Star Tribune
Mankato man charged in shooting at Minneapolis police, holding grandmother, child at gunpoint
A Mankato man is charged with firing at Minneapolis police early Sunday as officers responded to an apartment where the suspect was holding a grandmother and child at gunpoint.
Kamau Evans, 31, was charged Wednesday in Hennepin County District Court with eight counts of assault and felony gun possession. He was transferred from the Hennepin County Jail to a different facility on a U.S. Marshals hold. He also faces federal gun charges and makes a first court appearance Wednesday afternoon.
According to the charges and police:
Officers learned an armed suspect was barricading himself in a Minneapolis residence where the grandmother said Evans pistol whipped her in the head and the 9-year-old said Evans pointed a gun at their head. He threatened to kill them.
As police began to force entry, a shot was fired in the direction of the five officers while the went up the stairs in a tactical formation. The lead officer carrying a ballistic shield announced “police,” and saw Evans pop around the corner and fire at them. Police did not return fire.
Evans jumped out a window and ran, but additional officers were able to arrest him and find the handgun that Evans was ineligible to have because of multiple felony convictions, including second-degree assault in 2013.
The grandmother was bleeding from the head injury that required seven staples.
Police Chief Brian O’Hara provided additional information at a news conference Sunday morning that wasn’t included in the charging document.
Police say that a woman at the apartment had filed an order for protection against Evans, and the domestic incident began with police responding to a ShotSpotter notification at 3:27 a.m. in the 2300 block of W. Broadway in north Minneapolis. There also was a 911 call reporting a man with a gun in the residence.
A 74-year-old grandmother, a 23-year-old and the child were inside with Evans. He had fired into the house, which police say caused the ShotSpotter technology to detect the gunfire.
Evans was also allegedly connected to a call of a man that had into an apartment on the 2400 block of Ogema Place in south Minneapolis and was threatening to kill the mother of his child, according to Minneapolis police. A woman and her 19-year-old and infant sons were at the residence. No one was injured at the apartment, and the man had left.
This is a developing story. Check startribune.com for updates.
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.”
