A dozen commercial buildings on the Minnesota Renaissance Festival grounds in Shakopee were destroyed by a four-alarm fire on Thursday night, authorities said.

The Shakopee Fire Department received reports of the fire shortly after 6 p.m. The first engine left the station immediately and arrived 14 minutes later because of the distance between the station and the festival grounds between U.S. 169 and the Minnesota River, according to a Facebook post by the department. While they were on their way, a large smoke column could be seen, so fire officials called for more help, upgrading the call to a two-alarm blaze.

When firefighters arrived, they encountered “heavy fire conditions involving multiple connected commercial structures, which included retail shops and food vendors.”

A four-alarm fire was called and support from 10 area fire departments was needed to fight the blaze as well as help with other coverage in Shakopee.

Important update on Thursday evening, April 17, around 6 PM, a fire broke out on the grounds of the Minnesota Renaissance Festival. No injuries have been reported. The Minnesota Renaissance Festival will still open on August 16, 2025!#MNRenFest #FestivalStrong #RebuildTheMagic pic.twitter.com/mWJhylKim8

— MN Renaissance (@MNRenaissance) April 18, 2025

“Water supply proved to be a significant challenge,” officials said, noting that the festival grounds are not connected to a city water system “requiring water tenders to shuttle water from hydrants nearly eight minutes away.”

In addition, officials said, access to the festival grounds was “further complicated by unlit, minimally maintained gravel roads, recent rainfall, and challenging terrain not designed for large emergency vehicles.”

The full extent of the damage is still being assessed. One firefighter from Shakopee was struck by a fire hose and had a minor injury that was treated at the scene, officials said.

No other injuries were reported.

The cause of the blaze remains under investigation by state and local investigators, but it broke out as thunderstorms were moving through the area.

Renaissance Festival organizers said they were making plans to rebuild and that the long-running late summer event celebrating Elizabethan England would open as planned on Aug. 16.

“We’ll be sharing more updates in the coming weeks,” they said on their Facebook page. “Thank you for your kind messages, encouragement, and continued support.”

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A Minneapolis man has been indicted for threatening to murder a member of Congress, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Minnesota said Friday.

On March 26, Michael Paul Lewis, 52, left a voicemail for the Congress member, threatening murder, a press release said. The press release didn’t identify the member but referenced the pronoun “her.”

It was also unclear whether the member was from Minnesota. In Minnesota, there are five women in the state’s congressional delegation: Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith as well as Reps. Betty McCollum, Angie Craig and Michelle Fischbach.

“Federal law protects our elected officials from this sort of violent, unhinged, and murderous rhetoric,” Acting U.S. Attorney Lisa D. Kirkpatrick said in the press release. “It is entirely unacceptable. Defendants who attempt to terrorize public officials in this way will face the full weight of federal justice. I am grateful for the diligent and swift work of the FBI to hold this defendant to account.”

Special Agent in Charge Alvin M. Winston Senior of the Minneapolis FBI office said the threat does not fall under protected speech, but rather is a federal crime that requires immediate and decisive action.

“No one should be subject to violence for fulfilling their elected duty to represent the American people,” he said in the press release. “The FBI and our partners will investigate such threats thoroughly and hold accountable anyone who threatens the safety of our elected leaders.”

Lewis is charged with one count of threatening to murder a U.S. official and one count of interstate transmission of a threat to injure the other person. He made his initial appearance in U.S. District Court on Friday. He will remain in custody until his arraignment and detention hearing on April 23 before Magistrate Judge Dulce J. Foster.

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Ramsey County has agreed to pay $3.6 million to settle a family’s lawsuit after a 37-year-old man with hemophilia died following his 2022 arrest in St. Paul.

The lawsuit alleged that the county and four correctional officers violated Dillon Dean Bakke’s right to adequate medical treatment under the Fourteenth Amendment. The lawsuit was brought by the law firm Meshbesher and Student P.A. on behalf of Bakke’s mother, Teresa Marie Schnell of St. Paul.

According to court documents, Bakke, a graphic designer, caregiver at a long-term care facility and severe hemophiliac, was arrested by St. Paul police officers on suspicion of drug possession and taken to Ramsey County jail on Aug. 7, 2022.

When he was booked, he had a laceration on his forehead and extensive bruising on his body. Court documents allege that jail staff was aware Bakke suffered from hemophilia and needed prescription clotting medication at any signs of bodily injuries.

Despite this, attorneys alleged, he did not receive the medication or any medical treatment.

“The lawsuit alleges that during Dillon’s three-day detainment at the jail, he suffered a medical emergency, specifically a brain bleed with corresponding serious and obvious neurological symptoms,” the law firm said in announcing the settlement.

Bakke’s condition was ignored and he was denied medical treatment for 30 hours, the firm said.

“On the morning he was to be released from custody, jail staff found him unresponsive on the floor of his cell. Dillon was transported to Regions Hospital where, despite the heroic efforts of his doctors and nurses, he never regained consciousness and tragically passed away on August 27,” the attorneys said.

Bakke began displaying neurological signs and symptoms on Aug. 7 and “began vocally and continually complaining about severe pain,” the lawsuit says. His condition deteriorated overnight and into the early morning hours of Aug. 8, “at which point he was unable to stand or walk, and was yelling out in pain and yelling for his mother.”

According to the lawsuit, correctional officers Xue Yang, Alex Grundhofer, Scott Brommerich and Antonio Rulli went to Bakke’s jail cell, handcuffed him and carried him to a cell in the segregation unit, where they laid him down and left without reporting his condition to medical personnel or requesting medical treatment.

County response

In response to the settlement, a spokesman for Ramsey County said that the correctional staff notified medical personnel about Bakke’s condition on “multiple occasions” during this time in custody.

The county’s public health staff oversees all medical care in the jail, Ramsey County Sheriff’s spokesman Steve Linders said.

“Public Health staff working in the Adult Detention Center are not supervised by the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office. Their training, supervision and medical decisions are the responsibility of Public Health leadership,” he said. “During Dillion Bakke’s time in custody, correctional staff promptly notified medical personnel on multiple occasions.”

Linders said that each time medical personnel were notified, Bakke’s condition was assessed by public health staff.

“Our sympathies are with Mr. Bakke’s family,” he said. “Everyone deserves competent medical care in jail.”

The settlement is one of the largest of its kind in Minnesota, according to Meshbesher and Student.

The lawsuit in Bakke’s death followed a $3 million settlement in June 2023 involving another alleged case of inmate mistreatment and medical neglect at the Ramsey County jail. In that case, a woman said correctional officers tackled her to the ground when she was handcuffed with her arms behind her back. Her tibia was fractured and an artery was severed, but she wasn’t taken for medical treatment for 17 hours, according to her lawsuit.

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Davion Brown’s murder by 16-year-old Knyaw Taw was a “chilling execution in the middle of the day,” Assistant Ramsey County Attorney Nori Wieder said in court Friday.

Knyaw Taw, of St. Paul, got off his bike and walked “coolly, calmly” up to Brown and other men who were standing outside a tobacco store on St. Paul’s Greater East Side around 12:30 p.m. Sept. 10, Wieder said at the teen’s sentencing.

Knyaw Taw pulled a 9mm Smith & Wesson handgun from his waistband and repeatedly fired at Brown, whose back was turned, hitting the 22-year-old six times at close range.

“A targeted attack, Your Honor,” Wieder told Ramsey County District Judge Jacob Kraus. “It doesn’t appear that Davion even knew he was there.”

Knyaw Taw, who turned 17 in December, was charged in juvenile court with second-degree murder three days after the killing. He waived certification into adult court on March 12 and pleaded guilty to the charge. He faced between 21¾ and 23½ years in prison under state sentencing guidelines.

Kraus gave him a 23-year prison term.

“This case is so sad,” Kraus said before handing down the sentence. “A young man who I never got the pleasure to meet lost his life, and a young man sitting in front of the court going to prison for decades, no matter what number I choose today.”

Court documents do not give a motive for the shooting “and we never have been explained why Davion was killed that day and why he chose Davion as his victim,” Wieder told the court.

He left on his bike

Officers sent to Maryland Tobacco at 1375 Maryland Ave. found Brown lying in the store with multiple gunshot wounds. Medics started transport to Regions Hospital, but Brown, of St. Paul, was pronounced dead in the ambulance.

Davion Brown (Courtesy photo)

Officers reviewed area surveillance video, which captured the shooting. Knyaw Taw, wearing a black face mask, a maroon Nike T-shirt and blue jeans, pulled up to the area on a bike. He got off the bike and walked toward a red Ford Expedition SUV parked in the lot. “It appears as if the occupant(s) of the Ford Expedition and the suspect exchanged words,” the charges say.

Knyaw Taw went back to his bike, walked up to Brown and two others in front of the store and shot Brown repeatedly. He got back on his bike and left.

Officers canvassed the area and were notified by a resident that a male matching the suspect’s description was walking south on Germain Street from Idaho Avenue East. A Ramsey County sheriff’s deputy saw Knyaw Taw walking south on Germain Street at Sherwood Avenue, and he ran, cutting across the front yard of a home in the 1500 block of Cottage Avenue East. He appeared to be holding something in the waistband of his jeans.

Officers chased him into a backyard, then lost sight of him. He was seen in the backyard of a home in the 1500 block of Clear Avenue East and taken into custody. A black face mask and handgun were found in the area.

In an interview with police, Knyaw Taw gave false identification information. Investigators used a database that searches for known fingerprints to identify him.

‘You took my baby’

Knyaw Taw, of St. Paul, had been arrested several times in Ramsey County for nonviolent crimes and was wanted on an active Ramsey County warrant at the time of shooting, prosecutor Wieder noted Friday in court.

Knyaw Taw’s attorney, public defender Erik Sandvick, said trauma and addiction were “everywhere in his life since he was born.” He was born in a refugee camp in Laos and came to the United States at age 6 with his parents. His parents separated after his dad was incarcerated and his mom moved to Georgia, Sandvick said, adding “he was left in the care of his paternal grandparents.”

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Knyaw Taw was “basically living on the streets and using a wide variety of drugs” in the year prior to the shooting, Sandvick said. “This isn’t an excuse for what happened, but it does give us some context on what was going on.”

When it came time to address the court, Knyaw Taw gave a one sentence apology, saying: “I’m sorry for what I did.”

Earlier, Brown’s mother, Kilolo Claiborne, told the teen she does not forgive him.

“You took my baby,” she said. “You took a father. You took a brother, an uncle, someone that was so precious to our family.”

She called Knyaw Taw a “young boy … who didn’t even know my child. He wasn’t out there bothering nobody. He didn’t bother you. And you still took his life. And for what?”