Star Tribune
Hennepin County firefighters elude nearly every kick to free flailing horse trapped in stall window
Firefighters dodged nearly every kick from a flailing trapped horse weighing at nearly two-thirds of a ton before it was freed from its stall window at western Hennepin County ranch, officials said Monday.
The equine extrication Sunday afternoon at the 61-acre Horse Play Ranch in Corcoran took 30 to 45 minutes during a mission that the firefighters were not trained to carry out, said Loretto Fire Chief Jeff Leuer, whose department serves a portion of the neighboring community.
The horse “was fine after it was extricated” from small opening roughly 5 feet up from the ground.
As the four firefighters sized up how to go about the task, the horse “was frightened and scared,” the chief said. “And it was in some pain. … It was trying to free itself, but we were able to calm it down and get it extricated.”
The firefighters removed one of the stall’s walls and cut some of the metal bars and made the window much larger to free the animal, the chief said.
Longtime ranch owner Mary Soligny said that 15-year-old King was brought into the stall from the pasture for some rest, “and he unexpectedly and quickly attempted to leap through the small feed window of his stall. … Horses sometimes do this. We don’t know why.”
Soligny said a call from her daughter brought her to the stall, where she quickly realized she needed the Fire Department to the rescue because “I don’t have the tools for this. I need strength, and I need numbers. He was definitely in peril because he had been stuck for an hour.”
Leuer said one of his firefighters received minor injuries during the tricky assignment, went the hospital for treatment and was soon released.
The horse inflicted the injury with a kick, “but I don’t know if you want to put that in the paper” where it landed, the chief said. “We’ll just say the groin area. He’s recovering. He’ll be fine.”
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.”
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