Given that rapper Megan Thee Stallion has loomed large as one of hip-hop’s biggest stars in the time since her 2019 breakthrough hit “Hot Girl Summer,” it was a bit of a surprise that her concert Tuesday at Target Center was the first show of her first-ever tour as a headliner.

Not to say she doesn’t have experience working a crowd, as Megan has toured as the opener for Future and Dua Lipa and played pretty much every festival out there. But she wasn’t the main attraction — not until Tuesday night at the downtown Minneapolis basketball arena in front of a capacity crowd.

She opened with her recent single “Hiss,” her third Billboard Hot 100 chart topper and the first-ever solo female rap song to debut No. 1 on the Billboard Global 200. And from there, she worked in eight more songs — “Thot S—,” “Freak Nasty” and “Hot Girl” among them — along with an extended dance break in a mere 25 minutes.

With energy bursting from both the stage and the audience, that first act proved to be one of the most unabashedly fun and almost comically profane openings of an arena show in recent memory. Her large, but relatively simple, stage helped amp up the party energy. The circular stage had cutouts on either side for VIP sections filled with fist-pumping and twerking fans.

After a brief break to change costumes, Megan returned for a strong run of “Plan B,” “Cognac Queen,” “Big Ole Freak” and “Girls in the Hood” that ended with her most recent single, “Boa.” Both “Hiss” and “Boa” are from her upcoming third album, which seems to be snake-themed. (Serpent imagery also showed up on the big screens throughout the evening.)

But midway through the show, Megan slowed things down, almost to a crawl. She stopped rapping and began wandering aimlessly and chatting with the crowd. She goofed around with folks in the VIP sections in a manner that didn’t really play to the rest of the arena. At one point, she pulled said fans onto the stage to dance in a segment that somehow managed to feel chaotic and dull at the same time.

Things picked up considerably for her third act, which opened with “WAP,” her notoriously racy 2020 Cardi B collaboration that topped the charts around the world. After “Cash S—,” she stopped the action once again. Although this time it was because she needed help with her in-ear monitors and her playful banter with both the crowd and the blushing crew guys proved Megan Thee Stallion can be a real charmer when she wants to be.

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A Monticello, Minn., man has been arrested and charged in last week’s fatal shooting of an off-duty Eagan and Eden Prairie firefighter who prosecutors say was caught in the crossfire between two groups that exchanged more than 60 rounds of gunfire in a south Minneapolis parking lot.

Marquise Trevone Hammonds-Ford, 28, was charged in Hennepin County District Court last week with first-degree riot resulting in death and two counts of illegal gun possession in connection with the May 5 shooting of 40-year-old Joseph Charles Johns behind the former Whiskey Junction bar in the 900 block of Cedar Avenue South.

Marquise Trevone Hammonds-Ford (Courtesy of the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office)

Johns was a full-time firefighter with Eagan since 2020. He was also a duty call firefighter part-time in Eden Prairie, where he lived, since 2015.

Hammonds-Ford was arrested Monday and appeared in court Tuesday. He remained jailed in lieu of $1 million.

Hammonds-Ford is a member of the YNT criminal street gang of north Minneapolis, the charges say. At the time of the shooting, he was on supervised probation on an illegal gun-possession conviction out of Hennepin County.

According to the criminal complaint:

Minneapolis police responded to the area around 12:30 a.m. May 5 after a call of a shooting with two people injured. They found Johns, who was pronounced dead at Hennepin County Medical Center of a gunshot wound to the chest.

Officers collected 63 discharged cartridge casings, which were found in clusters on both sides of the street in front of the bar.

Officers spoke to witnesses and learned that prior to the shooting hundreds of people had gathered to celebrate the anniversary of the founding of a motorcycle club.

Joseph Charles Johns, a firefighter with the Eagan and Eden Prairie fire departments, died while off duty on May 5, 2024. (Courtesy of the Eden Prairie Fire Department)

Evidence, including video surveillance, showed that Johns was shot as two groups exchanged gunfire from opposite sides of the street. Based on a witness account, Johns was directing traffic when the gunfight erupted, catching him in the crossfire.

The shootout was prompted by Hammonds-Ford, who pointed his handgun, which was modified into an automatic weapon, at an upward angle and let off a rapid succession of gunshots. Numerous others from both groups began shooting handguns across the street at each other.

When the shooting stopped, Hammonds-Ford and others sped off and dropped off an injured associate at HCMC.

Forensic testing showed that shots were fired by seven guns: six 9mm firearms and one 10mm firearm.

The bullet recovered from Johns’ chest was fired from a 9mm handgun.

Investigators created a map of the crime scene that showed a cluster of four 10mm cartridge casings in the exact spot where Hammonds-Ford fired his initial barrage of gunfire.

“The investigation into other suspects responsible for the death of (Johns) is ongoing,” the complaint states.

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Twins starter Chris Paddack wasn’t at his sharpest and the defense behind him was far from its crispest.

And that was enough to fuel more than enough offense for the New York Yankees. With the Twins limited by New York southpaw Carlos Rodón, it all resulted in a 5-1 series-opener loss Tuesday at Target Field.

Paddack, coming off of a performance in which he yielded just a run in 5 1/3 innings pitched, was victimized by some hard contact, some weak contact and his defense throughout the outing.

“We need to play a cleaner game. That was clearly not one of our best games defensively,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. The Twins misplayed some balls in the outfield and threw to the wrong bases. “ … We have to be sharper than that. Paddack, he battled out there. … There was a lot today; when you’re playing against a good club, you’ve got to do a better job of if you think you’re going to come out on top.”

After pitching around a first-inning fly ball that outfielder Willi Castro misjudged and then made an error to advance the runner, Paddack came back out and gave up three singles to lead off the second.

Though he did his part to minimize the damage by retiring the Yankees (28-15) fearsome duo of Juan Soto and Aaron Judge, two runs scored in that second inning, on a sacrifice fly and the fourth hit of the frame.

An inning later, Giancarlo Stanton lasered a Paddack changeup at 114 miles per hour into the Twins’ (24-17) bullpen. And in the fourth, on a night where things didn’t come easy for Paddack, the Yankees fully broke the game open.

With a pair of outs, Paddack walked Soto on six pitches, beginning a Yankees’ rally. A single by Judge followed, setting the stage for Alex Verdugo, who hit a ball to center that got past an outstretched leaping Castro. The ball bounced to the wall and Judge, who was on first, raced home ahead of the relay throw.

That inning marked the end of the night for Paddack, who gave up 12 hits and did not record a 1-2-3 inning in the outing.

“I could have done a better job eliminating some damage there in the fourth inning after the two-out walk to Soto,” Paddack said. “Even with the weak contact, I’m better than that. Tonight was all me. I love close games and I just let it get a little ahead of me tonight.”

It was in stark contrast to Rodón, who allowed a leadoff home run to designated hitter Ryan Jeffers in the first inning — Jeffers’ 10th of the year and first leadoff shot of his career — and then worked around a pair of baserunners in that inning; it was the Twins’ best chance of the night.

Rodón would settle in, eventually retiring 11 straight batters during the middle of his outing before departing in the sixth inning.

“We hit a bunch of balls hard, got very little out of it,” Baldelli said. “ … I think we smoked a few of them, got nothing. We did some things well. We did some other things not as well. We need to play better than that.”

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