At least one South St. Paul police officer discharges weapon after man brandishes gun, points it at officers

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At least one South St. Paul police officer unintentionally discharged a service weapon after a man brandished and pointed a gun at officers on Friday night, police said.

Nobody was hurt in the incident.

About 10:15 p.m. Friday, officers responded to a garage in the 200 block of Grand Avenue West on reports of a disturbance, according to a news release from the South St. Paul Police Department. When officers arrived, the man pointed a gun at them and at least one officer unintentionally fired at the man.

The suspect, 54, was taken into custody and is being held on suspicion of second-degree assault at the Dakota County Jail.

The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension is investigating the incident.

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Man who shot and killed Minneapolis police officer identified, authorities say

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Authorities have released the name of the man suspected of shooting and killing a Minneapolis police officer this week in the Whittier neighborhood of south Minneapolis.

Mustafa Ahmed Mohamed, 35, was found dead of multiple gunshot wounds in the 2100 block of Blaisdell Avenue, according to a news release from the Hennepin County medical examiner’s office.

Authorities say when police responded Thursday to reports of a double shooting in an apartment building, one officer, Jamal Mitchell, 36, was ambushed and fatally shot. Authorities later found Osman Said Jimale, 32, dead inside an apartment. He had been shot multiple times. Bonney Bowman, spokeswoman for the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, said that her agency is still waiting on ballistics testing results to confirm whether Mohamed also shot and killed Jimale.

Minneapolis police received the call at 5:15 p.m. Thursday about two people shot inside an apartment at 2221 Blaisdell Ave S.

About a block away from the building, Mitchell stopped to help an injured man, later identified as Mohamed.

In a photo posted to the Minneapolis Police Department X (Twitter) account on May 31, 2024, Minneapolis police officer Jamal Mitchell is seen. Mitchell, responding to a shooting call, was ambushed and killed in Minneapolis on May 30, 2024, when he stopped to provide aid to a man. That man fatally shot the officer, authorities said. The death of Mitchell happened during a chaotic situation involving two crime scenes two blocks apart that left three people dead, two others hospitalized in critical condition and another officer and a firefighter with less serious injuries. (Minneapolis Police Department

“While rendering aid to an injured male, the injured male pulled a gun and assassinated Officer Mitchell and continued to shoot him after he fell to the ground,” Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said.

Two Minneapolis police officers fired their weapons during the incident. Mohamed was shot and died at the scene.

Mitchell died at the hospital from multiple gunshot wounds. Another Minneapolis officer was shot, and has been treated and released from the hospital. A Minneapolis firefighter was also injured. Another man, who the BCA said was a bystander, was shot in his vehicle. He was hospitalized with life-threatening injuries.

Officers searched the apartment building and found Jimale’s body and another person who was injured and taken to the hospital with life-threatening injuries. The conditions of the two hospitalized men were not available Saturday night.

Mitchell, of Maple Grove, was a father and was engaged to be married. O’Hara asked people to keep Mitchell’s loved ones and friends in their prayers.

Court records show that along with a trespassing charge and some traffic incidents, Mohamed was convicted of burglary twice — in 2007 and in 2008. There are active warrants for both cases even though he had already been convicted and sentenced. No further details were available in court records.

The Police Officers Federation of Minneapolis, Law Enforcement Labor Services, and Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association announced Friday that they’ve partnered to collect donations for Mitchell’s family. They said it’s the official and only donation platform verified by the city of Minneapolis and Mitchell’s family, and all proceeds will go to his family.

People can donate at LELS.ORG/benevolent-fund or by mailing a check to the Law Enforcement Labor Services Benevolent Fund, Attention: Officer Mitchell, 2700 Freeway Blvd., Suite 700, Brooklyn Center, MN 55430.

The incident is under investigation by the BCA.

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Valdez throws 7 strong innings, Alvarez homers twice in Astros’ 5-2 victory over Twins

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HOUSTON — Framber Valdez pitched no-hit ball into the seventh inning and Yordan Alvarez hit two of Houston’s four homersin the Astros’ 5-2 victory over the Minnesota Twins on Saturday.

Valdez (4-3) didn’t allow a hit until a single to start the seventh. He yielded the two hits and a run with four strikeouts in seven innings.

Alvarez hit a two-run home run off Joe Ryan (4-4) in the first and his solo shot off the starter in the fifth inning made it 5-0. It’s the third multi-homer game of the season for Alvarez and 18th of his career.

Struggling first baseman José Abreu hit his first home run and second extra-base hit of the season in the second inning. Kyle Tucker added a homer in the third to give him 19 this season, which ranks second in the majors behind Aaron Judge’s 20.

Houston led 5-2 with one out in the ninth when Jake Meyers made a leaping catch at wall in center field to rob Byron Buxton of a homer. Closer Josh Hader raised both arms high in the air after the catch and Buxton, a fellow center fielder, tipped his helmet to Meyers.

Hader then struck out Willi Castro to get his eighth save.

Valdez sailed through the first six innings. He walked Manuel Margot to start the fourth and plunked Kyle Farmer to open the sixth but had faced the minimum thanks to double plays in both innings.

Valdez got some help from his defense for the first out of the third. Tucker made a leaping catch just before crashing into the right field wall on a fly ball hit by Farmer.

The Twins got their first hit when Margot singled on a grounder to center field to start the seventh. Margot moved to second on a wild pitch with one out before scoring on a two-out single by Jose Miranda that cut the lead to 5-1.

An RBI single by Carlos Correa got the Twins within 5-2 with two outs in the eighth.

Tucker walked in the first before the first homer by Alvarez made it 2-0.

There were two outs in the second when Abreu’s shot pushed the lead to 3-0. Abreu was playing his fourth game in the majors after spending almost a month in the minors to work on his swing after a terrible start to the season.

Tucker’s home run to right center came with one out in the third to make it 4-0. There were two outs in the fifth when Alvarez connected again.

Ryan yielded eight hits, including four homers and five runs — all season highs — in five innings.

Minnesota Twins’ Byron Buxton (25) tips his helmet to Houston Astros center fielder Jake Meyers after Meyers caught a fly fall by Buxton during the ninth inning of a baseball game Saturday, June 1, 2024, in Houston. The Astros won 5-2. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

Minnesota DFL’s divide over mining may come to a head at state convention

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DULUTH, Minn. — As the DFL convention in Duluth enters its second day Saturday, delegates will debate more than 100 items that will set the party’s agenda this year. Among those is a proposed ban on copper-nickel mining, also called copper-sulfide mining, which lacks a proven track record of complying with state and federal environmental laws.

Following a failure to bring such legislation forward this year at the Capitol, the issue may come to a head this weekend, with what looks like a choice for the DFL — promote mining and union jobs, or protect the environment.

Historically, the DFL has sought a balance on mining issues in the Iron Range. However, the issue has been fertile ground for the St. Louis County Republican Party, whose pro-mining and increasingly pro-union stance has attracted growing support from unionized miners and working-class voters in northeastern Minnesota. That has led to frustration in another DFL core constituency, environmentalists.

DFL party leaders declined to comment on the proposed mining ban and surrounding issues, saying it is an agenda item that delegates will discuss this weekend.

Two centers of power

The two traditional centers of DFL power in Minnesota, the Twin Cities and the Iron Range, are increasingly at odds over how to manage the state’s natural resources, said Pete Marshall, communications director of Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness, an environmental advocacy group.

While northeastern Minnesota has generally focused on labor and mining, the Twin Cities portion of the party has worked to conserve the wilderness area, Marshall said, adding that while he’s seeing more people moving toward clean water initiatives in the Iron Range, he has also seen people shift right on socially conservative issues in the Northland.

“On a statewide level, it’s a safe gamble for (the DFL) to oppose clean water acts because the environmental caucus is pretty much a captured constituency,” Marshall said.

Supporters of the legislation have pushed for about a decade to have the issue debated by legislators, according to Marshall.

“Minnesota is uniquely blessed with the amount of water we have, and we need to take some active measures to protect it, given all the threats that are there,” he said. “I think the DFL leadership should at least hear out what their constituents say, hear out what a lot of their supporters say about clean water and not be afraid of the issue.”

Other issues

Despite its history as a DFL stronghold, the Iron Range has, in some ways, moved away from the DFL during the past decade. Iron Range Republicans have increasingly become outwardly pro-union, and social issues such as abortion, LGBTQ+ rights and opposition to racial and gender equity programs in schools have allowed them to make some inroads in the region.

Such issues, playing out at the ballot box, could threaten the DFL’s thin margins in the House. Adding on to the urgency of party messaging in an election year, Rep. Dave Lislegard, DFL-Aurora, will not seek reelection to the Minnesota House of Representatives this fall, leaving a possible seat for Republicans to target.

Another topic sure to be brought up this weekend is the Israeli-Hamas war in Gaza. There are at least five resolutions by local party members regarding the war that will be brought up during the convention. Some call for a ceasefire or ending financial support to Israel until it complies with international law, while others are focused on the right of Israel to exist as a state.

“We welcome different opinions on a whole host of issues, including Gaza and what’s happening in the Middle East,” DFL Party Chair Ken Martin previously told Forum News Service. “There’s a lot of different ideas and thoughts on that issue within our party, and you’ll see that talked about (during the convention).”

The DFL, especially in Greater Minnesota, has a tough needle to thread this election, according to Hamline University political science professor David Schultz.

“How do you support economic development, which may include mining, but at the same time, essentially an agenda that is pro-environment, especially as it is being pushed in the Twin Cities amongst some of the activists?” he said.

While Republicans face something of an identity crisis, Democrats have seemingly failed to come to a resolution on the mining and environment issue, according to Schultz.

“The Republicans can’t figure out who they are and what they stand for, but they know what they’re against,” he said. “Democrats are fighting the same fights they’ve been fighting for at least a quarter-century at this point.”

Copper-sulfide mining issue at the Legislature

That fight was highlighted earlier this year when Sen. Jennifer McEwen, DFL-Duluth, took part in a public hearing to address copper-sulfide mining. She told Forum News Service at the time that corporate interests have kept the issue of copper-sulfide mining off legislators’ tables.

“There’s a lot of anger and frustration amongst clean water activists in Minnesota with DFL leadership in general, and there’s good reason for that,” she said.

That anger stems from the lack of a hearing in the state Senate on what is known as the “Prove It First” bill, which states that before a copper-sulfide mine in Minnesota can be permitted, there must be independent scientific proof that a copper-sulfide mine has operated elsewhere in the United States for at least 10 years without causing pollution and that a mine has been closed for at least 10 years without causing pollution.

McEwen, a co-author of the Senate bill, said the Legislature has not heard a bill regarding copper-sulfide mining in at least a decade, which she called “legislative malpractice.”

“The fact that we have had the Democratic Party leadership in the administration, in the Senate, in the House now, for a number of years and we still haven’t had that hearing has a lot of people very upset,” she said.

The type of mining the bill seeks to regulate is different than current iron and taconite mining in Minnesota, according to McEwen.

“We are simply asking this industry to prove that they can do this safely before we would consider permitting their projects in such a water-rich environment with so much at stake,” she said.

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