Shootout in St. Paul grocery store parking lot stemmed from 2019 homicide, charges say

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Bullets from a shootout in a St. Paul grocery store parking lot grazed a 16-year-old and damaged a window of the store where a Girl Scout was inside and packing cookies, according to charges filed Tuesday.

Officer responded to the Cub Foods on the East Side about 10:45 a.m. Sunday about reports of men shooting at each other in the parking lot. They’d left in different cars.

Loss prevention staff at the store on Clarence Street off Maryland Avenue showed officers eight .40 caliber casings in an aisle near the front entrance.

Rounds struck two vehicles in the lot and shattered their windows. Officers found five .22 caliber spent rounds and six 9mm rounds on the pavement near the store.

“Surveillance video showed multiple people not involved in the incident were in the parking lot at the time of the shootout,” according to a criminal complaint and juvenile petition. “One person with a walker had to hustle into the store when the shooting erupted.”

One person said he was shot at while standing on the passenger side of his cousin’s car. He felt a bullet pass his head and dove to the ground. A 16-year-old girl later sought medical treatment because a bullet grazed her in the parking lot shootout, the complaint said.

Surveillance video

Surveillance video showed a 19-year-old, identified as Marquan Husten-Myles, and a 17-year-old leave Cub, the complaint said. A man exited a car, walked toward them and shot at them.

Husten-Myles ran and fired several rounds at the shooter, the complaint said. The 17-year-old is also accused of firing several rounds at the man. Husten-Myles and the teen returned to their car and drove away.

A Cub Foods spokesperson said Tuesday “the safety and well-being of Cub’s employees and customers is our top priority” and they said management is working with police in their investigation.

Police found the car that Husten-Myles and the teen left in. It was parked behind Husten-Myles’ apartment about two miles away. There were two fresh bullet holes on the car’s driver side.

Husten-Myles was at the apartment, along with the 17-year-old. The teen said Husten-Myles picked him up and they went to Cub Foods to speak to Husten-Myles’ mother. He said he didn’t know anything about the shooting.

Husten-Myles told police he was shot at in the parking lot and “said the dispute stems from a St. Paul homicide from 2019,” according to the complaint.

Police obtained a search warrant for the apartment. In a bedroom with jackets matching those worn by Husten-Myles and the 17-year-old, police found two firearms in a plastic bin: a .22 caliber and a gun loaded with rounds matching a 9mm casing found outside the store, the complaint said. The gun with 9mm ammunition didn’t have a serial number and had a 30-round extended magazine.

Police said Tuesday they continue to investigate who the third shooter in the Cub parking lot was.

Previous convictions

Husten-Myles’ attorney said another attorney represented Husten-Myles at his first court appearance and he hadn’t yet received the file to review.

Marquan Jessie Husten-Myles (Courtesy of the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office)

The Ramsey County attorney’s office charged Husten-Myles with two counts of possession of a firearm and one count of possession of ammunition by an ineligible person. He isn’t allowed to possess firearms or ammunition because of a juvenile conviction for first-degree aggravated robbery.

The 17-year-old is charged with second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon, reckless discharge of a firearm and possession of a firearm by a person under the age of 18. He is on probation for a juvenile conviction of possession of a firearm by an ineligible person and was previously on probation in another case for the same offense, according to the current juvenile petition.

Husten-Myles has another case that’s ongoing in the court system. He was charged last year with being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition, auto theft and fleeing police in a vehicle in a February 2023 case. A pre-trial hearing was already scheduled in that case for April.

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Source: Vikings agree to terms with cornerback Shaq Griffin

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After making a splash last week at the start of free agency, the Vikings added more depth on Tuesday afternoon, agreeing to terms with veteran cornerback Shaq Griffin to their roster.

A source confirmed the agreement to the Pioneer Press, while Bleacher Report insider Jordan reported that it will be a 1-year deal for Griffin, which could be worth up to $6 million with incentives.

Though it’s not the sexiest move on the surface by the Vikings, it’s a savvy move as Griffin, 28, provides a gluttony of experience at reasonable cost.

Originally selected in the third round of the 2017 NFL Draft, Griffin  has started 79 games in his career playing for the Seattle Seahawks, the Jacksonville Jaguars, the Houston Texans, and most recently, the Carolina Panthers. He finished last season with 39 tackles and an interception.

It’s unclear where exactly Griffin will play in a secondary that could use some help. He will be battling for playing time with cornerbacks Byron Murphy Jr., Akayleb Evans, and Mekhi Blackmon, among a handful of others.

It’s clear the Vikings have prioritized giving defensive coordinator Brian Flores more to work with next season. Aside from Griffin, they have signed edge rushers Jonathan Greenard and Andrew Van Ginkel, linebacker Blake Cashman, and defensive tackles Jerry Tillery and Jonah Williams.

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Trump asks Supreme Court to dismiss case charging him with plotting to overturn 2020 election

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By ERIC TUCKER (Associated Press)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Lawyers for Donald Trump urged the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday to dismiss an indictment charging the former president with conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 election, renewing their arguments that he is immune from prosecution for official acts taken in the White House.

Lower courts have already twice rejected the immunity claims, but Trump’s lawyers will get a fresh chance to press their case before the Supreme Court when the justices hear arguments on April 25. The high court’s decision to consider the matter has left the criminal case on hold pending the outcome of the appeal, making it unclear whether special counsel Jack Smith will be able to put the ex-president on trial before November’s election.

In a brief filed Tuesday, Trump’s lawyers repeated many of the same arguments that judges have already turned aside, asserting that a president “cannot function, and the Presidency itself cannot retain its vital independence, if the President faces criminal prosecution for official acts once he leaves office.”

“A denial of criminal immunity would incapacitate every future President with de facto blackmail and extortion while in office, and condemn him to years of post-office trauma at the hands of political opponents,” the lawyers wrote. “The threat of future prosecution and imprisonment would become a political cudgel to influence the most sensitive and controversial Presidential decisions, taking away the strength, authority, and decisiveness of the Presidency.”

Smith’s team has said ex-presidents do not enjoy absolute immunity and that, in any event, the steps Trump is accused of taking in his failed but frantic effort to remain in power after he lost to Democrat Joe Biden would not count as official presidential acts.

U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is presiding over the case, and a three-judge federal appeals panel in Washington have both agreed with Smith, but the case — once scheduled for trial on March 4 — has been effectively frozen for months as the appeal continues to wind through the courts.

Trump’s lawyers also told the justices that in the event they don’t accept his immunity arguments, they should send the case back to Chutkan for additional “fact-finding.” Such a move would result in even lengthier delays before a trial could be scheduled.

The case is one of four state and federal criminal prosecutions that Trump is facing as he seeks to reclaim the White House. He and his lawyers have sought to delay the cases from proceeding to trial, a strategy that to date has yielded some success for the ex-president.

Of those four, only one — a case in New York charging Trump in connection with hush money payments meant to suppress claims of an extramarital sexual encounter — is on track to start in the next several months. The judge in that case delayed the trial last week until at least mid April as he seeks answers about a last-minute evidence dump that the former president’s lawyers said has hampered their ability to prepare their defense.

GoFundMe for indicted girlfriend of Burnsville shooter now dedicated to her kids only, organizer says

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GoFundMe says it has reviewed a fundraising page originally established for the live-in girlfriend of the man who fatally shot three Burnsville first responders. A spokesperson said it doesn’t violate their terms, with the organizer now indicating all funds are only going to the woman’s four children.

The fundraiser, initially started for Ashley Dyrdahl and her children, had surpassed $20,000 in donations as of Thursday, when federal charges were announced against Dyrdahl. She is accused of straw purchasing the firearms used by Shannon Gooden in the killings. She entered a plea of not guilty to the 11 charges.

After GoFundMe’s “Trust & Safety team” contacted the fundraiser’s organizer for more information, the “team reviewed and gathered additional information” and determined the fundraising page doesn’t violate their terms of service, a GoFundMe spokesperson said in response to questions from the Pioneer Press.

GoFundMe’s terms of service says any funds raised cannot be used for “the legal defense of alleged financial and violent crimes.”

Seven children were in the Burnsville home with Gooden on Feb. 18 when he barricaded himself inside and later opened fire, killing Burnsville officers Matthew Ruge and Paul Elmstrand and firefighter/paramedic Adam Finseth.

Two of the children in the home are Dyrdahl’s and Gooden’s, two are Dyrdahl’s from a previous relationship and three are Gooden’s from a past relationship with Noemi Torres.

A friend of Torres started a separate GoFundMe for her on Feb. 23, writing Torres and her three children “are struggling to resume their normal routine due to lack of housing and transportation.” That fundraiser had raised $6,000 of a $12,000 goal as of Tuesday afternoon.

Madison Weimar, a sister of Dyrdahl’s, started a GoFundMe on Feb. 20 for Drydahl’s children. It has a $50,000 goal.

“We are deeply appreciative of the money we have raised so far, and it is for the good of the children who have had their lives turned absolutely upside down,” Weimar said Tuesday. “I’ve gotten some nasty comments about the fact I’ve even made one, which have made me feel horrible. But we are raising these funds for these innocent children.”

In the original GoFundMe, Weimar asked people to donate “to help my sister and children get back on their feet,” saying they needed a place to stay, to replace transportation and to start healing via therapy.

Photos of Burnsville police officers, from left, Paul Elmstrand, Matthew Ruge and firefighter/paramedic Adam Finseth are displayed during a community vigil Feb. 20, 2024, at the Burnsville Police Department/City Hall. (Mara H. Gottfried / Pioneer Press)

The GoFundMe page is now being organized by another sister of Dyrdahl. It has since been updated to remove references to the funds going to Dyrdahl and it now says: “This fundraiser and any donations are solely for the children and the children only.”

Donations for the families of the first responders who were killed are being accepted at lels.org/benevolent-fund.

Gooden, who had a lifetime ban on purchasing or possessing firearms, died by suicide after shooting the first responders.

Dyrdahl went to two Burnsville gun stores at Gooden’s direction and purchased or picked up five firearms between September and January, according to the indictment. Two of the firearms were used in the Feb. 18 homicides.

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