Star Tribune
Duluth man got gun permit 2 months before allegedly killing his family
DULUTH – A man who police say killed his family before shooting himself last week was approved for a gun permit in September, two months after he was hospitalized following an incident where he had held a knife to his wife’s throat.
Anthony Nephew, 46, was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound alongside his wife, Kathryn Ramsland, 45, and son Oliver Nephew, 7, at the family’s house at 4401 West Sixth Street, across from Denfeld High School. He is suspected of first killing his ex-wife, Erin Abramson, 47, and their son Jacob Nephew, 15, who were found dead at their home on Tacony Street, less than a mile away.
Nephew applied for and received a gun permit on Sept. 9, according to a search warrant filed in St. Louis County. The filing, alongside incident reports, indicate Nephew had mounting concerns about the country’s political future.
Ramsland called local authorities on July 3 to report that Anthony Nephew had attacked her and was suicidal. He was cooperative when officers arrived and admitted to holding a knife to his wife’s neck. He told a police officer that he had been diagnosed with schizophrenia in the past five years and had been going downhill. “He had a med change a few days ago and since then voices have been telling him [President Donald] Trump is going to take over the world and he needs to kill his family to protect them,” according to an incident report.
Nephew said at the time that he believed Russians had control of his mind since he was 6 years old. He said that if Trump took over control, to “put a bullet in his head and the head of his families.” Nephew spent the night at Aspirus St. Luke’s hospital, according to the search warrant.
Nephew had spoken openly, both on Facebook and in a column in the Duluth News Tribune, about mental health struggles.
On Nov. 7, Duluth police responded to a welfare check at Abramson’s home after she didn’t show up for work. A coworker with the city of Superior said this was out of character and that Abramson had recently said her ex-husband had been “going off the deep end,” according to the search warrant. It was then that officers found her and their son dead.
Anthony Nephew was found dead alongside Ramsland and their son Oliver in the family’s primary bedroom.
An Inver Grove Heights woman allegedly stole over 500 pieces of mail from mailboxes, according to charges filed Friday, and was busted after police confronted her in a vehicle filled with stolen packages and letters.
A little after midnight on Thursday, an officer with Inver Grove Heights police pulled over the vehicle of the suspect, 34-year-old Kanesha Renae Anderson, for having a broken headlight, according to a police department news release. The officer saw a “large amount of mail” inside Anderson’s vehicle.
Upon questioning, Anderson admitted to stealing the mail from nearby mailboxes and told police she didn’t intend to give it back, according to charges filed Friday in Dakota County District Court.
Anderson was charged with two counts of mail theft. Attorney information for Anderson was not available as of Friday afternoon.
Officers sorted through the recovered mail, found over 500 stolen pieces, and counted 161 people who had their mail stolen. The mail was repackaged and transported to a post office to be re-sent to its owners, and police will notify the victims who were impacted, the department said.
The department urged residents near the intersection of 78th Street East and Concord Boulevard to check with the post office if they have not received expected mail, as they may have had mail stolen.
Anderson was arrested and remained in Dakota County jail on Thursday afternoon.
He did not return a message on Friday.
A spokeswoman for the city declined to comment on the case, but Mayor Roger Reinert said in a campaign interview before his election that the suit had the potential to bankrupt the city.
The businesses had alleged the city violated its own code for years by giving discounts to some commercial and multifamily properties while failing to charge others. For example, until 2021, the city gave steep discounts to waterfront properties, which amounted to more than $1 million annually, or 20% of its stormwater utility budget. Duluth collected about $5.2 million in stormwater fees in 2020, and businesses paid nearly half of that, the lawsuit says, at a rate higher than those in comparable cities.
More than 1,500 properties were billed at commercial rates in 2020, according to court documents, a number that also includes discounted properties.
In court filings, attorneys for the city said it had begun reviewing and fixing its billing practices long before the 2021 lawsuit was filed, a process that was completed this year and included remeasuring the impervious surfaces of thousands of properties. That process did find some properties weren’t correctly charged, some because the city wasn’t aware of changes to amounts of impervious surfaces.
A trial had been scheduled for February. It is unclear whether an appeal will be filed.
Authorities on Friday identified the 65-year-old man fatally shot by police during a mental health call Wednesday and released the names of the two officers who fired at him.
The victim, Peter Greco, was pronounced dead at the scene. On Wednesday, Fargo Police Chief Dave Zibolski said officers had responded to a residence in the 6100 block of 61st Avenue S. just after 10 a.m. Zibolski said the department received numerous calls that morning from Greco, who was asking for medical assistance and said he was having suicidal ideations.
Responding officers talked with Greco, who was armed inside a residence, for about a half-hour. Zibolski said Greco exited the house with a handgun and two officers – Sgt. Lucas Mock and Officer Princeten Harris – discharged their firearms.
Per department policy, the officers have been placed on administrative leave. The North Dakota Bureau of Criminal Investigation is investigating the shooting.
According to Zibolski, Mock has been an officer with the Fargo Police Department for eight years; he started as a patrol officer in 2016, was promoted to sergeant in 2021 and now serves as supervisor in the neighborhood services division. Harris has been with the department for 10 months; he is a recent graduate of the police academy and is completing his field training.
Before Wednesday, Fargo police had had a number of contacts with Greco, including six this year, that had been resolved without incident, Zibolski said.
“Our deepest condolences go out to the family and friends of this individual. We understand that losing someone in this way is profoundly tragic and our hearts are with them during this difficult time,” Zibolski said Wednesday. “We also ask that you keep our officers and their families in your prayers, as well. They are equally traumatized by incidents like this.”
