By STEVE KARNOWSKI (Associated Press)

A man accused of helping smuggle people across the U.S.-Canadian border had been warned of blizzard conditions before he arranged for four members of an Indian family to cross in 2022, prosecutors allege. The parents and two young children froze to death.

Harshkumar Ramanlal Patel, 28, who prosecutors say went by the alias “Dirty Harry,” is due in federal court in Minnesota on Wednesday on seven counts of human smuggling. The man he allegedly hired to drive the Indian nationals from the Canadian border to the Chicago area also faces four counts, according to a new indictment unsealed last week.

The alleged driver, Steve Shand, of Deltona, Florida, was arrested and charged with human smuggling two years ago. He has pleaded not guilty and remains free on his own recognizance. Proceedings in his case have been put on hold several times.

In a recent court document, an agent with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said Patel has been refused a U.S. visa at least five times, including four at U.S. consulates in India and once at the U.S. consulate in Ottawa, Canada. He is in the U.S. illegally, the agent said.

Patel’s name didn’t emerge until he was arrested in Chicago last month on a previously sealed warrant issued last September. Defense attorney Thomas Leinenweber said in an email that Patel will plead not guilty on Wednesday. He didn’t elaborate.

Unsealed court papers connect Patel with a human trafficking group based in the northwest Indian state of Gujarat. The group allegedly would get Indian nationals into Canada on student visas, then move them on to the Chicago area.

The migrants would work for substandard wages at Indian restaurants while they paid off debt to the smugglers, according to the court documents.

Prosecutors allege Shand was driving a rented 15-passenger van when it was stopped by the U.S. Border Patrol in Minnesota just south of the Canadian border on Jan. 19, 2022. Inside the van were two Indians from Gujarat who had entered the U.S. illegally, while five others were spotted walking nearby. According to court documents, they told officers they’d been walking for more than 11 hours in temperatures well below zero Fahrenheit (-34 Celsius).

One person was hospitalized with severe cold-related injuries.

A man with the group told authorities he paid the equivalent of about $87,000 to get smuggled into the U.S. He also had a backpack that contained children’s clothes and a diaper, but there were no children in the group.

The man told authorities he was carrying the items for a family of four with a small child, all of whom had become separated from his group during the night. Later that day, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police found the four dead, just 10 meters (33 feet) from the border near Emerson, Manitoba.

According to a series of messages sent via WhatsApp, Shand told Patel, “Make sure everyone is dressed for the blizzard conditions please.” Patel replied, “Done.” Then Shand remarked, “We not losing any money.”

The victims were identified as Jagdish Patel, 39; his wife, Vaishaliben, 34; their 11-year-old daughter, Vihangi; and 3-year-old son Dharmik, all from the village of Dingucha in Gujarat state. It’s not clear if they were related to the defendant because Patel is a common name in India.

Jagdish Patel and his wife were educated and had worked as teachers, but sought a better life in the U.S, relatives have said.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said their deaths were “mind blowing.”

The victims faced not only bitter cold, but also flat, open fields; large snowdrifts and complete darkness, the Mounted Police have said. They were wearing winter clothing, but it wasn’t enough to save them.

A court filing unsealed last month said Shand told investigators he first met Harshkumar Patel, whom he also knew by the nickname “Dirty Harry,” at a gaming establishment Patel managed in Orange City, Florida.

Shand said Patel originally tried to recruit him to pick up Indian nationals who were illegally crossing the U.S.-Canada border in New York. Shand said he declined, but agreed to pick up others in Minnesota.

Shand said Patel paid him about $25,000 altogether for five trips to the border in December 2021 and January 2022. He said he dropped off his passengers at an Indian supermarket in Chicago, a residence in a wealthy part of the Chicago area, and at a suburban Chicago motel.

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By LEA SKENE (Associated Press)

BALTIMORE (AP) — It was the middle of the night when a dispatcher’s warning crackled over the radio: A massive cargo ship had lost its steering capabilities and was heading toward the Francis Scott Key Bridge.

Within about 90 seconds, police officers responded that they had managed to stop vehicle traffic over the Baltimore bridge in both directions. One said he was about to drive onto the bridge to alert a construction crew.

But it was too late. Powerless and laden with huge containers, the vessel smashed into a support pillar.

“The whole bridge just fell down,” a frantic officer said. “Start, start whoever, everybody … the whole bridge just collapsed.”

When the container ship Dali slammed into the pillar around 1:30 a.m. Tuesday, it caused a long span of the bridge, a major link in the region’s transport networks, to crumple into the Patapsco River. The loss of the bridge is expected to snarl commuter traffic and disrupt a vital shipping port.

At least eight people went into the water. Two were rescued but the other six, part of a construction crew that had been filling potholes on the bridge, were missing and presumed dead. A search for their bodies was underway Wednesday morning, according to Maryland State Police spokesperson Elena Russo.

Among the missing were people from Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico, according to diplomats from those countries. The Honduran man was identified as Maynor Yassir Suazo Sandova.

Federal and state officials said the crash appeared to be an accident. The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating, and ship traffic entering and leaving the Port of Baltimore was suspended indefinitely.

Capt. Michael Burns Jr. of the Maritime Center for Responsible Energy said bringing a ship into or out of ports in restricted waters with limited room to maneuver is “one of the most technically challenging and demanding things that we do.”

“So there really is few things that are scarier than a loss of power in restricted waters,” he said. And when a ship loses propulsion and steering, “then it’s really at the mercy of the wind and the current.”

Video showed the ship moving at what Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said was about 9 mph (15 kph) toward the 1.6-mile (2.6-kilometer) bridge. Traffic was still moving across the span, and some vehicles appeared to escape with only seconds to spare. The crash caused the span to break and fall into the water within seconds, and jagged remnants were left jutting up from the water.

Police said there is no evidence anyone went into the water other than the workers, though they had not discounted the possibility.

A senior executive at the company that employed the crew, Brawner Builders, said they were working in the middle of the bridge when it fell.

“This was so completely unforeseen,” said Jeffrey Pritzker, the company’s executive vice president. “We don’t know what else to say. We take such great pride in safety, and we have cones and signs and lights and barriers and flaggers.”

Jesus Campos, who has worked on the bridge for Brawner Builders and knows members of the crew, said he was told they were on a break and some were sitting in their trucks.

“I know that a month ago, I was there, and I know what it feels like when the trailers pass,” Campos said. “Imagine knowing that is falling. It is so hard. One would not know what to do.”

Father Ako Walker, a Catholic priest at Sacred Heart of Jesus, said outside a vigil that he spent time with the families of the missing workers as they waited for news of their loved ones.

“You can see the pain etched on their faces,” Walker said.

Rescuers pulled two people out of the water. One person was treated at a hospital and discharged hours later.

The crash happened long before the busy morning commute on the bridge, which was used by 12 million vehicles last year.

From 1960 to 2015, there were 35 major bridge collapses worldwide due to ship or barge collisions, according to the World Association for Waterborne Transport Infrastructure.

Tuesday’s collapse is sure to create a logistical headache along the East Coast for months, if not longer, shutting down shipping traffic at the Port of Baltimore, a major hub.

Paul Wiedefeld, the state’s transportation secretary, said vessel traffic in and out of the port would be suspended until further notice, though the facility was still open to trucks.

“Losing this bridge will devastate the entire area, as well as the entire East Coast,” state Sen. Johnny Ray Salling said.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said it was too soon to give a time frame for clearing the channel, which is about 50 feet (15 meters) deep, while President Joe Biden said he planned to travel to Baltimore soon and expects the federal government to pay the entire cost of rebuilding.

Synergy Marine Group, which manages the ship, said the impact happened while it was under the control of one or more pilots, who are local specialists who help guide vessels safely in and out of ports. Synergy said in a statement Wednesday that one crew member was treated at a hospital for a minor injury.

The ship is owned by Grace Ocean Private Ltd., and Danish shipping giant Maersk said it had chartered the vessel.

The 985-foot-long (300-meter-long) Dali was headed from Baltimore to Colombo, Sri Lanka, and flying under a Singapore flag, according to data from Marine Traffic.

The vessel also passed foreign port state inspections in June and September 2023. In the June 2023 inspection, a faulty monitor gauge for fuel pressure was rectified before the vessel departed the port, Singapore’s port authority said in a statement Wednesday.

Donald Heinbuch, a retired chief with Baltimore’s fire department, said he was startled awake by a deep rumbling that shook his house for several seconds and “felt like an earthquake.”

He drove to the river and couldn’t believe what he saw: “The ship was there, and the bridge was in the water, like it was blown up.”

Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott called it “an unthinkable tragedy.” Gov. Moore said that “all of our hearts are broken for the victims and their families,” and he also hailed first responders for their quick response.

“Literally by being able to stop cars from coming over the bridge, these people are heroes,” Moore said. “They saved lives last night.”

___

Associated Press journalists around the world contributed to this report, including Sarah Brumfield, Rebecca Santana, Jake Offenhartz, Joshua Goodman, Ben Finley, Claudia Lauer, Brian Witte, Juliet Linderman, David McHugh, John Seewer, Michael Kunzelman, Mike Catalini and Sarah Rankin.

Sophie Hart and Mara Braun returned from injury and combined for 26 points Tuesday night as the Minnesota Gophers rolled past Pacific 77-62 in the second round of the Women’s National Invitation Tournament at Williams Arena

The Gophers (17-15) will play host to North Dakota State in the Super 16 round at 7 p.m. Friday at Williams Arena.

Minnesota jumped out to a quick 10-0 lead in the opening two minutes and was never headed. The Gophers remained in control all evening by forcing 22 Tigers turnovers.

Hart, who missed the previous six games with a hip injury, scored 14 points. Braun, who had been shelved for 11 games with a foot injury, added 12.

Mallory Heyer chipped in 11 points for Minnesota, and Amaya Battle tallied 10 points, six rebounds and six assists.
The Tigers (19-15) got 14 points from Cecilia Holmberg and 12 from Anaya James.

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Five families and the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension have reached a settlement in a lawsuit the families filed against the agency over obtaining investigative case files about their sons’ fatal shootings by law enforcement.

The settlement, reached Monday, is for $165,000. The families now have access to their sons’ full case files, and the BCA  will provide information to families in the future about how to obtain reports in such cases and their loved ones’ personal effects, according to attorney Paul Bosman, who represents the families.

When a deadly force investigation is completed and if a prosecutor decides not to charge the officers, which was the situation in the five cases, the case file must be made available to families within 10 days of their request, the lawsuit said. The lawsuit alleged the BCA violated the state’s public records law, known as the Minnesota Government Data Practices Act.

The BCA said in its legal response in January that the requests for information weren’t made in accordance with the Data Practices Act, so they hadn’t violated the act. The agency said they have written procedures, publicly available on the BCA’s website, that require the parents of a deceased person to provide a certified copy of their child’s birth and death certificates, along with other means, and they said they hadn’t received that documentation before the lawsuit was filed.

“These families had only heard the police press releases, the police union statements, and the county attorneys’ rationales for not charging the involved officers,” Bosman said. “That’s what their neighbors had heard, too. They couldn’t defend their loved ones names or begin putting their grief to rest, because even though they were entitled to the data about what happened, the BCA wasn’t giving it to them.”

The BCA said in a Tuesday statement that it “chose to settle this lawsuit to limit the cost, both financially and emotionally, on those involved.”

“Prior to this lawsuit being filed, the BCA had already sought and secured funding from the Legislature to bolster our data practices team,” the statement continued. “Requests for data from the BCA have increased dramatically in recent years and this additional funding and staffing will mean faster responses for anyone who requests information in the coming years.”

Families: Files needed to understand

The families’ lawsuit said by the BCA not providing the reports, the families “have been damaged not only in their rights to the information under the law” and “in their ability to understand what happened regarding the death of their loved one.”

The BCA provided reports and videos after the lawsuit was filed in November. The families who were part of the lawsuit waited a couple of months to 16 months to get access to the case files, according to Bosman.

With a three-year statute of limitations to file a wrongful-death lawsuit, “waiting about that half that time before you can even see the 1,500 to 2,000 pages of data and video puts families at a great disadvantage legally,” Bosman said Tuesday.

The settlement “is not a huge” amount, but “it’s enough … to hopefully dissuade the BCA from ignoring requests” going forward, Bosman said.

In its legal response to the lawsuit, the BCA wrote that while it did not provide information within 10 days, that was not a violation of the Minnesota Government Data Practices Act nor had the agency “unreasonably delayed the release of any data.”

The lawsuit was filed by the families of Okwan Sims, shot by Stillwater officers last year; Dolal Idd and Tekle Sundberg, shot by Minneapolis officers in 2020 and 2022, respectively; Zachary Shogren, shot by a Duluth officer shot last year; and Brent Alsleben, shot by Hutchinson officers in 2022.

Sundberg, Shogren and Alsleben were each “in the midst of a mental health crisis” during their encounters with law enforcement, Bosman wrote in the lawsuit. The families of Shogren and Alsleben “share an advocacy mission” of educating “the community, and particularly law enforcement, about the importance of mental health” and, in order to do that, they “must understand what happened” in their loved ones’ final moments, the lawsuit said.

The BCA had already released the case file in Idd’s case and his family was requesting specific squad camera footage. The BCA said in its legal response that public portions of all squad videos in the case had been publicly posted on the agency’s website since 2022 and that no squad camera footage reviewed during the BCA investigation captured the shooting of Idd.

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