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Organizations recount impact KAT had on the community
Karl-Anthony Towns volunteered with several organizations over his nine-year career in Minnesota.
MINNEAPOLIS — It’s easy to see the impact Karl-Anthony Towns had on the basketball court, but what he did off it might not be as obvious.
In just his second season with the Minnesota Timberwolves, prepping Thanksgiving dinner for families in need in 2017, Towns understood how he could be a catalyst for change.
“Whatever we do on the court is what we do on the court, but a true man’s legacy is left by the effect he does on the community,” he said at the time. “I feel I can do more off the court than on it.”
He’s been living by that statement ever since, organizing a winter coat drive for kids and teenagers who don’t have jackets, fundraising for the Boys & Girls Club Twin Cities, helping formerly incarcerated people restore their right to vote, giving to families in need, and spending time with kids who are ill.
“The thing that I like about KAT, he shows up, he’s personal, he’s caring, and he’s made a really big impact on HopeKids and he’ll be deeply missed,” said Executive Director of HopeKids Minnesota Brian Anderson.
HopeKids helps children who have cancer or other life-threatening medical conditions along with their families.
“Every Christmas he would invite 100 people out to the Timberwolves facility, and we would go into the theater that they have, and we would watch a movie, a kid’s movie, and sometimes he would actually sit there and watch the movie in entirety with our families. It was pretty cool,” he said.
Anderson said he’s been hosting a Christmas party for HopeKids since 2018. He said KAT has made a big impact on their kids and has given them hope.
“The timeout that he took for people really showed that he cared makes a huge difference,” he said. “We’re going to miss him a lot.”
He isn’t sure if their relationship will continue, but he’s hopeful Towns will stop by when the New York Knicks come to Minneapolis in December.
Kai Glinsek will also miss KAT, but he’ll never forget how he helped his family through a hard time. Glinsek’s mother had pancreatic cancer, and the medical bills were piling up. The family started to a GoFundMe to help, but they were thousands of dollars short, until KAT heard about it.
“He changed my family’s life,” he said. “What KAT did for me and my family, I’ll never forget it. I’m never not going to be a KAT fan.”
Glinsek’s mother has passed away, but Towns got them to their goal, donating thousands of dollars.
“That meant the world to us and KAT didn’t want any recognition for it, he just did it. I believe it comes from the struggles he’s had,” he said.
He’ll never not root for KAT, and hope when people drive by Parkway Pizza in Northeast Minneapolis they’ll honk if they love KAT, too.
Minnesota’s Judy Garland Museum will be among the online bidders vying for the shoes worn in “The Wizard of Oz.”
DALLAS — A pair of ruby slippers worn by Minnesota native Judy Garland in “The Wizard of Oz” are on the auction block nearly two decades after a thief stole the iconic shoes, somehow convinced they were adorned with real jewels.
Heritage Auctions in Dallas announced in a news release that online bidding has started and will continue through Dec. 7.
The auction company received the sequin-and-bead-bedazzled slippers from Michael Shaw, the memorabilia collector who originally owned the footwear at the heart of the beloved 1939 musical.
Shaw had loaned the shoes in 2005 to the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, but that summer, someone smashed through a display case and stole the slippers. Their whereabouts remained a mystery until the FBI recovered them in 2018.
Now the Garland Museum is among those vying for the slippers, which were one of several pairs Garland wore during the filming. Only four pairs remain.
Grand Rapids raised money for the slippers at its annual Judy Garland festival, and will combine those funds with $100,000 set aside this year by the Minnesota Legislature to purchase the slippers.
The man who stole the slippers back in 2005, Terry Jon Martin, was sentenced in January to time served because of his poor health. Martin, now 76, admitted to using a hammer to smash the glass of the museum’s door and display case in what his attorney said was an attempt to pull off “one last score” after an old associate with connections to the mob told him the shoes had to be adorned with real jewels to justify their $1 million insured value.
The current auction of movie memorabilia includes other items from “The Wizard of Oz,” including a hat worn by Margaret Hamilton’s Wicked Witch of the West and the screen door from Dorothy’s Kansas home.
Thompson is charged with five counts of third-degree murder after prosecutors said he hit a car at nearly 100 mph while fleeing police in June of 2023.
MINNEAPOLIS — Derrick Thompson is rolling the dice, turning down a plea agreement and instead going to trial on charges of third-degree murder and criminal vehicular homicide for allegedly crashing into a car and killing five friends while fleeing police.
Hennepin County District Court officials confirm that Thompson and his defense team have scuttled the plea deal, opting instead for a trial that is set to begin on Feb. 18, 2025.
KARE 11 has requested details of the plea agreement that Thompson turned down and will share them when available.
Thompson stands charged with five counts of third-degree murder and 10 of criminal vehicular homicide for allegedly causing the deaths of five young women ages 17 to 20: Salma Mohamed Abdikadir, Sahra Liban Gesaade, Sagal Burhaan Hersi, Siham Adan Odhowa, and Sabiriin Mohamoud Ali. Prosecutors say the victims were in a vehicle sitting at a stoplight on Lake St. when Thompson’s SUV sped through a red light and struck them. Investigators say he was fleeing after being clocked by a state trooper on I-94 doing 95 mph in a 55 miles-per-hour zone.
The defendant fled on foot following the crash before officers took him into custody. Inside Thompson’s rented SUV police found a loaded handgun and significant qualities of drugs, including fentanyl. He would later insist that both the weapon and the drugs belonged to his brother, who Thompson insists was in the vehicle with him at the time of the crash.
When announcing the addition of murder charges in the case Sept. 16, Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty indicated her office would seek enhanced sentencing against Thompson.
“The sad fact is that he has done this before. Just six months before this crash, Mr. Thompson was released from a California prison for fleeing police, speeding off the highway and onto city streets where he struck and severely injured a woman. His lengthy record of dangerous driving, the trail of devastation he’s left in his wake, and his conduct in this case make these more serious charges appropriate. We will continue to seek a lengthy period of incarceration to keep the community safe.”
Along with the state charges, Thompson is charged at the federal level for being a felon in possession of a handgun.
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