Star Tribune
Mother of Georgia shooting suspect called school to warn of emergency, aunt says
The mother of the 14-year-old who has been charged with murder over the fatal shooting of four people at his Georgia high school called the school before the killings, warning staff of an ‘’extreme emergency’’ involving her son, a relative said.
Annie Brown told the Washington Post that her sister, Colt Gray’s mother, texted her saying she spoke with a school counselor and urged them to ”immediately” find her son to check on him.
Brown provided screen shots of the text exchange to the newspaper, which also reported that a call log from the family’s shared phone plan showed a call was made to the school about 30 minutes before gunfire is believed to have erupted.
Brown confirmed the reporting to The Associated Press on Saturday in text messages but declined to provide further comment.
Colt Gray, 14, has been charged with murder over the killing of two students and two teachers at Apalachee High School in Barrow County, outside Atlanta, on Wednesday. His father, Colin Gray, is accused of second-degree murder for providing his son with a semiautomatic AR 15-style rifle.
Their attorneys declined to immediately seek bail during their first court appearance on Friday.
Investigators previously interviewed the suspects
The Georgia teenager had struggled with his parents’ separation and taunting by classmates, his father told a sheriff’s investigator last year when asked whether his son posted an online threat.
The man shot by law enforcement during a 15-hour siege in rural western Minnesota had been paranoid and acting erratically, leading his family to call authorities about his behavior, court documents say.
Kasey Paul Willander, 27, was behaving strangely Saturday afternoon while possessing a knife and a bow, his mother told a Yellow Medicine County sheriff’s deputy around 3:15 p.m., according to the search warrant from the Kandiyohi County Sheriff’s Office.
Willander left before deputies arrived at the home in Clarkfield, 15 miles south of Montevideo, the search warrant said.
Two hours later, law enforcement said it received a call that Willander had a rifle and was at another relative’s home nearby.
These relatives were forced to barricade themselves in their home as police used an aerial drone to search for Willander, who was hiding in a grove of trees on the property, the warrant said.
As deputies evacuated his relatives from the home, Willander pointed a long gun at the officers, the warrant said.
A standoff ensued. Willander boarded up windows in the home and destroyed cameras on the property, the warrant said.
Police SWAT teams surrounded the home, the Yellow Medicine County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement Monday. Willander again shot at the officers.
DULUTH — Philanthropist MacKenzie Scott has given an unexpected and no-strings-attached $9 million to a Duluth nonprofit that helps entrepreneurs grow.
The EFund was chosen through Yield Giving’s “quiet research” process, in which it chooses and evaluates organizations privately for unsolicited gifts. EFund is only the second known northeast Minnesota organization to benefit from the billions Scott, an author and the ex-wife of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, has given since 2020 as part of her pledge to donate a majority of her wealth over her lifetime. The Duluth Area YMCA in 2020 received an undisclosed amount. About $140 million in donations have now been designated to Minnesota organizations.
“It still feels surreal,” EFund CEO Shawn Wellnitz said. “And with no restrictions, it’s just transformational,” especially as pandemic aid dries up for businesses and creditors are more cautious about lending money.
Unrestricted gifts are considered rare in the philanthropy world.
The EFund nonprofit, formed in 1989, manages a portfolio of about $60 million, lending money and offering services to entrepreneurs in northeast and east-central Minnesota, and northern Wisconsin. The Seattle billionaire’s gift is its largest ever. The recognition and confidence that comes with a Scott donation can help the organization leverage that money “multiple times over,” Wellnitz said.
The nonprofit works with about 1,500 entrepreneurs each year. Wellnitz said the money will allow the organization to take bigger risks with companies they are already helping who are poised to bring more jobs to the region, along with preparing succession plans for the looming mass retirements of area aging business owners.
It has lent start-up money several times to Advanced Machine Guarding Solutions, a safety equipment supplier in Hibbing. The EFund helped the owner, who came from the robotics industry, line up other funding sources. The company now has more than a dozen employees and “back orders through the roof,” Wellnitz said.
Yield Giving didn’t share with the EFund why it chose the nonprofit. Its website says it looks at organizations in underserved communities that have high potential for impact, and with stable finances, a long track record and evidence of outcomes.
Star Tribune
A second person has been charged in connection with an attack on a north Minneapolis homeless shelter that forced dozens of women and children to relocate last week.
A second person has been charged in connection with an attack on a north Minneapolis homeless shelter that forced dozens of women and children to relocate last week.
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