St. Paul’s police chief on Thursday named a homicide investigator as Detective of the Year and a patrol officer who regularly recovers firearms and large amounts of drugs as Officer of the Year.

Sgt. Jennifer O’Donnell, a St. Paul officer of more than 30 years who works in the homicide/robbery unit, was the primary investigator on 156 homicides, robberies and aggravated assaults last year and assisted on more, according to her commendation. She was the primary investigator in the fatal shooting of Nicholas Sletten, 42, in the North End in October.

Murder charges were filed in January. “This was a complex investigation that required ongoing intensive work,” said O’Donnell’s commendation, which described her and her colleagues as working “tirelessly” on the case.

Chief Axel Henry named Abdirahman Dahir as 2024 Officer of the Year. He grew up in St. Paul, became a Police Explorer at age 14, and later a St. Paul parking enforcement officer before he joined the department’s police academy in 2021.

A patrol officer in the Western District, Dahir recovered 22 handguns, of which 3 were stolen and one a “ghost gun,” and several thousand fentanyl pills during 18 stops last year that were either traffic or investigative, his commendation said, adding that last year “was not an anomaly.” Dahir recovered 30 handguns the year before.

Richard Bertholf, who works in the police Video Management Unit, was recognized as Professional Employee of the Year.

When Andre L. Mitchell, 26, was shot and killed while two children were in his backseat in November, Bertholf “immediately responded to multiple urgent requests to gather nearby video that may have captured the shooting,” his commendation said. He found videos that showed four people shooting at Mitchell and two suspect vehicles, and gathered information about suspects. Four people have been charged in Mitchell’s murder.

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The crash that killed five young women in south Minneapolis nearly three years ago was not just an accident, bad luck or chance, the prosecution said Thursday in its closing argument in the trial of Derrick John Thompson.

It was murder in the third degree, Hennepin County prosecutor Paige Starkey told jurors, “because these five young women lost their lives as a direct consequence of the reckless, selfish, destructive choices of another driver.”

After five days of testimony, the jury received the case at 11:30 a.m. Thursday and began deliberations to decide whether the state had proved beyond a reasonable doubt that Thompson — the 29-year-old son of a former St. Paul state representative — is guilty of five counts of third-degree murder and 10 counts of criminal vehicular homicide for allegedly operating a motor vehicle in a grossly negligent manner and leaving the scene of an accident.

The jury had not reached a verdict as of 4:30 p.m. and was sent home for the day. They will reconvene Friday.

Prosecutors say Thompson was driving 95 mph on Interstate 35W in a rented Cadillac Escalade SUV when he passed a Minnesota State Trooper, exited on Lake Street at 116 mph, and then ran a red light at Second Avenue, crashing into the victims’ Honda Civic just after 10 p.m. June 16, 2023.

Pronounced dead at the scene were Salma Mohamed Abdikadir, 20, of St. Louis Park; Sabiriin Mohamoud Ali, 17, of Bloomington; Sahra Liban Gesaade, 20, of Brooklyn Center; Sagal Burhaan Hersi, 19, of Minneapolis, and Siham Adan Odhowa, 19, of Minneapolis. They were returning from preparing for a friend’s wedding, which was to be the next day.

In September, prosecutors added the five counts of third-degree murder, which is defined in state statute as “perpetrating an act eminently dangerous to others and evincing a depraved mind, without regard for human life.”

“Members of the jury, not every murder is calculated or considered,” Starkey said. “Not every murder is directed at a particular person or people.”

Tyler Bliss, Thompson’s attorney, tried to cast doubt during the trial that his client was the driver, despite jurors seeing surveillance video of him renting the Escalade from Hertz at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport and then driving away. Bliss suggested his older brother, Damarco Thompson, was the driver that night, pointing to evidence that his hat and a set of car keys were found inside the crashed SUV.

In response, the state subpoenaed Damarco to take the stand. On Wednesday, he testified that he never drove the Escalade. He said the two of them drove a short distance from the airport, stopped and Derrick transferred some possessions from their Dodge Challenger into the Escalade, which his brother then drove away.

In his closing arguments Thursday, Bliss questioned the credibility of Demarco, who he said is a “person with one of the most strong motives to give self-serving testimony I’ve ever encountered in a case. Who on Earth would want to be associated with this situation?”

‘Choices that night were criminal’

Assistant Hennepin County Attorney Paige Starkey gives the prosecution’s closing statement in Derrick John Thompson’s criminal trial. (Renée Jones Schneider / Pool via The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Early on in the state’s one-hour long closing argument, prosecutors reminded jurors of how Thompson acted after the crash by replaying police officer body-cam video of an interaction with Thompson.

“Do you know how long this is going to take?” he asked an officer while sitting in the back of a squad car, adding he had “things I do wanna get done on my Friday night, you know?”

Starkey went on to go through the video evidence in chronological order from that night, starting with Thompson at Hertz and the Escalade speeding past a state trooper parked under an I-35W overpass.

“Members of the jury, you make the decision,” Starkey said. “Has his driving conduct changed? Does it appear that he’s now going faster? … You can see the trooper behind him hasn’t gained a lot, because at this point, he’s got his foot down on the accelerator.”

Video showed the trooper wasn’t able to catch up or turn on the squad’s emergency lights or sirens before the speeding SUV turned off the interstate and narrowly missed cars. Then, the violent collision, which sent off a large plume of smoke.

Assistant Hennepin County Attorney Paige Starkey, not seen, presents a video play-by-play of the evidence against Derrick John Thompson, second left, as she gives the prosecution’s closing argument. This is a photo displayed of the victims’ vehicle. (Renée Jones Schneider / Pool via The Minnesota Star Tribune)

“Derrick Thompson’s behavior, his series of choices that night were criminal,” Starkey said, “because they were eminently dangerous to everyone and anyone who happened to be on the road that night.”

Short video clips were replayed of Thompson crossing Lake Street and walking into a Taco Bell parking lot, where he “makes the decision basically to try to blend in,” Starkey said.

“Why are you bleeding?” an officer asks Thompson after he’s seen sitting on a parking lot curb with an injury to his face. He told officers it was an old injury, then said he had fallen at Lake Street and Fifth Avenue earlier in the night.

Another video clip showed what Starkey said was Thompson “struggling to turn and manipulate his body to even sit down in the back of the squad car.” He was taken to the hospital for treatment for a fracture on the right side of his hip, which Starkey said is “wholly consistent” with him slamming on the brake pedal before impact.

Starkey reminded jurors that the state’s first witness, Kanitra Walker, Thompson’s former girlfriend, testified that he had called her from the hospital and that he said he was driving.

Starkey pointed out that state troopers had testified the mangled Escalade’s passenger-side doors were stuck shut, casting doubt that Thompson was a passenger in the SUV.

Although Starkey acknowledge that a DNA mixture found on the inside driver’s door matched Derrick and Damarco, she added that brothers and family members share characteristics of DNA and also that transfer is possible with DNA.

“I want to be clear: There is no evidence in this case that more than one person was ever driving the Cadillac Escalade,” Starkey said. “No one saw another driver, there’s no video of another driver.”

Over the course of at least two minutes, Thompson made the criminally reckless choices “to drive the way he did both on and the interstate and off — and “that is indifference to human life,” Starkey said.

Not murder, defense says

Defense attorney Tyler Bliss gives a closing statement for his client, Derrick John Thompson, at the Hennepin County Courthouse in Minneapolis. (Renée Jones Schneider / Pool via The Minnesota Star Tribune)

In the defense closing argument, Bliss said there is no evidence that Thompson knew he was being followed by the state trooper.

Thompson’s attorney said the driver who was “trying to jab on that brake” showed “regard for human life.”

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Driving at “great speeds” is recklessness and not a depraved act or acting with indifference to life, Bliss said.

“This is recklessness, realization of the mistake and an inability to resolve from that mistake,” he said. “Because of that, whoever’s driving this vehicle is not guilty of any of the murder charges here.”

Thompson’s father, John Thompson, was a first-term lawmaker representing St. Paul’s East Side when he was defeated in the DFL primary in August 2022 in the wake of a number of controversies, which included questions about his official residence following a July 2021 traffic stop in St. Paul.

In November, Thompson turned down a plea offer from the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office that called for a prison term between 32½ and nearly 39 years for pleading guilty to five counts of criminal vehicular homicide.

Principal bassoon Fei Xie has a chance to shine with the Minnesota Orchestra, performing a concerto by 20th century French composer André Jolivet in a program that also features selections from Wynton Marsalis’ gorgeous “Blues Symphony,” and a symphony by Romanian composer George Enescu from the turn of the 20th century.

Minnesota Orchestra principal bassoon Fei Xie will perform “Jolivet” with the orchestra at Orchestra Hall on June 5-6, 2025. (Aoe Prinds / Minnesota Orchestra)

Conducting the concert is the Grammy-award winning Cristian Măcelaru, who attended graduate school with Xie at Rice University in Texas 20 years ago. Speaking with host Ariana Kim before the performance, Măcelaru said that while they were in school, he and Xie made a commitment to each other that they’d perform the Jolivet concerto together one day. “The Jolivet is one of those unicorns in the bassoon repertoire, because it’s so challenging and so difficult,” Măcelaru said.

Măcelaru also has a friendship with Wynton Marsalis, whom the conductor often selects in programming. “I so believe in his genius and in his artistry,” he said.

Starting off the program, the orchestra performs “Swimming in Sorrow” and “Danzón y Mambo, Choro y Samba” from Marsalis’ “Blues Symphony.” It’s an epic work that infuses a New Orleans sound into an orchestral statement. “Swimming in Sorrow” evokes the stormy seas of the middle passage, where enslaved people were transported in chains across the Atlantic ocean.

Cymbals and other percussive instruments create the sound of thunder and waves lapping against the ship, while the music ebbs and flows like the tumultuous sea. Principal trumpet R. Douglas Wright’s solo brings a melancholy blues feeling to the movement, while another solo performed by principal clarinet Gabriel Campos Zamora recalls the clarinet part in Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue.”

After a pause, the movement moves into syncopated rhythms both sad and celebratory, like a funeral march on the streets of New Orleans. Then in the second movement, “Danzón y Mambo, Choro y Samba,” Marsalis carries on with the juxtaposition of jubilation and sadness, adding Afro-Latin rhythms and narrative interludes, like the sound of a police whistle followed by a frantic chase scene. The work is frenetic and alive.

Fei Xie is terrific in his solo from André Jolivet’s Concerto for Bassoon and Orchestra, performed with the Minnesota Orchestra’s string instruments. With bent knees and elbows slightly jutted out, the musician is in full concentration playing the difficult material. The range of notes in particular is impressive, as Xie’s instrument explores both very high notes and incredibly low pitches, played remarkably quickly. From the explosive first movement to the more dreamlike second movement, Xie brings a sweetness to the tune.

After intermission, the orchestra performs Symphony No. 1 in E-flat major, Opus 13 by George Enescu, a work that first premiered in Paris in 1906. From its uplifting first movement, “Assez vif et rythmé,” it moves into its second movement, “Lent,” evoking a picturesque summer day. A repeated three-note phrase becomes especially intriguing when those notes  become like an echo, becoming softer and softer as the sound drifts as if into the distance. Then in the last movement, “Vif et vigoureux,” the orchestra delivers a swirling explosion of music.

Notably in the concert, one orchestra seat is adorned with white roses, in honor of Arek Tesarczyk, the Minnesota Orchestra cellist who passed away last month after a long illness. In dedicating the performance to Tesarczyk, principal cello Tony Ross said that he remembered his colleague as humble, kind and true. “He was also devastatingly funny,” he said. “I thought of him as our rock because he created such a lush and beautiful sound, and that sound enhanced our entire cello section.”

‘Fei Xie Plays Jolivet’

When: Friday, June 6 at 8 p.m.

Where: Orchestra Hall, 1111 Nicollet Mall, Mpls.

Tickets: $31-$106

Capsule: Fei Xie performs one of the most difficult concertos in the bassoon repertoire in a concert led by Grammy-winning conductor Cristian Măcelaru.

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“As the city and state pour subsidies into for-profit development that fails to serve those most in need, Community Land Trusts (CLTs) offer a proven and powerful way to ensure lasting affordability, protect tenants, and begin to repair longstanding racial and economic injustices.”

Housing advocates rallying Tuesday in lower Manhattan for passage of the Community Land Act in the City Council. (Photo by Adi Talwar)

From the South Bronx to East New York and beyond, communities are working to reclaim land for public good, take housing off the speculative market, and ensure permanent affordability—through community land trusts (CLTs) and neighborhood-led development. 

On Tuesday, the City Council held a historic hearing on the Community Land Act—a groundbreaking slate of bills backed by 150-plus groups that would enable CLTs and other nonprofits to dramatically expand the supply of deeply and permanently affordable housing in low-income and Black and brown neighborhoods. 

RELATED READING: Social Housing Supporters Revive Push to Boost Nonprofit & Community Ownership

More than 60 tenants and community groups testified in support of the bills, which include the Community Opportunity to Purchase Act (Intro 902), giving CLTs and other qualified nonprofits a first right to purchase multifamily buildings when landlords sell, as well as Public Land for Public Good (Intro 78), requiring the city to prioritize CLTs and other nonprofits in public land dispositions. The package also includes a resolution calling on New York State to enact the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act. 

Together, these bills represent a bold shift toward community stewardship, equity, and long-term housing stability.

The need for such a shift couldn’t be clearer—or more urgent. Today, more than half of Black and Latino New Yorkers face housing insecurity, the result of decades of disinvestment, displacement, and speculative development. As the city and state pour subsidies into for-profit development that fails to serve those most in need, CLTs offer a proven and powerful way to ensure lasting affordability, protect tenants, and begin to repair longstanding racial and economic injustices.

Community land trusts are nonprofit, community-governed organizations that own and steward land for the public good. Rooted in civil rights movements, CLTs represent a powerful approach to taking land and housing off the speculative market, preventing displacement, and advancing community self-determination.

In recent years, the CLT movement has grown by leaps and bounds—from just two CLTs a decade ago to more than 20 today, operating in every borough. New York City’s CLTs now steward more than 1,200 permanently affordable rentals and shared equity cooperatives, as well as green spaces, affordable retail storefronts, community and commercial hubs, and more. 

Among the movement’s recent wins:

Last year, the East New York CLT worked with organized tenants to purchase their 21-unit apartment building from a neglectful landlord—the first purchase of its kind by a CLT in New York City. The CLT is now coordinating with tenants to make long-overdue repairs and convert the building into a tenant-owned affordable cooperative. 

After a decade of sustained advocacy in the South Bronx, the Mott Haven Port Morris Community Land Stewards secured rights in 2023 to transform an abandoned city-owned property into a Health, Education, and Arts (HEArts) Center. The CLT is also waging a campaign to ensure an accessible waterfront, in an environmental justice community that lacks healthy green spaces and where one in five children suffers from asthma.

On a Queens peninsula devastated by Hurricane Sandy, the ReAL Edgemere CLT was selected to redevelop 119 vacant city lots for climate-resilient affordable homeownership and open space. The grassroots CLT is engaging community residents, many of whom live in public housing, through a robust and inclusive community planning process.

Cooper Square CLT, New York’s veteran CLT formed in 1994, has long stewarded more than 320 deeply affordable apartments on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Now, the CLT is organizing tenants in two rent-stabilized buildings it rescued from tax foreclosure.

Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition launched the Bronx CLT in 2020 to build shared wealth and collective governance over Bronx land. In addition to other community ownership wins, NWBCCC has secured commitments for four sites in the Belmont neighborhood that the CLT will preserve as permanently affordable cooperative housing. 

Borne out of activist opposition to Amazon’s planned headquarters in Long Island City, Queens, the Western Queens CLT is currently focused on securing rights to the same site—a 600,000 square foot, publicly owned Dept. of Education building in Long Island City—to create manufacturing jobs, an immigrant street vendor commissary, and artist and community spaces. 

This Land Is Ours CLT, formed in 2019, contributed to a successful bid to the NY Archdiocese that will develop a decommissioned religious property into more than 500 newly constructed affordable apartments. The CLT also is working to acquire and convert two city-owned parking lots to permanently affordable low-income apartments for families and seniors. 

Even with these and other gains, the city’s CLTs face steep barriers to scaling up—chief among them, access to land and capital. 

The Community Land Act would begin to change that. By giving CLTs a first right to purchase buildings when landlords sell, COPA would enable communities to intervene before speculators swoop in. Meanwhile, Public Land for Public Good would empower CLTs to transform vacant public land-–a precious resource—into truly affordable housing, vibrant community and green spaces, and more.

The City Council has taken initial steps to foster the growth of New York’s CLT movement, including by funding CLT education, organizing, and technical assistance in the city budget, since 2019. Groups have leveraged modest funding awards to deliver outsized results—building deep bases of support in their communities, acquiring and rehabilitating their first properties, partnering with mission-aligned developers, and much more. 

We now need New York City to go all in on its support for CLTs, through robust funding and policy support that enables them to seize opportunities to bring land and housing into community control. The Community Land Act is an essential step forward.

The city’s deepening housing crisis demands bold, systemic solutions. CLTs are already showing what’s possible—ensuring real affordability, preventing displacement, and putting land in community hands. Beyond simply building more, communities are organizing through CLTs to ensure land and housing are developed—and stewarded, over generations—for the public good.

Deyanira Del Río is executive director of New Economy Project. Matthew Shore is senior organizer at South Bronx Unite and a member of the Mott Haven-Port Morris Community Land Stewards. Brianna Soleyn is a board member of the East New York Community Land Trust.

The post Opinion: NYC Needs Land and Housing for People, Not Profit appeared first on City Limits.