Star Tribune
January assault on elderly man turns deadly, marking eighth homicide in St. Paul
A young man has been charged with manslaughter for punching an elderly victim at a St. Paul park in January, causing his death from complications of the injury weeks later.
Prosecutors with the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office charged Wyatt Doerfler, 18, with first-degree manslaughter. Doerfler’s next court date is May 1.
Doerfler is believed to have punched 76-year-old Thomas Dunne on Jan. 28, damaging his right eye. Despite surgery and treatment, infection spread from Dunne’s wound and he was pronounced dead weeks later. The Ramsey County Medical Examiner ruled Dunne’s death was a homicide likely caused by complications from that assault.
Doerfler was originally charged with first-degree assault, but prosecutors upgraded it to manslaughter after Dunne’s death.
“After receiving additional investigation from law enforcement, including the medical examiner’s report, we amended the juvenile petition to include a charge of Manslaughter in the 1st Degree – the highest charge we could prove beyond a reasonable doubt in court,” Ramsey County Attorney’s office spokesperson Dennis Gerhardstein said in a statement.
According to charging documents:
Police responded to Harriet Island park at around 5 p.m. for a reported assault. Dunne was there, waiting as blood flowed from his right eye. He claimed to be in the park when a man began urinating in public. Dunne took out his phone to take a picture, but said two people exited a Ford Fusion nearby and tried to take the phone away. Dunne said one of those men punched his face.
A witness interviewed by police said the men slapped Dunne’s phone from his hand before punching him two times in the face. The witness reportedly yelled at the men, who walked away. Officers found the group of men that day and arrested Doerfler. He declined to provide a statement after his arrest, but answered “yeah, that was me” when officers asked if someone from their group was involved in a fight.
A man from the group, identified in charging documents as “L.R.G.”, said they confronted Dunne because they believed he was recording him. Dunne, L.R.G. said, should have “minded his business.” Another member of the group claimed they started urinating in the pond because they could not find a restroom. He stated that Doerfler said, “Let’s get to it” before punching Dunne.
Dunne was evaluated at Regions Hospital that day. After emergency surgery, staff reported that Dunne suffered facial fractures and traumatic damage to his right eye that could erase most of his vision. He was discharged the next day, but returned on Feb. 3 with complications. He contracted an infection which worsened, forcing Dunne onto a ventilator before he was pronounced dead on Feb. 23.
According to his online obituary, Dunne, of St. Paul, was born in Ireland who immigrated to the United States with his family at age 2. He was a member of the Marine Corps who served two tours in Vietnam. In addition to being a decorated veteran, he was “a wonderful chef, prolific writer, playwright, acted in amateur theater, licensed pilot, active in his community as a Board member of his Condominium Association and in that role he campaigned for security cameras in Skywalk public spaces.” He was also a member of MENSA. He is survived by his wife Helen Broderick.
Dunne’s death marks the eighth homicide in St. Paul this year. There were a dozen by this time last year, according to a Star Tribune database.
After about five minutes and several warnings that students participating in the protest would be suspended,, the protesters exited Northrop and Cunningham continued her speech. They later gathered outside on the mall afterwards to shout, “Cunningham, you will see, Palestine will be free.”
Cunningham recounted the story of Norman Borlaug, the U alumnus and agronomist whose research in wheat saved millions from starvation, and said she would prioritize keeping a college education affordable for students.
Cunningham actually took over presidential duties on July 1, replacing Interim President Jeff Ettinger. She oversees a budget of more than $4 billion to run the university’s five campuses, which enrolled more than 68,000 students and employed 27,000 people during the last academic year.
She was chosen for the job last winter over two other candidates: Laura Bloomberg, president of Cleveland State University and former dean of the U’s Humphrey School of Public Affairs, and James Holloway, provost and executive vice president for academic affairs at the University of New Mexico. She is the U’s second woman president, following Joan Gabel who held the office from 2019 to 2023.
Cunningham will be paid more than $1 million per year — about $975,000 in base pay and an additional $120,000 in retirement contributions. The compensation puts her in the top quarter of Big Ten university presidents.
Sgt. Gordon Blackey, once a security guard to Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, allegedly admitted to tracking the woman’s movements in her vehicle, according to a criminal complaint.
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Minnesota corrections officials are investigating after an inmate was found dead at the state prison in Moose Lake.
The 37-year-old’s cellmate found the man unresponsive in their room about 10:40 a.m. Tuesday, according to a news release Wednesday from the Corrections Department. Staffers immediately started life-saving efforts, but those efforts failed.
The department’s Office of Special Investigations is looking into the death, with help from the Midwest Medical Examiner’s Office. The inmate’s identity was being withheld until notification of family.
