CRYSTAL, Minnesota — Crystal Police say they will close down Becker Park if needed and turn away teens who arrive by rideshare if they follow through with a planned “take-over” event over the 4th of July weekend. A similar event last weekend led to several arrests.

Crystal Police Chief Brian Hubbard explains more about the nationwide trend in this Q & A with KARE 11 News.

KARE 11: What is a “takeover event?”

Crystal Deputy Chief Brian Hubbard: It’s some type of a social media blast that’s put together for, “Hey, gather up at this spot,” and it’s bringing hundreds of people together into typically a park area.

KARE 11: So what happened here then last Sunday?

Hubbard: Last Sunday mid-afternoon within an hour’s time we had about 300 juveniles show up, almost all by rideshare apps and they just ended up here in the park.

KARE 11: And did it turn into something dangerous? 

Hubbard:  The conduct was escalating. The conduct was getting more brazen, and then we started having fights break out amongst the different people in the park. At that point we determined this assembly has turned into we don’t know what’s going to happen next and we need to dissipate this group. Last Sunday we arrested 6 individuals for disorderly conduct.

Hubbard says the department is preparing for a social media-fueled “takeover event” being planned again at Becker Park sometime over the 4th of July weekend. 

The most infamous example of the nationwide trend happened last year in Manhattan’s Union Square — when a PlayStation 5 giveaway planned by influencer Kai Cenat turned into a riot when thousands of people showed up.

KARE 11: You mentioned this is kind of a national trend. Is it happening at other cities locally as well in the metro?

Hubbard: We know of at least six other communities around the metro, probably more, but we know of six where they’ve had similar events in the last couple months. 

KARE 11: Does it seem like these things just have the potential for a lot of things to go wrong?

Hubbard: Yes, I mean last weekend there was a lot of energy. Our concern is, again to the patrons who are here, that is a scary situation for families that enjoy this park… families are not going to want to be around for all the craziness that comes from those who are not here to enjoy the park. And as those groups tend to escalate, our concern is then what does that turn into something more severe? Do we have assaults, is there potential for guns? 

KARE 11: So what are police planning to do this weekend?

Hubbard: Our plan for this park is we’re going to stop that mass gathering before it starts. So if we start to see large groups of people arriving by rideshare, we will take the action of closing the park at that point and moving everybody out of this space before they get to that large mass.

KARE 11: What do you want parents to know or to do about this sort of thing?

Hubbard: As a parent myself, it’s concerning that there would be that many unsupervised juveniles in a space like this where there isn’t going to be a lot of good that comes from it. 

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ST PAUL, Minn. — The last time this much rain forced the widespread cancellation of fireworks was nearly 30 years ago.

But the 4th of July actually has a long history of extreme weather, and some of these events may have shaped your holiday experiences, including the Boundary Waters blowdown in 1999.

“The storm was epical,” said author Cary J. Griffith, who wrote a new book this year about the event called a derecho.

The winds toppled 48 million trees in the Boundary Waters with the power of a category four hurricane. There are reports of six foot waves and nearly a half a million acres destroyed. The falling trees also hurt dozens of campers. 

“It maybe happens once every 500 years,” said Griffith. “I’m not sure a blowdown of that intensity ever happened in the Boundary Waters.”

The 4th of July storm hit on a Sunday, marking a time of year experts say has more hazardous weather than any other major holiday in Minnesota. 

From the extreme heat wave in 2012 when the temperature reached 101 to the washout in 1995 that canceled fireworks across the state that state climatologist Pete Boulay likens to this year’s relentless rain.

“When you see the food trucks leave early, that’s what I would define as a washout,” Boulay said laughing. 

The last three months are now the fourth wettest on record. The swollen rivers, and the people who live around them, are used to them cresting in April when the snow melts — not so much in the summer.

“It doesn’t really flood that often on the rivers in June and into July here, and it impacts different things like 4th of July,” said Boulay.

There is one weather story that hasn’t been told. The State Climatology Office has never confirmed a single instance of snow falling on July 4th in the Twin Cities — and here’s to hoping it stays that way. 

“What struck me the most of all that was there were no fatalities,” said Griffith about the blowdown back in 1999.

People are lucky to be alive and a landscape will never look the same, but it no doubt is an unforgettable holiday memory. 

“There’s still remnants of the blowdown in the forest, there’s still fuel there, but it’s really grown up,” said Griffith. “It’s really green, but it looks like a younger forest.”

That historic storm laid down timber that would later catch fire in the Ham Lake fire of 2007 that Griffith also wrote about. You can click here to find his latest releases. 

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STAR PRAIRIE, Wis. — Rue has tiny pink casts on her legs and wears a feeding tube in a bandana around her neck. But the staff caring for her at Home for Life Animal Sanctuary says she’s come a long way.

“She’s alert. She’s eating on her own and she’s doing great,” says Heidi Pulaski, a staff member who is fostering Rue while she recovers from a fall that nearly took her lie.

The animal sanctuary says they received Rue in late June after reports she’d been thrown from a twelfth story balcony at a Minneapolis apartment building.

Stacy Harris was at the apartment building the day it happened and saw the cat falling to the ground.

“It hit the concrete,” she said. “My heart is still beating just talking about the story because it was a cat, an animal.”

Harris said her neighbor called Minneapolis Animal Care and Control who took the clearly injured cat away.

Heidi says the Minneapolis Animal Control called several rescues trying to find someone to take the cat but because her medical needs were so great and the costs were so high, no one could.

“It came down to crunch time, a couple hours before she was to be euthanized and we stepped in and said that we would take her,” Heidi told KARE 11.

When the cat – who they called Rue – came to them she had a broken leg, toe and jaw. She was in a lot of pain. But soon after, Heidi says, she began to purr and wanted to be held.

“It was just amazing to me that an animal who had been through that so recently was going to trust a human again,” she said.

Since, Rue’s legs have been set in splints and she underwent a dental procedure that holds her mouth open so she can eat as her jaw heals. The care cost several thousand dollars.

Home For Life decided to publicize Rue’s story in hope of getting some justice for the cat. No one has been arrested for throwing her from the balcony.

“Our hearts break every day for the stories that we hear and Rue in particular,” Heidi says.

As for the future, Heidi says Rue may one day be adopted. If she’s not she will continue to live at Home For Life with the 100 or so other cats rescued.

“We give them the best life we can here and that’s what we would do for Rue if she stayed here as well.”

The cost of caring for Rue and the other animals including medical procedures is funded completely by donations.

To help contribute, you can donate at Home For Life’s website:

https://www.homeforlife.org/donate

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