Star Tribune
Trial set to begin in Minnesota in case of Indian family who died trying to cross border
Steve Shand worried as he waited for the first group of smuggled Indian migrants to cross the border from Canada into Minnesota one frigid winter night.
“It’s 16 degrees cold as hell,” Shand texted an alleged smuggler from his van in December 2021. “They going to be alive when they get here?”
The migrants arrived safely, and Shand drove them to Chicago without trouble.
But the next month, a family of four migrants — including two children — froze to death on the border after failing to reach Shand’s van amid a subzero blizzard. Authorities say that Shand and the man he was texting, Harshkumar Patel,frequently spoke of the risk of smuggling Indian nationals through the deep cold of the northern border but persisted anyway. They allegedly coordinated four more illegal border crossings before the deaths on January 19, 2022 led to criminal investigations stretching all the way to India.
In Fergus Falls, Minnesota, federal prosecutors plan to argue at a trial scheduled to start on Nov. 18 that Shand and Patel participated in a “large, systemic human smuggling operation” that brought Indian nationals to Canada on student visas, then smuggled them into the U.S.
The court proceedings are expected to offer a rare inside look into the workings of migrant smuggling on the northern border, where international media coverage of the deaths of Jagdish Patel, 39; his wife Vaishaliben, 37; their daughter Vihangi, 11; and son Dharmik, 3,has failed to slow illegal crossings.
The U.S. Border Patrol had a record 198,929 encounters with migrants across the Canadian border in the 2024 fiscal year — an 81% increase since the year the Patel family died. Most encounters happen in the sector covering New York, Vermont and New Hampshire but some law enforcement leaders from border communities in the Grand Forks sector that includes Minnesota also describe a crisis.
In Congressional testimony this May, Renville County, N.D. Sheriff Roger Hutchinson lamented a lack of border agents to adequately patrol the Grand Forks Sector, with some temporarily deployed to the southern border. He said that law enforcement along the northern border has dealt with dead bodies, high speed pursuits, fence-cutting and damaged crops, humanitarian rescues in extreme conditions, illegal substances, counterfeit goods and subjects with warrants.
Three people were shot and injured in a “violent, chaotic scene” at Tantrum Nightclub in downtown Minneapolis early Sunday.
At about 1:47 a.m., police responded to reports of a person with a gun in the 100 block of 4th Street North, according to a release from Minneapolis Police. Responding officers heard gunfire coming from Tantrum Nightclub, where they located one man who had been shot. The man was taken to Hennepin County Medical Center with an apparent non-life-threatening gunshot wound.
Officers heard additional gunfire coming from the parking lot next to the club, where police said they found a person driving recklessly. Officers stopped the vehicle, and then arrested one man and recovered a firearm. Police said the man had fired shots, but it was not immediately clear how he was involved in the broader incident.
Officers heard more shots as they were taking the man into custody, the release said.
An initial investigation indicated there had been a physical altercation inside Tantrum when the initial shots were fired. As patrons fled the nightclub, additional shots were fired in the parking lot.
Police were notified that a vehicle arrived at the hospital and dropped off a man with what appeared to be a non-life-threatening gunshot wound. A juvenile male also arrived at the hospital with a gunshot wound that was not deemed life-threatening.
It was the second shooting at a downtown nightclub in the last three weeks. In early November, one man was seriously injured after a shooting at Vanquish nightclub.
“Responding urgently to chaotic incidents like [the] latest shooting inside Tantrum nightclub and the shooting at Vanquish nightclub two weeks ago requires a large and immediate police response,” Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said in the release. “This shows why we need sufficient numbers of officers available at bar close in Downtown, Dinkytown, and Uptown — without depleting the cops patrolling our neighborhoods.”
Star Tribune
Minnesota’s Anthony Edwards fined $35,000 for making obscene gesture during Wolves-Kings game
NEW YORK — Minnesota All-Star guard Anthony Edwards has been fined $35,000 by the NBA for making an obscene gesture on the court during the Timberwolves’ NBA Cup win in Sacramento on Friday night.
The league announced the fine Sunday.
The NBA did not specify exactly what Edwards did, other than saying it happened with 3:15 left in the first period. That was how much time remained when Edwards was called for an offensive foul, and not long afterward television cameras captured him directing the gesture toward the stands as he walked to the Minnesota bench.
Edwards finished with 36 points in the game, one in which Sacramento’s De’Aaron Fox scored an NBA season-high 60 points in defeat.
AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/NBA
Minnesota K-pop fans are delighting over a detail in singer/songwriter Jin’s new music video.
In the music video for “Running Wild,” which debuted Nov. 14, the South Korean star and member of boy group sensation BTS appears to be wearing a University of Minnesota sweatshirt. The fashion choice was first noticed by fans in a promotional video last month.
The maroon shirt is emblazoned with a gold M, which looks very much in the style of the University of Minnesota’s logo. It’s visible around the video’s 1:30-minute mark.
“International army, you might not know that, but that is a Minnesota collegiate sweater,” TikTok user moonchild_of_bangtan posted in a video.
The Minnesota Star Tribune contacted the University of Minnesota to find out if the shirt is official merch. We’ll update this story if we hear back.
