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Long prison term awaits man for rolling Minneapolis shootout that led to SUV hitting, killing teen

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A long prison term awaits a man who admitted to his part in a rolling gun battle on a downtown Minneapolis street that resulted in one of the two vehicles hitting and killing a teenager standing at the corner with her scooter.

Christopher L. Walker, 35, of Fridley, pleaded guilty this week in Hennepin County District Court to third-degree murder and second-degree attempted murder in connection with the late-night feud in the North Loop on Oct. 6, 2021, that killed Autumn Rose Merrick, 18, of Minneapolis, who was riding a scooter after leaving work.

The plea agreement between the County Attorney’s Office and the defense calls for Walker to receive a term ranging from 21 ¾ to 24 ¼ years, with two-thirds of the time spent in prison and the balance on supervised release. Sentencing by Judge Juan Hoyos is scheduled for March 18.

Co-defendant Marvel G. Williams, 35, of St. Paul, was sentenced in March to a term of 24 ¼ years after he pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and a gun possession count.

According to the charges:

Police responded to the sound of gunfire shortly after 11 p.m. near N. 5th Street and 6th Avenue, where officers soon saw a black Range Rover speeding into the intersection and then heard a loud crash. The Range Rover hit a light pole and caught fire. The other vehicle, a silver Dodge Durango, rammed into a building.

Walker, Williams and another person in the Range Rover were seriously hurt.

A friend with Merrick said the two of them were riding scooters to the Holiday gas station at that intersection and standing on the corner where the Durango sped toward them. The friend said the Durango hit Merrick, pushed her into a building and left her trapped beneath the vehicle. Officers saw two bullet holes in the Durango.

Video surveillance from a nearby business appeared to show the Range Rover chasing the Durango just before they crashed.

Also this week, the driver of the Durango, 37-year-old Larvell Elmore, of St. Peter, Minn., was sentenced to a five-year term after pleading guilty to illegally possessing a gun while being a felon.

Elmore explained in October, when he entered his plea in writing, that “[I] was driving down the street and someone started shooting [at] me. [I] tried to get away, crashed my car and was hospitalized. The police searched my car and found an inoperable firearm.”



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Detroit Lakes, MN, missionary killed in “act of violence” in Africa

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The lead pastor of Lakes Area Vineyard Church in Detroit Lakes said that a missionary was killed in an act of violence Friday in Angola, Africa.

Beau Shroyer moved there in 2021 with his wife, Jackie, and five children. They were working with the missionary organization SIM USA, founded in 1893 in Charlotte, N.C. SIM USA president Randy Fairman shared in a message to the Lakes Area Vineyard congregation that the Shroyers were one of the first families to move to Angola after pandemic lockdowns eased.

Fairman said many details are still unknown about Shroyer’s death. He said he got a call Friday “informing me that Beau Shroyer was killed while serving Jesus in Angola and is now with his Savior.”

“It is my belief that from his vantage point, he can see how his family will be cared for, and it is not hard for him to trust our good Father,” Fairman wrote. “From our perspective and the perspective of Jackie and the kids, we now must trust Jesus in a season that we never imagined. We must trust Him without requiring Him to give us an understanding of why He allowed this. It is difficult and stretches our faith.”

Troy Easton, lead pastor of Lakes Area Vineyard Church, said in a message to congregants that “Moments like these create so many unanswerable questions for us and it adds to the pain to know that we may never understand why our Father has allowed something like this to happen.”

“As more details became available regarding what’s next for the family, what arrangements are being made to celebrate and honor Beau’s life, and practical ways you can love and serve them, we will be certain to share them with you.

Along with his wife, Shroyer, 44, a former Detroit Lakes police officer and real estate agent, leaves behind children Bella, Avery, Oakley, Iva and Eden.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.



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Duluth’s Haunted Ship makes Forbes’ Scariest Haunted Houses list

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This year, its jump-scares and lore landed it on Forbes’ list of “7 of the World’s Scariest Haunted Houses” alongside a 160-room mansion in California filled with “occult oddities,” a house built on an old cemetery near Chicago, and a haunted theme park in New Zealand built on the grounds of an old psychiatric hospital. The Haunted Ship, as the Irvin is known in October, is open just one more night — from 6:30 to 10 p.m. on Halloween.

“But this isn’t just a manufactured scare factory,” according to Forbes’ scare scouts, who reportedly visited the ship and had the VIP experience — which includes controlling the dialogue of a disembodied skull as visitors stream past. “In 1964, a sailor died on the ship during a boiler room accident, prompting the Duluth Paranormal Society to investigate the ship. Employees have reported seeing unexplained shadows, hearing phantom footsteps, and had objects thrown at them while doing maintenance work.”

The pilot house of the William A. Irvin is covered in cobwebs during October, a stop on the VIP tour of the seasonal Haunted Ship. (Jana Hollingsworth / The Minnesota Star Tribune)

The tour twists through the ship’s nooks, crannies and areas specific to its life on the Great Lakes — like a few gruesome dining areas where bloodied limbs are scattered about. There are creepy clowns and Victorian-era beings who stare wordlessly. A sink runs with bloody-colored water and a skeleton sits in a muddied bathtub surrounded by its innards.

The VIP experience offers a chance to roam through the ship’s living quarters alongside an ethereal character in the role of Irvin’s second wife. She sashays through the space with tales from the past, then allows you entry into private spaces where a saw blade rests in a sink and a body meant for the morgue vibrates with electrical waves on a bed. It offers a chance to dip into the pilot house, where wheels and gears are draped in cobwebs, offset in the opposite direction by a fresh perspective on the Aerial Lift Bridge.

The view from the Haunted Ship offers a new perspective on the Aerial Lift Bridge. (Jana Hollingsworth / The Minnesota Star Tribune)

There are countless dark corners for jump scares, strobe lights and tight spaces with hidden exits. There is a place designed to trigger claustrophobia. And there are mind-bending questions: Is that a person in that chair or isn’t it? Who is making that growling-moaning sound? What is that smell?

The final question is answered at the exit of the ship, where there is a running tally of how many people haven’t been able to finish the tour (90 as of Friday night) and how many have wet their pants (35).

How many people have opted out of the Haunted Ship? (Jana Hollingsworth / The Minnesota Star Tribune)



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New Hope police to release details today about about fatal shooting of 23-year-old man

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Police said they will be releasing details Monday about the shooting death of a 23-year-old man last week in New Hope.

Carnell Mark Johnson Jr., of Bloomington, was shot in the chest Thursday in the 7300 block of Bass Lake Road and died that same day at North Memorial Health Hospital, the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office said.

A police official said more information will be released about the shooting later Monday. No arrests have been announced.



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