Star Tribune
Minneapolis police swear in first Somali woman, non-citizen in joyful graduation
As well-wishers flocked Officer Ikran Mohamed, 4-year-old Amira Shafii raised her little arm in a proud salute — her auntie’s new police cap perched lopsided on her head. The ‘junior officer’ cracked a smile.
Mohamed, dressed in a black hijab, adjusted her newly pinned badge with henna-laced hands. She’d just become the first Somali woman to ever join the Minneapolis Police Department.
“I want to be a role model for girls who look like me, so they can say ‘I can do it, too,” Mohamed, 23, told reporters Thursday night following a graduation ceremony honoring 11 new recruits and 12 lateral hires from other Minnesota law enforcement agencies.
“I’m just very excited to be here and represent my people and my community.”
Amira Shafii, 4, goes around saluting friends and relatives for photos wearing the police uniform cap of her aunt, officer Ikran Mohamed, who became the first Somali woman to become an officer with Minneapolis Police Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024 at the American Indian Center in Minneapolis, Minn.. ] AARON LAVINSKY • Aaron.lavinsky@startribune.com (Aaron Lavinsky/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
Mohamed immigrated to the United States from Kenya when she was 10 years old. She previously worked as a corrections officer in Steele County.
Beside her, 27-year-old Officer Lesly Vera also had the power of representation on the mind. Vera became the first non-citizen to serve on the police force Thursday, marking a significant victory for immigration advocates.
Although thousands of lawful permanent residents and DACA recipients already serve in the United States military, many states maintain citizenship requirements for those seeking to become a licensed police officer. But in recent years, as law enforcement agencies across the nation have struggled to replenish their ranks with qualified candidates, a growing number have eliminated that requirement.
In 2023, at the recommendation of the Peace Officers’ Training Board, the Minnesota Legislature changed state law allowing for applicants who are either citizens or “eligible to work in the United States under federal requirements.”
A Minneapolis church has restored its steeple, a towering landmark in the Whittier community for over a century.
Calvary Baptist Church, located at the corner of W. 26th Street and Blaisdell Avenue, is 141 years old. The 110-foot-tall steeple was built in 1903, according to Church Administrator Dean Caldwell-Tautges.
The brick Romanesque revival building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and no significant work had been done to it since its construction, Caldwell-Tautges said. In recent years, the exterior brick, sheet metal and shingles had fallen into disrepair.
The renovation cost approximately $800,000. The church received a $200,000 grant from the National Fund for Sacred Places, which supports congregations undertaking major capital projects at historic houses of worship. The remaining funds were raised by the congregation and community, although the church still owes $25,000, according to Caldwell-Tautges.
The renovation process took about six months and was completed in October.
“Ultimately, it’s about sharing the entire building and preserving it so we can share it with people,” Caldwell-Tautges said. “It’s even more than preserving architecture and history.”
Caldwell-Tautges added the church serves as an anchor in the Whittier community, offering a preschool, hosting farmers markets, providing a commercial kitchen for small business owners and supplying tutoring resources.
“Sometimes churches have this culture like, ‘We’re here to help you, and save you,’ and we don’t really operate that way,” Caldwell-Tautges said. “We see this as a space to share and partner with people on a variety of things.”
“[That young demographic] is everything,” said Nelson. “In today’s world, it’s all about convenience … and Cane’s offers that.”
Marcus Maddalena-Gill, Stella Maddalena-Gill, 9, Levi Maddalena-Gill, 10, Tania Maddalena-Gill, and Tony Maddalena-Gill, 12, left to right, eat at Raising Cane’s in Apple Valley on Nov. 7. (Ayrton Breckenridge/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
As Minnesota’s Gov. Tim Walz was crisscrossing the country in a bid to win the White House, fellow Minnesotan Sen. Tina Smith was working right below the presidential ticket to try to hold Democrats’ slim majority in the U.S. Senate.
But now that the elections are over, so is Smith’s time as vice chair of the committee, a role in which she was responsible for helping to fundraise for the committee and guide its political strategy.
“I’m so glad that I had a chance to do it. It was really worthwhile, I think in an election year that clearly was a disappointment for Democrats, the Senate races were a bright spot,” she said in an interview from her Capitol Hill office.
While Senate Democrats lost the majority and return to the minority with 47 members, Smith applauds Democrats for outperforming the top of the ticket in some parts of the country. Though not all of these Democratic candidates won, these small victories happened in Montana, Arizona, Ohio and Wisconsin as well as in Minnesota, where Sen. Amy Klobuchar won a fourth term.
Smith is up for re-election in 2026 and when asked whether she’s fully committed to running again, replied, “that’s my plan.” She was first appointed to the Senate in 2017 by then-Gov. Mark Dayton and elected to her seat in 2020.
With Peters set to depart the DSCC chairman post, Smith said she doesn’t have any plans to vie for the top job herself. “I didn’t want to be chair in 2024 and I don’t want to be chair in 2026,” she said.
She wouldn’t say whether she thinks Democrats could have performed better if President Joe Biden would have gotten out of the race earlier, arguing it was a “really complicated election.” But she does think Gov. Tim Walz was a strong running mate with Vice President Kamala Harris.
