Star Tribune
Man admits bombing Minneapolis hair salon, returning year later and vandalizing the shop
A 59-year-old man has admitted that he set off a bomb at a Minneapolis hair salon in 2022 and returned a year later to lob a brick through the store’s window.
Michael Allen Francisco pleaded guilty Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis to using an explosive to “maliciously damage or destroy” a business following a lengthy federal investigation that included forensic analysis and an eventual admission during a search of the man’s home in March.
The plea agreement calls for Francisco to serve the mandatory minimum of at least five years in prison followed by anywhere from one to three years of supervised release. Francisco also agreed that he is obligated to pay more than $170,000 in restitution. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 5.
According to a sworn affidavit from a special agent assigned to the FBI’s joint terrorism task force, video images from a Ring device showed Francisco placing an explosive on the window of the Studio 411 Salon, at 411 S. Cedar Lake Road, and fleeing in a vehicle before it detonated about 2:50 a.m. on Nov. 20, 2022.
Francisco was also identified in video images throwing a landscaping brick through a window at the salon around 1:25 a.m. on Nov. 6, 2023.
In late March, the FBI and Minneapolis police searched Francisco’s home and seized a black jacket suspected to have been worn by Francisco during the brick-throwing incident. Agents also found multiple explosive components, including suspected “energetic powders and fuses,” a .32-caliber revolver with ammunition and suspected methamphetamine.
Francisco has a prior bank robbery conviction from 2001 for which he was sentenced to 12½ years in federal prison, making him ineligible to possess a firearm.
In interviews with law enforcement during the search, Francisco confessed both verbally and in writing to lighting the fuse on the explosive device that damaged Studio 411 and throwing the brick at the salon’s window a year later.
Publicly available court records do not reveal why Francisco targeted the salon in Minneapolis’ Bryn Mawr neighborhood.
The FBI reviewed police records and found that Francisco was linked to another case of possessing an explosive device: In March 2023, Minneapolis police found Francisco trespassing near an abandoned lumber yard in northeast Minneapolis. He left the area on foot, but officers noticed an unoccupied pickup truck nearby with its engine running and doors unlocked.
Before towing the truck, police found an explosive device inside the center console that the department’s bomb squad recovered.
Star Tribune staff writer Stephen Montemayor contributed to this report.
Brooklyn Park police are seeking the public’s help in finding the driver of a vehicle that struck and injured a 12-year-old girl walking to school on Wednesday.
The crash occurred at 8:42 a.m. near the intersection of Boone Av. N and 63rd Av. N. The girl was crossing the street to reach a bus stop, according to police. The driver then fled the scene.
The girl sustained “moderate injuries” and was taken to the hospital by ambulance, police said.
Police described the vehicle as a white 2015 to 2019 Hyundai Sonata that is missing a passenger side rearview mirror. Police said the driver was a woman, but did not have a specific description. The vehicle came from the west across 63rd Avenue from the Bass Creek neighborhood between Highway 169 & Boone Avenue , then continued east on 63rd Avenue toward County Road 81.
Anyone with information is asked to contact Brooklyn Park police at (763) 493-8222.
Minnesota Wild owner Craig Leipold is expanding his plans of renovating the Xcel Energy Center to include the construction of a 650-room convention center hotel.
It originally included plans to renovate the adjacent RiverCentre, a parking ramp and a bridge along Kellogg Boulevard. It was previously estimated to cost around $250 million to $300 million.
The price tag will rise now, Leipold said, but he did not specify how much. A 650-room hotel would top in size the 410-room InterContinental Saint Paul Riverfront hotel that is already downtown.
“The whole project is so great for downtown St. Paul, and it’s not just the arena,” Leipold said. “It’s a lot of stuff, so we think it’s great for downtown. It’s good for our fans, good for our market and we’re pushing hard this year.”
Minnesota Wild fans cross St. Paul’s West Seventh Street to the Xcel Energy Center before a Minnesota Wild game in October 2021. (Alex Kormann)
Leipold said the Wild would perhaps contribute up to $250 million in financing and would seek further assistance from the state. But he said it’s unclear what the chances are to receive that support, given the November elections could potentially result in a new governor and the Legislature in Minnesota.
“We’re trying to sell the legislature and the governor,” Leipold said. “The problem is, nobody knows who’s going to be running the legislature, Republicans or Democrats. We don’t know who the governor’s going to be. We’re kind of in a tough spot right now. But ultimately, we need to get the renovations and the upgrades in this arena.”
State Sen. Sandra Pappas, who expressed skepticism about the project receiving state assistance last December, was unavailable for comment Wednesday. The office of Gov. Tim Walz did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The suit alleges there is no plan for single-family homes at the development, which will instead be multi-family homes. Buyers will have to obtain either a traditional mortgage, with interest, or “obtain a loan from a Sharia-compliant lender” that Nolosha knew would charge a “profit rate” on top of the cost of the house. It also alleges that “most egregiously” customers will not be able to move into Nolosha in 2023 or 2024 because the development will not be ready for “many more years at best.”
It also says that when the Attorney General’s Office requested that Nolosha pay customers a full refund due to the delays, Nolosha refused.
The Attorney General’s Office contends that Nolosha doesn’t own the development’s proposed site in Lakeville, but offered to buy the land for $4 million in April 2023. Four extensions to the closing date have since been granted, the latest setting that date for Nov. 10 and the price at $3.4 million.
Abdullahi has said he has a signed purchase agreement for the property.
The lawsuit states that Nolosha has lacked even basic communication with Lakeville and has not submitted a comprehensive plan to the city about the development, let alone broken ground. Attached to the lawsuit is a photo of the proposed site, calling it “just undeveloped wetlands.”
It accuses Abdullahi of enriching himself as the “sole full-time employee of Nolosha” earning a salary between $2,000 and $4,000 per month.
