Star Tribune
Inmate found dead in Anoka jail ID’d as suspect from April standoff
Officials have identified the inmate found dead in the Anoka County Jail as a Big Lake man accused of holding a woman hostage during a standoff with police in Anoka earlier this year.
Richard Shane Daily II, 36, was found unresponsive in his jail cell a little after 11:30 a.m. on Saturday and pronounced dead there, the Anoka County Sheriff’s Office said in an initial news release. The identity was confirmed Tuesday by the Sherburne County Sheriff’s Office, which is investigating Daily’s death.
“The case is under investigation; the cause and manner of his death are pending the results of toxicology tests,” the office said in a statement Tuesday.
Responding medical staff included staff from Advanced Correctional Healthcare Inc. — which Anoka County contracts as a medical provider — and Allina Health’s emergency medical services.
Daily’s attorney did not return a call seeking comment Tuesday.
According to a criminal complaint, Daily robbed the Walmart on Ball Road NE. in Blaine on April 4, allegedly pointing a handgun at a Walmart employee as he left with stolen goods, charges say.
Officers identified Daily as the suspect and the next day tracked him to a car wash on the 600 block of East River Road in Anoka. He was in a vehicle along with a woman he was in a relationship with, Blaine Police Chief Brian Podany said at the time.
Daily rammed several police vehicles in the parking lot but remained trapped at the scene, Podany said. It turned into an hours-long hostage situation with the woman held in the vehicle.
Officers arrested Daily around 10:20 p.m. Podany said it was a “peaceful surrender” after long negotiations with Blaine and Anoka police and the Anoka County Sheriff’s Office SWAT team.
Two other Anoka County inmates died in custody this past summer. On July 21, Cristian Rivera-Coba, 22, died after he “became unresponsive” when being attended to by a detention deputy and medical staff with Advanced Correctional Healthcare Inc., Anoka County Sheriff’s Office Community Relations Coordinator Tierney Peters said at the time.
Rivera-Coba’s family held a protest at the jail Aug. 10 to demand answers about what led to his death. An investigation continues.
In another case, an Aug. 9 search warrant revealed the Sherburne County Sheriff’s Office would investigate the death of Miles Worner Jackson, a 24-year-old who died days after being admitted to the Anoka County Jail.
According to court documents, Jackson said he was suffering withdrawal symptoms in jail from previously snorting fentanyl powder. Advanced Correctional Healthcare Inc. staff visited Jackson three times for withdrawal symptoms that included cramps, vomiting and difficulty breathing. Jackson was found without a pulse in his cell on July 2.
Star Tribune staff writers Kyeland Jackson and Tim Harlow contributed to this report.
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.”
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.
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.
Helene disrupts yellow jacket, bee nests in North Carolina, prompting massive Benadryl, EpiPen requests
Hospitals across the U.S. face IV fluid shortage after Hurricane Helene
Hospitals across the U.S. face IV fluid shortage after Hurricane Helene
Helene disrupts yellow jacket, bee nests in North Carolina, prompting massive Benadryl, EpiPen requests
Hospitals across the U.S. face IV fluid shortage after Hurricane Helene