Star Tribune
Red Wing man admits killing infant son
A 28-year-old Red Wing man has admitted that he killed his infant son, who suffered a substantial amount of physical abuse in his short life.
Hunter Matthew McCutchen agreed Monday in Goodhue County District Court to plead guilty to second-degree murder in connection with the boy’s death on May 25, 2023.
The plea deal calls for first-degree murder and other lesser charges to be dropped and for McCutchen to receive a 40-year term. With credit for time in jail since his arrest, he is expected to serve roughly 26 years in prison and the balance on supervised release.
McCutchen’s criminal history includes two convictions for domestic assault and one for violating a court’s no-contact order.
According to the criminal complaint:
Red Wing police and fire personnel were called to a home in the 500 block of Maple Hills shortly after noon on May 23, 2023, after Ozzy’s mother, Aonica Lex, called 911 and said her baby was not breathing. The child was taken by emergency responders to St. Marys Hospital in Rochester.
McCutchen told a police officer he was feeding the boy on the couch, stepped away briefly and returned to find Ozzy unresponsive.
While the boy was at the hospital, Lex told a doctor that she arrived home after taking her 4-year-old daughter to and from preschool to find her boyfriend of the past 1½ years holding their “limp and pale” son.
An X-ray of the baby’s chest revealed broken ribs and a broken collarbone in various stages of healing. The injuries are “highly suggestive of nonaccidental trauma,” the charges noted. Medical personnel also detected bleeding on the child’s brain and loss of brain function.
Lex shared with a doctor photos she took in recent weeks of injuries to her baby: broken blood vessels on the eye, and facial bruises and scratches. She also reported having seen bruises on the boy’s legs, back, chest and face since he was about 2 weeks old.
Based on the injuries, the doctor concluded that the boy was a victim of excessive shaking.
Lex told police that McCutchen smokes marijuana daily, drinks alcohol frequently and has been violent to her. One incident led to a conviction in 2022 for domestic assault.
The day after the child was hospitalized, Lex called police to say McCutchen admitted hurting the baby.
Officials closed the main gate to the Minnesota State Fair for nearly an hour Saturday after a nearby protest stopped traffic and bus services.
According to a statement from fair officials, the gate at Snelling Avenue and Midway Parkway was closed at 2 p.m. due to what appeared to be a pro-Palestinian demonstration.
“Select buses that utilize the gate were paused and pedestrians were redirected to other gates,” the statement read. “Operations resumed following the demonstration at approximately 2:50 p.m.”
Video posted on X at showed a group of people standing in the intersection with some of them holding Palestinian flags, the area locked in conflict between Hamas and Israel. Ceasefire talks in the war are ongoing, though there were reports Saturday of Israeli airstrikes killing dozens in Gaza.
Fair officials have celebrated record attendance so far this year, marking the event’s opening two days as the most well-attended in Minnesota State Fair history. The record for State Fair attendance was set in 2019 when more than 2.1 million people visited the Great Minnesota Get-Together.
Star Tribune
Man charged with shooting Minneapolis mosque worshiper reportedly had been selling drugs nearby
Prosecutors have charged a Shakopee man with firing at two mosque worshipers Monday, wounding one and forcing another to dive to the ground for safety.
The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office charged Yancy Hall, 68, with drive-by shooting and two counts of second-degree assault. Hall, who was in custody, appeared in court Friday and is expected back in court on Oct. 7.
Charging documents say that authorities were investigating Hall for narcotics violations when worshipers caught him selling narcotics near their mosque.
Minneapolis police responded to the Aug. 19 shooting near the Masjid An-Nur mosque on Lyndale Avenue in the city’s Near North neighborhood. They found people helping a 75-year-old man bleeding from one gunshot wound in his arm and two in his shoulder. Used bullet cartridges littered the ground nearby.
As the victim was transported to the hospital, he told officers that he was shot by a man in a white SUV after leaving evening prayer at the mosque. He said that after he told the suspect he could not sell drugs in the area, the man drove away, then made a U-turn and started shooting.
Another worshiper who was nearly shot said the suspect was just a few feet away when at least five shots were fired, forcing him to dive for safety.
Surveillance footage supports their statements, according to authorities. Video shows Hall’s white SUV sitting near the mosque’s parking lot entrance for 20 minutes as a number of people approach and leave his vehicle. The footage appears to show Hall driving onto Lyndale before turning around and stopping in front of the mosque. Five gunshots ring out and one person is seen diving behind a vehicle before the SUV flees the scene.
Authorities learned the next day that Hall was being tracked for a narcotics investigation. That tracker placed his white SUV at the mosque during the shooting and leaving the area at the time he reportedly fled.
Star Tribune
Asian American leaders worry that U.S. Census Bureau’s refusal to reclassify groups could harm access to resources
Undercounts, like misclassifications, can affect where resources are directed. According to a 2018 report from Grassroots Solutions, a 7,123-person population decline across two north Minneapolis ZIP codes, whether the result of an undercount or not, cost Minnesota, Hennepin County and Minneapolis over $100 million in federal funding.
Thao said that, given the challenges they’re facing, advocacy work and expert input should be especially important to the census team.
“A lot of these folks are data people, and I don’t know that the lens they’re looking through is necessarily from a community level because they’re so analytical,” Thao said. “That’s just how they’re wired. So that’s where their community engagement comes into play.”
This story comes to you from Sahan Journal, a nonprofit newsroom dedicated to covering Minnesota’s immigrants and communities of color. Sign up for a free newsletter to receive Sahan’s stories in your inbox.
