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Man sentenced to 20 years for fatal Plymouth VRBO shooting
Raheim Tyrese Cooper pleaded guilty to one count of second-degree murder Thursday, stemming from the deadly shooting at a VRBO property on March 5, 2023.
MINNEAPOLIS — Editor’s note: The video above first aired on KARE 11 in March 2023.
A 20-year-old man was sentenced to as many years in prison after he pleaded guilty to shooting and killing a man last year at a short-term rental property in Plymouth.
Raheim Tyrese Cooper pleaded guilty to one count of second-degree murder Thursday, stemming from the deadly shooting at a VRBO property on March 5, 2023.
According to court documents, officers went to a home on Oakview Lane just before 11 p.m. on reports of a shooting at a large party. Prosecutors said when they arrived, they found the victim, only identified by the initials A.B., lying in the kitchen with multiple gunshot wounds.
Despite life-saving efforts, A.B. died at the scene.
As officers rendered aid to A.B. inside the residence, prosecutors said that officers stationed outside the home noticed a black backpack in front of a squad car, and asked partygoers who it belonged to. Prosecutors said when no one would claim it, officers looked inside and discovered an iPhone, several bags of marijuana and a loaded Glock 21C .45 caliber handgun that had been modified with a switch, making it fully automatic.
Investigators said they reviewed officer body camera footage from the scene, which showed a young woman wearing the backpack when officers arrived. Court documents said the girl told them she arrived to the party around 8 p.m. and was outside trying to get an Uber a few hours later when she heard what sounded like gunshots. She then told investigators that Cooper approached her outside shortly after the shooting, asking her to hold his backpack. The complaint said she took the bag, denying she knew what was inside and “did not think anything of it at the time.”
Other witnesses who claimed to have arrived at the party with A.B. told police they heard Cooper and A.B. arguing, saying they were aware of an “ongoing dispute… over Snapchat” between the men before the shooting. That’s when, one witness said, they saw Cooper hold a gun up in the air, followed by gunshots, and A.B. dropping to the ground. The witnesses said they did not explicitly see Cooper shoot him, but they also did not notice anyone else brandishing a gun.
Raheim denied being involved in his first post-Miranda interview with authorities, saying “someone he knows” — but who he wouldn’t name — was responsible. He claimed he was handed the gun and subsequently put it in his backpack, giving it to the girl. He told investigators he did not believe they’d question or search her.
In a later interview, Cooper admitted to being at the party when he saw A.B., whom he had been fighting with for weeks leading up to the shooting. Court documents said he then admitted to punching A.B. in the face before another man at the party gave him a handgun, which “fired several rounds” after he claimed to have been pushed or bumped from behind.
Following an autopsy, the Hennepin County Medical Examiner determined A.B. died from multiple gunshot wounds.
A neighborhood resident told KARE 11 at the time that the situation became “hectic,” and it was the “first time anything like this has happened” at the VRBO.
“Someone lost their life, so that’s horrific to know what’s happening at that moment, and just scary to know that happened 100 yards from where I was sitting on a Saturday night and that happened just across the street,” he said.
The city of Plymouth later confirmed that the VRBO was licensed as a rental property, but the listing located by KARE 11 was taken down shortly after the incident.
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The Trump and Harris campaigns both hosted news conferences ahead of Walz-Vance rhetorical clash.
MINNEAPOLIS — The Trump Campaign Monday hosted a national conference call featuring several Minnesotans ahead of Tuesday’s vice presidential debate. The Harris Campaign, for its part, held a press conference to punctuate reproductive rights.
Gov. Walz will face off with Ohio Sen. JD Vance in the CBS Studios in New York Tuesday at 7:00 p.m. for what will most likely be their only meeting before Election Day.
Congressman Tom Emmer, the Republican House Majority Whip, told reporters Walz isn’t the good-natured everyman that he comes across as in his campaign rallies. Emmer, who played Walz in debate rehearsals with Vance, said Walz is far more liberal than he’d have you believe.
“He’s a good debater. He will stand there, and he lies with conviction,” Emmer told reporters. “And he has little mannerism, where it’s just, ‘Hey, I’m the nice guy.’ But he’s not nice at all.”
Trump’s senior campaign adviser Jason Miller cautioned that Vance is not as experienced in debates as Walz, who has been running for elected office and winning consistently since 2006.
“Tim Walz is very good in debates. Really good. He’s been a politician for 20 years,” Miller said.
“He’s not going to be the wildly, gesticulating, effeminate caricature we see at rallies pointing to Kamala Harris and dancing about on the stage. Walz is going to be buttoned up. He’ll be ready to defend his own radical left record in Minnesota.”
Miller predicted that Vance will hammer away at Walz over the spike in illegal immigration during the Biden-Harris years and will highlight violent crimes committed by undocumented immigrants.
“What Kamala Harris has done has turned every community in the United States into a border community. Nobody is safe anymore.”
The Harris campaign, by contrast, kept the focus on reproductive rights and fertility issues. State lawmakers and abortion rights advocates called out Vance for previous statements that he’d support an abortion ban without exceptions for rape or incest.
“Trump and Vance have a plan to give Trump unprecedented, unchecked power to roll back reproductive rights, raise the cost for middle class families and threaten our democracy,” Sen. Erin Maye Quade, an Apple Valley Democrat, told reporters.
“Now, more than one in three women across the country live under an abortion ban. Women are being turned away from emergency rooms begging for care. Doctors are facing the threat of jail time for doing their jobs.”
The event, at Frogtown Community Center, featured women who had needed abortions for medical reasons.
“The only reason I have my three beautiful boys today is because I had an abortion. Without it I might not have a uterus, and I might not have my family,” Tippy Amundson said.
During her first pregnancy she learned at 20 weeks that her baby would not be viable after birth but would pose a health risk to her if she carried it to term.
DFL Rep. Kaohly Her of St. Paul revealed she too required an abortion earlier in her life.
“I myself have had an abortion after suffering an ectopic pregnancy. I found my way to a reproductive health clinic where I got the medical care I needed to save my life.”
During the Trump Campaign’s conference call, national reporters also heard from Tom Behrends, who served with Walz in the Minnesota National Guard and has claimed — without proof — that Walz retired after learning their unit would be deployed to Iraq.
“When the nation called, Tim Walz hung up and ran the other way.”
The National Guard’s official records conflict with Behrend’s account. A Guard spokesperson said that Walz left in May 2005 — two months before his unit received a special alert about a possible deployment and three months before receiving it received a mobilization order.
“The Minnesota National Guard can confirm the 1-125 Field Artillery Battalion received an alert order on July 14, 2005. An alert order is a notification for possible mobilization. The unit received a mobilization order on Aug. 14, 2005,” Army Lt. Col. Kristen Augé told KARE.
“The Minnesota National Guard confirms Governor Timothy James Walz served from April 8, 1981, to May 16, 2005.”
Nevertheless, the fact that Behrends appeared in the Trump Campaign’s event indicates Vance will confront Walz about the timing of his retirement from the military.
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Local mom says two-year-old is bullied for her looks. Now, she’s asking parents to help end bullying against kids with disabilities.
Now, at two years old, Mirlee Janice Ramirez and her beautiful smile show how far they’ve come since KENS 5’s Sarah Forgany first interviewed her mother in 2022.
SAN ANTONIO — Two years of raising a child with a rare genetic disorder has given Flor Ramirez a unique perspective.
Flor is a former KENS 5 employee, and as colleagues, we have helped raise awareness of her daughter, Mirlee’s, condition, Apert Syndrome. It’s a condition that causes the fusion of bones in the skull, hands and feet.
Now, at two years old, Mirlee Janice Ramirez and her beautiful smile show how far they’ve come since KENS 5’s Sarah Forgany first interviewed her mother in 2022.
“She has excelled and met goals. She’s running. She’s playing. She’s balancing herself,” Ramirez said.
Mirlee was an infant two years ago and Flor was trying to figure out how to be a new mom and how to navigate the surprise of baby’s disabilities.
“So many fears…what the healing process is going to look like, because as she gets older, it changes,” Ramirez said.
Little Mirlee has gone through seven surgeries in her young life and receives continual therapy from Children’s Rehabilitation Institute TeletonUSA (CRIT).
Occupational Therapist Marites Navarro Graves says Mirlee has made incredible progress.
“She can move her arms, but also feeding, eating so she can hold her spoon better,” Navarro says.
Navarro has more than 20 years experience and has been with CRIT since it first opened in 2014, serving only a few families at that time.
“Our populations are mostly with cerebral palsy, neurological musculoskeletal disorders,” Navarro said.
The organization now serves over 350 patients all over the U.S.
“We serve the whole family, not only the patient itself, because when you have a disability at home, it has an impact on the whole family,” Ana Hernandez, CRIT Business Development Manager, said. “We see miracles everyday happening here in all types of therapies.”
Ramirez considers her daughter one of those miracles. But, outside of the warm, welcoming and colorful walls of the CRIT facility, Ramirez has a much different experience.
She says she has endured bullying in public places from both kids and adults and doesn’t feel comfortable going to the playground.
“Now that she’s growing and she’s getting older, she’s more aware of what’s going on,” Ramirez said. “It’s very difficult as a mom to see your daughter go through that.”
Ramirez says she understands differences in perspectives and says she welcomes adults and children to walk up and ask her questions, instead of just staring.
“Sometimes it may seem a little uncomfortable on both parties but it helps us to educate children,” Ramirez said.
In the meantime, Ramirez says her daughter is breaking barriers and conquering new skills every day.
“I never thought that I’d see my daughter riding a bike ever. She’s having the best time of her life… to her, that is such a big accomplishment.”
A spokesperson with the Ellis County Wild Game Dinner confirmed that a man bought a guitar that had been signed by Swift and destroyed it.
WAXAHACHIE, Texas — A North Texas man is going viral for taking a hammer to a guitar signed by Taylor Swift.
A video that’s now been reposted across several social media platforms shows a North Texas man grabbing a guitar decorated in the style of the superstar’s Eras Tour and smashing it with a hammer that was handed to him by one of the men helping the auctioneer.
“I see the guy grab a hammer off the stage,” JD Cobb, who shot the video, told WFAA. “When I started video-ing it, I thought it was a joke.”
Cobb shot the video at the Ellis County Wild Game Dinner in Waxahachie, Texas, Saturday night. A spokesperson with the event confirmed to WFAA that the guitar was signed by Swift, and the man bought the guitar for around $4,000.
The spokesperson claimed there was no malice behind the smashing, though he did hint at the fact it had something to do with Swift’s endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris. They also confirmed that Taylor Swift has never used the guitar.
“It has been surprising to me how big of a deal people are making it out to be. It wasn’t meant to be mean or malicious,” Ellis County Wild Game spokesperson Craig Meier told WFAA. “He was just making a lighthearted statement showing disapproval of people in the entertainment industry trying to influence politics.”
Swifties online were critical of the decision to smash the guitar.
Some claimed it was immature, others used much harsher words. Many, though, cited the fact the $4,000 he spent could have gone to charity, and, in the end, it did. The proceeds for the dinner went to the Future Farmers of America.
“It was just a funny thing that happened at our annual event. The crowd thought it was hilarious,” Meier said in a statement. “The important thing is that 100% of the money raised goes directly to local youth and agricultural education programs. At the end of the day, the kids win and will benefit from this.”
