Star Tribune
Police suspect the same Texans who lossoed an exterior ATM in Roseville targeted others in Minnesota
The four Texans charged with lassoing a Roseville bank’s ATM holding thousands of dollars in cash last month and yanking it free with a pickup truck are also suspected of similarly targeting three banks in Minnesota and two others in the Midwest, according to recently filed court records.
Roseville police said in a search warrant affidavit filed last week in Ramsey County District Court that they believe the men employed the same criminal tactic outside the Wings Financial Credit Union in Savage on Nov. 8, Minnwest Bank in Farmington on Nov. 19 and Mayo Credit Union in Rochester on Nov. 22.
The list in the filing, which asked for court permission to seize data from the men’s cellphones, also points to the four hitting a bank in Springfield, Mo., on Oct. 20 and Hiawatha National Bank north of Milwaukee in Trenton on Nov. 20.
Roseville police say the FBI is looking into their ultimately failed heist because it bears a striking resemblance to crimes committed elsewhere in the U.S. by the “Hook and Chain Gang” based out of Texas.
“Since 2020, ATMs throughout the United States have been accessed or damaged by persons operating with the same modus operandi,” the affidavit read. “Persons from TX, using stolen-heavy duty trucks, and utilizing a hook and chain, have attempt to or successfully gained access to over 50 ATMs.”
Charged in connection with theft and property damage in the Roseville case on Dec. 12 are Houstonians Christopher E. Merchant, 23; Larry D. Gill, 23; Kenneth D. Brown, 23; and Leonard D. Williams, 25. All were released from custody after posting bail and have court hearings in the coming weeks. A fifth suspect was charged but had his case dismissed due to what the County Attorney’s Office described as lack of probable cause.
Descriptions of the crimes from police in Savage, Farmington and Rochester on Tuesday were nearly identical: A drive-up ATM was attached to a chain connected to a pickup and pulled from its foundation in the middle of the night. In each instance, the ATMs were located nearby, and the perpetrators eluded capture.
In the Roseville case, bank video surveillance captured Merchant taking a crowbar to the ATM containing $5,000 outside the Great Southern Bank near County Road B2 and N. Fairview Avenue about 4 a.m. before he and Williams connected it to chains attached to the nearly 3-ton pickup, the charges read.
Gill joined in trying to lift the ATM, but it fell over and never left bank property, the charges continued.
The Minnesota Department of Transportation closed part of a state highway Wednesday evening near Austin because of a “major hazardous materials release” in the area.
Hwy. 56 from Hayfield to Waltham, a stretch covering about five miles, was closed in both directions and drivers were directed to follow a detour to Blooming Prairie on U.S. Hwy. 218.
No information on the hazardous materials released was immediately available.
A federal judge dismissed a civil lawsuit against Minnesota state trooper Ryan Londregan in the shooting death of Ricky Cobb II during a 2023 traffic stop.
The decision is the latest development in a case that has drawn heated debate over excessive use of force by law enforcement. Criminal charges against Londregan were dismissed by Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty in June, saying the prosecution didn’t have the evidence to proceed with a case.
On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Nancy E. Brasel granted Londregan’s motion to dismiss the civil suit, arguing he acted reasonably when he opened fire as Cobb’s vehicle lurched forward with another state trooper partly inside.
Londregan’s attorney Chris Madelsaid Wednesday that it’s been a “long, grueling journey to justice. Ryan Londregan has finally arrived.”
On July 31, 2023, the two troopers pulled over Cobb, 33, on Interstate 94 in north Minneapolis for driving without taillights and later learned he was wanted for violating a felony domestic no-contact order. Cobb refused commands to exit the car.
With Seide partly inside the car while trying to unbuckle Cobb’s seatbelt, the car moved forward. Londregan then opened fire, hitting Cobb twice.
In her decision, Brasel said the troopers were mandated by state law to make an arrest given Cobb’s domestic no-contact order violation. She said it was objectively reasonable for Londregan to believe Seide was in immediate danger as the car moved forward on a busy highway, which would make his use of force reasonable.
GREEN BAY, Wis. — Donald Trump walked down the steps of the Boeing 757 that bears his name, walked across a rain-soaked tarmac and, after twice missing the handle, climbed into the passenger seat of a white garbage truck that also carried his name.
The former president, once a reality TV star known for his showmanship, wanted to draw attention to a remark made a day earlier by his successor, Democratic President Joe Biden, that suggested Trump’s supporters were garbage. Trump has used the remark as a cudgel against his Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris.
”How do you like my garbage truck?” Trump said, wearing an orange and yellow safety vest over his white dress shirt and red tie. ”This is in honor of Kamala and Joe Biden.”
Trump and other Republicans were facing pushback of their own for comments by a comedian at a weekend Trump rally who disparaged Puerto Rico as a ”floating island of garbage.” Trump then seized on a comment Biden made on a late Wednesday call that “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters.”
The president tried to clarify the comment afterward, saying he had intended to say Trump’s demonization of Latinos was unconscionable. But it was too late.
On Thursday, after arriving in Green Bay, Wisconsin, for an evening rally, Trump climbed into the garbage truck, carrying on a brief discussion with reporters while looking out the window — similar to what he did earlier this month during a photo opportunity he staged at a Pennsylvania McDonalds.
He again tried to distance himself from comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, whose joke had set off the firestorm, but Trump did not denounce it. He also said he did not need to apologize to Puerto Ricans.
”I don’t know anything about the comedian,” Trump said. ”I don’t know who he is. I’ve never seen him. I heard he made a statement, but it was a statement that he made. He’s a comedian, what can I tell you. I know nothing about him.”
