.
The suit says it was at a subsequent meeting in July that May Town Board Chairman John Pazlar objected to the plan for the first time, saying “the main concern, based on public comment, is to keep Town of May rural.”
The school said its plans for the May Township portion of its property had been submitted eight months prior to the July meeting, and that its plans met requirements of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency.