Star Tribune
Columbia Heights barber charged with setting fire to Shoreview barbershop
A Columbia Heights barber forced to close his longtime shop has been charged with setting fire to a different barber shop in Shoreview.
Dennis Manning, 55, was charged Friday in Ramsey County District Court with first- and second-degree arson in connection with the fire Wednesday evening at Pauly Ray’s Sports Barbershop.
Manning was a barber at Sportsmen’s Barbers in Columbia Heights for 22 years. He was forced to close last month after the owners of his building, which no longer meets code and is in need of a new fire sprinkler system, planned to sell. In a Nov. 11 Facebook post, Manning said he was eyeing a new location elsewhere in Columbia Heights.
On Wednesday, Ramsey County sheriff’s deputies and the Lake Johanna Fire Department responded a little before 7 p.m. to reports of a fire inside Pauly Ray’s. Crews made a forced entry and found the shop fully engulfed in smoke, according to the criminal complaint.
The fire had activated the shop’s sprinkler system, which extinguished the flames, charges said. The floor was flooded with water from the sprinklers.
Firefighters traced the fire’s origin to an area of the shop with video game setups. According to the charges, security footage shows Manning pulling a lighter out of his pocket and burning a cloth on top of a video game console before leaving. The fire grew for about 20 minutes before the sprinkler system activated, charges said.
The footage showed people inside the mall connected to the barbershop trying to open the doors to put out the fire, but they were locked, according to the complaint.
At 8 p.m., a deputy at the scene saw Manning on his phone and arrested him.
Manning allegedly told investigators that he set a string on a cloth on fire but thought he patted the cloth down to put it out, the complaint said.
Manning remained in Ramsey County jail as of Friday evening. His attorney did not return a request for comment.
The owner of Pauly Ray’s told deputies he had previously worked at Manning’s barbershop, the complaint said. The owner also said Manning had rented out a chair at Pauly Ray’s to work for the last two days after Manning’s business closed.
The owner said Manning had “repeatedly” asked him about opening a new barbershop together in Columbia Heights, but that he had no intention of closing his Shoreview location, the complaint said.
Messages to Pauly Ray’s Barber Shop were not returned. The store’s interior was “completely gutted” by smoke and water damage and had to close, the complaint said.
Friends of Manning’s launched a GoFundMe last month to help reopen Sportsmen’s Barbers in a new location. The online fundraiser had raised more than $8,500 of a $75,000 goal as of Friday. In his Facebook post, Manning said his plan was to use the money “to help renovate the space to make it the best barbershop for my clients.”
Sportsmen’s Barbers was known for its autographed sports memorabilia displays.
Star Tribune
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, on the campaign trial, gives a pep talk to the Mankato West High School Scarlets, a team he once coached.
MANKATO – The football players in their pads jogged out to face their rivals Friday night as Gov. Tim Walz, back home briefly as he campaigns across the country as vice presidential nominee, cheered them on.
“Don’t forget to have fun, enjoy,” Walz told players on the football team at Mankato West High School, where he worked as a geography teacher and assistant football coach before launching a political career that carried him to the Democratic Party’s national ticket.
Since choosing Walz as her running mate, Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris has touted his background as a football coach, hunter and gun owner, as Democrats reach out to Midwestern voters and look for inroads with men.
Walz’s stop in Mankato is one of a series of media stops in the battleground states of Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, where the governor is talking high school football and hunting.
“This is the best of America,” Walz told reporters after greeting the players of Mankato West ahead of their rivalry game with Mankato East. He said he would visit his old classroom, before heading to watch the game.
A quarter center ago, Walz was the assistant defensive football coach for the 1999 Mankato West football team that won the state championship. That year’s crosstown rivalry game was a spark for Mankato West as it headed toward its state championship, said John Considine, a Mankato West alum and right tackle on that 1999 Class 4A championship team.
“It’s good to have him back,” Considine said Friday.
Local Republicans called Walz’s appearance a stunt. “They’re getting desperate to get the word out,” said Yvonne Simon, chair of the Blue Earth County GOP, adding she’s doesn’t think the governor’s “coach” branding is catching on.
“There’s a fair amount of stuff we’ve digested over the years,” Kerfoot told the Star Tribune at the time of the sale. “It’ll take a while to pick all of it out of me.”
In recent years, he and Sue have spent summers in Minnesota and then traveled back to Missouri to be close to family for the rest of the year.
Visitors love to drop in and talk about Justine Kerfoot or Bruce Kerfoot or the years they spent working at the lodge, Fredrikson said. He’s found that Bruce’s energy seemingly matched that of his mother, who died in 2001 when she was 94.
“He was one of those people that was able to get stuff done more easily or better than other people,” Fredrikson said. “Maybe because of who he was, or maybe because the stars align for this kind of person.”
In a social media post, Kerfoot’s family said they had peace knowing he and his mother “were paddling together to their shore lunch spot.”
Mark Hennessy knew Kerfoot for 40 years, but has had a closer view for the past three years. He said without Kerfoot, the Chik-Wauk Museum and Nature Center, located near the end of the Gunflint Trail, wouldn’t exist. Whenever there was a work project, the executive director said, Kerfoot would show up.
A teenage motorcyclist was killed in a collision with an SUV at a Burnsville intersection, officials said Friday.
The crash occurred shortly after 7:30 p.m. Thursday at Burnsville Parkway and Interstate 35W, police said.
The motorcyclist was identified by the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office as Peter Vsevolod Genis, 17, of Burnsville.
An SUV driver was turning left from westbound Burnsville Parkway to northbound 35W when Genis went through a red light while heading east and struck the SUV.
The SUV driver and a woman with him, both from Burnsville, were not hurt.
The other vehicle was a Mercedes SUV. The driver was a 30-year-old male from Burnsville, with a 29-year-old female passenger from Burnsville. Neither of them was injured.
