Star Tribune
Both men now ID’d who were killed by 1 days’ gunfire tied to homeless encampments
The identities have now been released of both men who were shot to death during a one-day spate of gunfire tied to homeless encampments, while a suspect in the shootings remains jailed.
Robert Milton Brown, 39, of Minneapolis, was shot in the head Wednesday and died at the scene in the 2500 block of S. 15th Avenue, the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office said Friday.
Police said Brown was standing by a garage in an alley at 4:15 p.m. when a group of people passed by. One person in the group approached Brown and shot him.
About 12 hours earlier, Roland Scott Littleowl, 20, died after being shot in the head in an alley in the 2500 block of 17th Avenue S. The shooting also left a man in his 30s wounded, police said.
In a third incident Wednesday, a man suffered a potentially life-threatening gunshot wound at 7:20 p.m. in the 2300 block of S. 17th Avenue S. The suspect was arrested 15 minutes later near E. 26th Street and 17th Avenue S., according to police.
The alleged shooter remains jailed with charges pending. Police have not released his identity.
On Thursday, Mayor Jacob Frey Frey vowed to accelerate the destruction of the encampments and called out the fentanyl crisis as a major factor.
Also on Thursday, the City Council approved measures related to housing and homelessness: a new set of reporting requirements intended to add transparency to camp removals, including where individuals land after being dispersed; a $1.5 million rehabilitation grant to help a downtown shelter make needed repairs; and an extension of the pre-eviction notification period for renters from 14 days to 30 days.
Attorneys for Kortgard and Pillar Bank did not respond to requests for comment.
In an 11-page complaint filed Sept. 9, after using $7 million of the credit it’s owed to acquire the Lowry Apartments through a foreclosure sale, lender Colliers Funding argued Kortgard is liable for remaining debt associated with the building as a guarantor.
The lawsuit seeks more than $8 million plus interest, late charges, attorney fees and other costs. An attorney for the lender did not respond to requests for comments.
The court appointed a receiver to take over management of the Lowry Apartments last month after tenants complained that the building was unsafe and unsanitary. Other Madison Equities properties have lost major office tenants in recent months, and an attorney for the company warned large buildings could soon be boarded up and left without security.
Madison Equities did not pay the first half of this year’s property taxes on its downtown buildings. The company owes at least $1.7 million in taxes, fees and penalties, and at least $1.6 million more will be due in October.
Crockarell, who died in January, was a controversial figure in downtown St. Paul, engaging in a number of legal battles over decades with the city, other property owners, his tenants and his staff. As he amassed his portfolio, he grew a reputation for buying distressed buildings and offering below-market rents. Kortgard, an attorney, was a business partner.
The state Department of Employment and Economic Development has announced a $440,000 grant to Oak Park Heights that the city plans to begin cleaning city water of the per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) discovered in two city wells earlier this year.
The grant was one of six Community Energy Transition Grants awarded to communities with power plants that have closed or are scheduled to close due to the state’s conversion to 100% clean electricity by 2040.
The Allen S. King power plant will close in 2028, taking with it about a third of Oak Park Heights’ tax collections. Oak Park Heights Mayor Mary McComber said in a statement that the city will use the grant for a feasibility study and pre-design work to construct a new water treatment facility to remove PFAS contaminants from city water.
“We are grateful for DEED’s partnership and continued support,” McComber said. The six Community Energy Transition Grants announced this week totaled $5.21 million in funding for Oak Park Heights, Monticello, Red Wing, Cook County, Becker, and Sherburne County.
Superfund sites are investigated to determine the nature and extent of pollution. That has happened many times over the years at St. Regis, leading to the removal of some contaminated soil.
Some EPA studies and reports suggested the cleanup was done or nearing completion, but then the band’s own studies contradicted the EPA data. In the early 2000s, researchers with the University of Minnesota found evidence of a worsening situation that the EPA seemed to miss.
“It’s easy for a lot of people to say, ‘Well, they didn’t know any better when they were poisoning the water…when they were poisoning the land, they didn’t know any better.’ But they really did,” said Leo Anderson, who lived on a section of the Superfund site, as did his grandparents.
“One of the earliest memories I have of living on this site was that if you left a glass of water out overnight, in the morning there was an oil on top of it,” Anderson said.
“We had repeated stories of these companies putting freshly treated creosote wood right next to people’s homes,” he said. “They would pile it as close as they could to your home until you moved out and then they would continue working their way through the whole community. So this was not a mistake.”
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