Star Tribune
Suspect in St. Paul shooting was city employee
The man arrested for allegedly shooting an 18-year-old in the head outside St. Paul’s Jimmy Lee Recreation Center on Wednesday was a staff member who has worked there for about a year.
The circumstances behind the shooting remain murky. Mayor Melvin Carter and St. Paul Police Chief Axel Henry shared details Thursday, with Carter revealing that the 26-year-old man suspect worked for the city on an “on-and-off basis” since 2013. He was recently employed at the recreation center as a community recreation specialist, a role that involves direct contact with youth and community members.
Carter and Henry did not reveal what led up to the shooting, saying it remained under investigation. The 18-year-old victim remained in critical condition at Regions Hospital.
Although police released the man’s name, the Star Tribune generally doesn’t name suspects until they are charged. His Minnesota criminal record amounts to minor offenses including misdemeanor theft, marijuana possession and driving without a license. The victim’s family asked that his name remain private.
“We are shocked by this, and I am one of those parents who sends my children to our rec centers,” Carter said, adding that he and his father grew up visiting the Jimmy Lee Recreation Center. “We just came out of a two-and-a-half hour meeting with our frontline staff to address questions exactly like [whether there will be increased security measures] … and at this point, we have to be in a space where everything is on the table.”
In the meantime, city officials are not rushing to reopen the space at 270 Lexington Pkwy. N.. Carter said their priority is caring for young people and staff who may have been traumatized, as Parks and Recreation Director Andy Rodriguez said it’s likely that 100 kids or less were at the center during the shooting.
Although the Jimmy Lee Recreation Center was closed Thursday, vestiges of the crime scene remained. Tattered caution tape clung to trees outside the building. A discarded surgical glove covered by snow lay in the parking lot. An onlooker drove past the building, peering at the entrance doors before pulling away. An announcement on the center’s website said they are closed through Sunday.
City officials described the Oxford Community Center, which includes the Jimmy Lee Recreation Center, as a multimillion-dollar facility with an aquatic center and recreation center that draws people from across the region — a prototype for a space that Carter says “we know that we need for our children.”
Across the street, Central High School’s doors were also shuttered Thursday “to ensure students have time and space to process this traumatic event,” according to an email that Principal Cherise Ayers sent to families. Carter said he does not remember a time that a school has closed because of violence like this.
The incident happened in the center’s parking lot, according to Henry, but police are still piecing together what led up to the violent interaction between that staff worker and the teen. The worker fled after the shooting, but Henry said they found him and the firearm involved afterwards. Records show he was arrested in the 1600 block of Stillwater Avenue E.
Carter would like to prevent incidents like this by reducing the availability of firearms. He’s urging DFL lawmakers to reconsider a law that prohibits cities from prohibiting firearms at public facilities like rec centers.
“If everybody has a gun then every conflict has a potential of turning into a gunfight, and that creates challenges not just for St. Paull, but around the country,” Carter said.
Carter said he spoke with Gov. Tim Walz and state legislators Wednesday night and said their conversations focused on unraveling and addressing the shooting
For now, police said there is no continued threat stemming from Wednesday’s shooting. Families and community members who rely on recreation centers should continue to do so, Carter said.
Tammie Johnson, a former community recreation specialist who worked at the rec center and lives nearby, said the night of the shooting that she was upset and that more should have been done to prevent it. She said she resigned after she was attacked by a teenage girl.
“It’s so sad,” Johnson said. “I told them last year if they don’t get it under control this was going to happen.”
The Lynx are in the hot seat.
The team lost Game 3 of the WNBA Finals series against the New York Liberty on Wednesday night 77-80, setting the stage for a decisive match at Target Center on Friday night. Fans in the arena reacted with resounding disappointment after Sabrina Ionescu sunk a three-pointer to break away from the tie game and dashed the Lynx’s chance at forcing overtime.
Before we get to the reactions, first things first: The Lynx set an attendance record, filling Target Center with 19,521 spectators for the first time in franchise history. That’s nearly 500 more than when Caitlin Clark was in town with the Indiana Fever earlier this year.
Despite leading by double digits for much of the game, the Lynx began the fourth quarter with a one-point lead over the Liberty and struggled to stay more than two or three points ahead throughout.
The Liberty took the lead with minutes to go in the fourth quarter and folks were practically despondent.
Of course, there were people who were in it solely for the spectacle. Nothing more.
The Lynx took a commanding lead early in the first quarter and ended the first half in winning position, setting a particularly jovial mood among the fanbase to start the game.
Inside Target Center, arena announcers spent a few minutes before the game harassing Lynx fans — and Liberty fans — who had not yet donned the complementary T-shirts draped over every seat.
DULUTH – The Minnesota and Wisconsin transportation departments will make upgrades to the Richard I. Bong Memorial Bridge in the summer of 2025, in preparation for the structure to become the premiere route between this city and Superior during reconstruction of the Blatnik Bridge.
Built in 1961, the Blatnik Bridge carries 33,000 vehicles per day along Interstate 535 and Hwy. 53. It will be entirely rebuilt, starting in 2027, with the help of $1 billion in federal funding announced earlier this year. MnDOT and WisDOT are splitting the remaining costs of the project, about $4 million each.
According to MnDOT, projects on the Bong Bridge will include spot painting, concrete surface repairs to the bridge abutments, concrete sealer on the deck, replacing rubber strip seal membranes on the main span’s joints and replacing light poles on the bridge and its points of entry. It’s expected to take two months, transportation officials said during a recent meeting at the Superior Public Library.
During this time there will be occasional lane closures, detours at the off-ramps, and for about three weeks the sidewalk path alongside the bridge will be closed.
The Bong Bridge, which crosses the St. Louis River, opened to traffic in 1985 and is the lesser-used of the two bridges. Officials said they want to keep maintenance to a minimum on the span during the Blatnik project, which is expected to take four years.
Red Wing will celebrate the grand opening of its first permanent set of pickleball courts next week with an “inaugural play” on the six courts at Colvill Park on the banks of the Mississippi, between a couple of marinas and next to the aquatic center.
Among the first to get to play on the new courts will be David Anderson, who brought pickleball to the local YMCA in 2008, before the nationwide pickleball craze took hold, and Denny Yecke, at 92 the oldest pickleball player in Red Wing.
The inaugural play begins at 11 a.m. Tuesday, with a rain date of the next day. Afterward will be food and celebration at the Colvill Park Courtyard building.
Tim Sletten, the city’s former police chief, discovered America’s fastest-growing sport a decade ago after he retired. With fellow members of the Red Wing Pickleball Group, he’d play indoors at the local YMCA or outdoors at a local school, on courts made for other sports. But they didn’t have a permanent place, so they approached the city about building one.
When a city feasibility study came up with a high cost, about $350,000, Sletten’s group got together to raise money.
The courts are even opening ahead of schedule, originally set for 2025.
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