MINNEAPOLIS — A former Minneapolis charter school teacher and coach is already in prison for sexually assaulting four students. On Thursday, a grand jury indicted him on 12 new counts after video of alleged assaults were found. 

Aaron Hjermstad, of Brooklyn Center, was indicted by a grand jury on 12 counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct involving penetration. According to the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office, the victims are under the age of 13, and many were children he coached or their relatives. 

In 2022, Hjermstad was sentenced to 12 years in prison for criminal sexual conduct in cases involving four victims he coached. A spokesperson with the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office said the new charges are for 12 additional victims. 

“The number of children who were sexually assaulted by Hjermstad is horrific,” said Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty in a press release. “Hjermstad intentionally harmed children who had every right to trust him as their teacher and coach. We will seek lengthy prison sentences to keep children in our community safe.”

Before being sentenced in the previous case, Hjermstad fled the state, but officials said he was pulled over and arrested in Idaho. It was during that traffic stop data showing thousands of videos of Hjermstad allegedly assaulting children was discovered. A spokesperson with the attorney’s office said the new charges stem from those videos. 

If convicted, the new charges carry a possible sentence of up to life in prison. 

MINNEAPOLIS — When news of yet another school shooting – this time in Georgia – reached Dr. Marc Gorelick on Wednesday, it brought back frustrating and familiar feelings for the former pediatric emergency room doctor. 

“I’ve seen Children and adolescents who have been victims of gun violence, sometimes inflicted by others, sometimes inflicted on themselves,” Gorelick said. “You don’t forget those images, those, those patients have stayed with me for the last 35 years.”

Although Gorelick has since risen to CEO of Children’s Minnesota, those awful reminders of his past work have become more frequent.

When gun deaths surpassed car accidents as the number one killer of kids and teens in the United States a few years ago, Gorelick joined other Minnesota hospital CEO’s in declaring gun violence a public health crisis. 

“I think part of what makes it so gut-wrenching for someone like me is understanding that it really is preventable,” he said.

Despite that belief, Gorelick says efforts to address the gun violence issue have remained largely stuck in place, which is why he decided to put his ideas into writing. His new book, Saving Our Kids: An ER Doc’s Common-Sense Solution to the Gun Crisis, was released last month.

“The goal of the book was to paint a picture of what would it look like if we acted like this is the public health crisis, we say it is,” Gorelick said.

To do so, he says we first need to fight the urge to run to our political corners after every mass shooting or high-profile crime.

“Too often we frame it as a moral issue,” Gorelick said. “Either you are a bad person because you have guns or you are a bad person because you want to take away somebody’s guns. It is not a moral issue. It’s a health issue. It’s the leading cause of death in Children. We need to think of it that way.”

Gorelick says that a shift in thinking would also require better cooperation between healthcare, government, families and individuals.

“A public health approach would suggest you need policies, you need education and you need community-based interventions,” he said. “I think a nice example here in the Twin Cities is something called Next Step. People who are victims of violence who come into one of our emergency departments are connected with resources to both support them and their families in the immediate trauma, but also to intervene, to help prevent them from getting reinjured.”

Though yet another mass shooting prompted the conversation, Gorelick points out that all of the other tragedies happening every day across the country are what is driving his approach.

“This happens in every single community in the United States,” he said. “It’s almost 5,000 Children and adolescents each year in the United States die of gun injury. Every one of those is a tragedy, he said.

“I know how difficult it is for our staff and for their families and for the communities. and I know that if we take the right approach, we actually can do something about this. This is not an insolvable problem.”

Saving Our Kids: An ER Doc’s Common-Sense Solution to the Gun Crisis is available for sale online. All proceeds from the sales, go to support violence intervention programs at Children’s Minnesota.

MINNEAPOLIS — Since Friday, Minneapolis Police have responded to five separate homicides.

Police Chief Brian O’Hara said his investigation team is stretched thin, but he has help.

The BCA’s violent crimes task force is taking on one of the five cases, which can happen when MPD has staffing limitations.

O’Hara said a few of the killings are linked to drug activity. In terms of the amount of shootings, the city is seeing a similar number as last year, but in 2024 they more often result in deaths.

“We do need to do things differently because we simply don’t have the manpower the city had before we had this level of violence, let alone now,” O’Hara said.

A man was shot dead at Portland Avenue and 15th Street Wednesday night. Police are still looking for a suspect they say ran from the scene.

Austin Telthoester is receiving recovery treatment in the area and says violent crime makes it hard on everyone.

“I’d like to see more cleanup, more individuals getting hold up to their consequences for their drug use,” said Telthoester.

O’Hara said he is hopeful about the department’s future response to violent crimes. Since Minneapolis City Council has passed the police contract, recruitment numbers are the highest its been in years.

He says, however, considering the amount of resources and time it takes for recruits to be ready for patrol, it will be years before staffing levels stabilize.