Authorities say a man was fatally stabbed Thursday night when he tried to rescue his girlfriend’s mother, who police believe was being held captive by her estranged husband in a Maplewood apartment. The man allegedly had strangled his wife, repeatedly punched her in the head and forced her to walk around naked.

The woman’s husband, Lloyd Matthew McKenzie, 52, has been charged with two counts of second-degree murder and one count of second-degree assault, according to the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office.

The Friday criminal complaint gave the following details:

On Thursday night, a woman went to check on her mother after not hearing from her for a few days. Shortly before 6 p.m., she arrived at her mother’s apartment in the 1900 block of East County Road D in Maplewood with her 33-year-old boyfriend and a cousin.

Her father answered the door. When he did, her mother said, “Thank you, God.”

The father tried to close the door but the cousin had jammed a foot in the doorway to prevent the door from closing. Then the father allegedly stabbed his daughter’s boyfriend with a serrated steak knife and allegedly tried to stab the cousin.

The complaint said the mother yelled for help and asked the three to not let her husband lock her in the apartment again. However, he was still able to close the door.

Police arrived and kicked in the door, arresting McKenzie when he came out of a bedroom. The mother thanked officers and ran from the apartment, distraught and inconsolable.

Officers found the daughter’s boyfriend in the fetal position on the floor across from the apartment with stab wounds to his chest and abdomen. He died in surgery early Friday at Regions Hospital in St. Paul.

The mother told investigators that she and McKenzie were not together as a couple and that he had come from out of state and broken into her apartment and was living there. He held her inside for three days while he was allegedly using crack cocaine, she said.

She was allowed to leave to go to the store, but McKenzie had taken her car keys and cellphones. He followed her around the apartment, she said, and forced her to remain naked. At times he would punch her in the head or threaten her with a screwdriver, she alleged.

On Tuesday, he strangled her, she told police. She said she tried to appease him and show him affection to keep him from hurting her further.

When her daughter and the others arrived on Thursday night, McKenzie ordered her to put clothes on and then opened the door and stabbed her daughter’s boyfriend, she said. She ran and hid in a bedroom and tried to block the door with a chest freezer, but he forced his way in and stood over her with a knife, she said.

She agreed to tell police that the boyfriend had a gun and that McKenzie had only acted in self-defense when he stabbed the man. The mother told police she only said this so he wouldn’t hurt her further. She told investigators the knife was under the mattress in her bedroom.

After he was read his Miranda rights, McKenzie agreed to speak with police. He said he and his wife had been on a marijuana and crack binge for a few days and that he had wanted to stop but she hadn’t. Then he said that his daughter, her boyfriend and her cousin came and demanded the mother leave with them.

He told police that he told them, “She’s not going with you.”

He said that the boyfriend pointed a gun at him and pulled the trigger, but the gun didn’t fire. He said he tried to defend himself and that the boyfriend was injured in the scuffle. When asked to elaborate on the scuffle, he did not answer.

When asked if he stabbed the boyfriend, McKenzie said he wouldn’t answer without a lawyer.

After obtaining a search warrant, officers retrieved the knife with blood on it under the mattress.

The criminal complaint said that McKenzie has 14 prior felony convictions, including assault, burglary and robbery.

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Either Jayden Kinsel Arredondo or Drew Altavilla had a role in all of Two Rivers’ five touchdowns on Friday night.

But both know much of the game’s credit needs to go to the guys who don’t get enough of it.

Behind a dominating offensive line, Two Rivers ran for 270 of its nearly 350 total yards in a 35-20 win at Simley.

“They just want to run people over all of the time,” Altavilla said of the three returning seniors, including 350-pound Dayven Clairmont, and two new starters which he agrees are the heart and soul of the Warriors. “They keep everybody happy. They’re a family of one every day in practice, they back each other up all the time.”

“They are the leaders of our team. If they’re not here, we really don’t have what we have,” added Delfino Mancha, who ran for 98 yards and routinely set the Warriors up with good field position with his kick and punt returns.

He and Arredondo, who ran for a team-high 111 yards, are a nice, albeit unlikely, 1-2 combination.

“He’s a big boy, he’s going to be punching it. I think I’m big, but realistically, I need to bounce to the outside sometimes. A littler guy coming in, they don’t expect it, so I lower my shoulder, always kind of works,” Mancha said. He’s listed at 5-foot-8 and 160 pounds, but acknowledged he’s more like 5-foot-4 and 140 pounds “on a good day.”  Arredondo is listed at 5-foot-11 and 190 pounds but runs bigger.

While Two Rivers (1-1) pounded the ball with success; Simley focused on an air attack. Christian Urbina threw for 146 yards and three touchdowns, two to Justin Runge. Seven Spartans caught passes.

“We had more time in the pocket, we were getting off the ball faster, our receivers, than last week (a 45-7 loss at Minneapolis North), and we were more mentally there,” Urbina said.

The game can be summed up in an early third quarter sequence.

After forcing Simley (0-2) to punt, Mancha returned a punt to the Spartans’ 48-yard line. The junior followed up with a pair of rushes to the 33 before Arredondo scored from the 17 four plays later, leaping over one defender, for a 35-12 Two Rivers lead.

Urbina threw a 3-yarder to Vincent Yang that, combined with the 2-point conversion, kept it a two-score game.

Looking to maybe ice the win, Two Rivers fumbled deep in Simley territory early in the fourth quarter. Going the other way, the Spartans reached midfield, but a first down was nullified by a holding penalty before Simley turned it over on downs.

Up 7-6 in the second, Two Rivers scored 21 straight points, including a pair of 12-yard runs by Arredondo.

Two Rivers, which lost 34-14 to Spring Lake Park last week, took nearly eight minutes off the clock on its 12-play opening drive that ended with a 27-yard Lonnie West touchdown reception on fourth down. West also had a touchdown reception in the second quarter.

Taking advantage of a Warriors fumble deep in its own end, a 16-yard touchdown pass from Urbina to Runge got the Spartans on the board on the opening play of the second quarter.

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KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Pablo López returned to the mound for the first time in three months after a shoulder muscle injury, a welcome sight to the Minnesota Twins amid more frustrating overall results.

López allowed two runs, six hits and a walk to go with four strikeouts over six innings, and left the game trailing by a run to the Kansas City Royals.

The Twins put the tying run on base multiple times in the late innings but lost 2-1, falling for the fifth straight time. They’re 28-52 since June 5, and their overall record dropped to 62-79. But since the team moved 11 players at the trade deadline, the standings are less of a concern than individual development, along with getting a jump on the 2026 season.

López sustained a Grade 2 strain of the teres major muscle in his right shoulder, a similar injury that Joe Ryan had a season ago. López made three rehab starts in the minors for St. Paul. Not having Lopez available since June 3 certainly helped to ruin the Twins’ season, but the team viewed his return as great news.

López reached 96.1 mph on his four-seam fastball and averaged 94.3 mph, two-tenths below his season average. He also registered 10 misses on 46 swings by Royals batters, throwing 92 pitches overall. He allowed some hard contact, including four swings between 103.5 and 106 mph. Maikel García dinged him for a two-run homer in the third inning.

The better news: López pitched out of a jam with the help of his defense in the sixth. After the first two batters reached, catcher Jhonny Pereda picked Garcia off second base.

Pereda, added to the roster before the game because of an injury to Ryan Jeffers, threw crisply to Brooks Lee, who positioned his foot to block Garcia from reaching the bag. Jeffers was held out because of a head contusion sustained the day before.

López followed by striking out Adam Frazier and getting weak contact by Michael Massey, who popped to Lee at short. López smacked his own glove and did likewise to Pereda’s mitt as he walked off the mound.

López started off effectively in the bottom of the first, throwing strike one to leadoff man Mike Yastrzemski, later retiring him and Bobby Witt on fly balls. Vinnie Pasquantino followed by lining a double to center field that fell just beyond the grasp of Byron Buxton, who made a full-out diving attempt but could only touch the ball with his glove’s fingertips.

The Royals did not score until Pasquantino singled with two outs in the third, and Garcia turned around a sweeper thrown right down the middle of the plate on the first pitch of his at-bat.

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Colin Avery did just about everything for St. Croix Lutheran on Friday night, and that was enough to carry the Crusaders past St. Paul Johnson 39-20 at Harding High School.

“It was great to get out there and run the ball like that,” said Avery, a senior running back who rushed for four touchdowns and caught another as his team improved to 2-0.

“Our blockers were blocking. Everything was clicking.”

That allowed Avery to get on a roll from the get-go, scoring on a 26-yard touchdown run on the game’s opening drive.

Johnson answered right back when senior Justice Moody caught a short pass on the second play of his team’s first possession and evaded a host of tacklers en route to the end zone on a 51-yard touchdown pass. The extra point attempt was blocked, leaving the score 7-6.

The Governors (1-1) caught a break when they recovered a fumble at their own 9-yard line. Two plays later, however, Johnson senior quarterback Ali Farfan was tackled in the end zone for a safety and St. Croix Lutheran extended its margin to 9-6.

Then, the Avery show really began.

He scored on touchdown runs of 6 and 16 yards to expand his team’s lead to 23-6. Then, after the Crusaders forced a Governors’ punt with just 21 seconds to go before halftime, Avery made an impressive grab on a pass from senior teammate Villiam Andersen and somehow kept his balance, staying on his feet to complete a 42-yard scoring strike.

That put St. Croix Lutheran on top 30-6. Avery finished the first half with 15 carries for 130 yards and three touchdowns and the one catch for 42 yards — compiling 172 total yards of offense.

“He’s dynamic,” Crusaders coach Adam Frey said. “We’re looking at different ways to use him — out of the backfield, at a receiver spot, as a return guy.

“He’s a special player. He can do a lot of things that other players can’t.”

But a renewed aerial attack, and a pair of Crusaders’ fumbles, helped Johnson climb back into the game in the third quarter.

The Governors advanced to the Crusaders’ 11 on the opening drive of the second half but turned the ball over on downs.

However, St. Croix Lutheran fumbled the ball away at their own 27, setting up a 6-yard touchdown pass from Farfan to senior Jacoby Wiggins. The ensuing 2-point conversion cut the gap to 30-14.

After recovering another fumble at their own 37, Johnson trimmed the lead to 30-20 on a 12-yard touchdown catch by junior Dea’majeon Henderson-Moore.

“We regrouped at halftime,” said Governors coach Richard Magembe, whose team was playing at Harding because work on new stands and lights at Johnson is not yet finished.

“We know we have great skill players,” he said. “We just had to tap into it and get a sense of urgency going. We gave it our best shot to try and rally, but unfortunately it came a little too late and we weren’t able to pull it out in the end.”

Indeed, a 5-yard touchdown by Avery with 6:41 to play and another safety helped the Crusaders put the game out of reach.

“We’re ready to fight,” Avery said of his team. “We’re ready to keep pushing. There’s a lot more season to go.”

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