Twin Cities weekend crime recap

Minneapolis experienced numerous shootings between Thursday to early Monday morning in which at least 18 people were injured by gunfire, including three who were killed, bringing the city’s homicide total to 63 for the year.

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Crime Watch MN
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Fire, EMS and police worked to rescue an "urban explorer" stuck in a Minneapolis sewer. (Hennepin EMS on Facebook)

Cottage Grove police on Thursday requested the public’s help in identifying a person of interest who was in the area of a prior crime. No details were provided about the nature of the crime or the specific date or location where it occurred. They would like anyone with information about the person to contact Det. Ryan Pierre at 651-458-6026 or email ecvreer@pbggntrtebirza.tbi.

Person of interest (Cottage Grove Police Department)

Crystal police on Thursday reported that they responded to a shots fired incident the day prior near a school bus stop in the area of 38th and Adair avenues shortly after 4 p.m., near the FAIR School campus. There were no reported injuries at the time. Video later surfaced online that showed the incident and captured the sound of about 15 gunshots. Crystal police said in their statement that some older teens were in the area at the time and were not cooperative with police. The incident continues to be investigated.

Minneapolis experienced numerous shootings between Thursday to early Monday morning in which at least 18 people were injured by gunfire, including three who were killed, bringing the city’s homicide total to 63 for the year.

On Thursday at approximately 8:19 p.m., police were dispatched to the area of Plymouth Avenue North and Knox Avenue North on a Shotspotter activation that was quickly updated to a shooting where a juvenile was reported to be shot in the chest. MPD later released a statement saying a 16-year-old boy died as a result of the shooting, subsequently identified as Jeremiah Lionell Durr of Jordan, Minn. Homicide number 61.

An audio clip reported to be the shots fired was later posted online which indicated automatic burst fire.

Less than an hour later, about 9:12 p.m. on Thursday, police in the area reported hearing about 30 shots fired near Winner Gas which sits at West Broadway Avenue and Lyndale Avenue North. Four people ended up being shot in the incident including one woman and three men. Two of them were hospitalized with potentially life-threatening injuries.

Three hours later, just after 1 a.m. Friday, gunfire erupted outside Bullwinkle’s Saloon at 1429 Washington Avenue South in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood. Police later confirmed that four people were shot in the incident including one male who died at the hospital. The decedent was later identified as Cortez Maurice Crumble, 34, of Brooklyn Park. Homicide number 62.

Friday, just after 3 p.m., a shooting victim showed up at HCMC in downtown Minneapolis, according to dispatch audio. The victim initially told police they were shot on the north side. Information about the victim’s injuries was not available, and no public information was issued by police about the shooting.

There were several reports of gunfire and Shotspotter activations in Minneapolis throughout the day on Friday, according to police dispatch audio. At about 6:45 p.m. Friday, the dispatcher aired a Shotspotter activation that detected 40 rounds near 23rd Avenue North and North 4th Street, followed immediately by another Shotspotter activation for nine rounds nearby at North 4th Street and West Broadway Avenue. Police taped off the area on 23rd Avenue to collect the spent casings.

An audio clip reported to be the gunshots from the area was later posted online which indicated automatic burst fire.

In the same area hours later, at approximately 11:57 p.m. Friday, police near the 4th Street Saloon at 328 West Broadway reported hearing the sound of shots and called it possible automatic gunfire, according to dispatch audio. The incident was quickly updated to a shooting. Police later released a statement saying four people had been shot in the incident, including two pregnant females, one of whom was 17 years old. Police said two of the victims had potentially life-threatening injuries, and later updated that one of the victims died at the hospital on Saturday. The decedent was identified as Jerry Leonard Calhoun, 34, of Minneapolis. Homicide number 63.

Minneapolis police responded to a shooting Sunday at approximately 6:50 p.m. on the 3900 block of Girard Avenue North, according to dispatch audio. The victim was reportedly shot in the leg, but no public information was released by police about the incident.

Minneapolis police responded to another shooting on Sunday at approximately 10:20 p.m. near 21st and Elliot Avenue in the city’s Third Precinct, according to dispatch audio. Police aired that a second victim had shown up at HCMC and that a gun had been recovered from one of the involved parties who arrived at the hospital. The victim who was transported from the scene by EMS was reported to have three gunshot wounds in the neck, chest and buttocks. Police aired that they found “a lot” of spent casings along East 21st Street between Elliot and 10th avenues. Information about the conditions of the two victims wasn’t immediately available, and police issued no public statement about the incident.

Just before 1 a.m. Monday, police responded on a report of a shooting victim in an apartment on the 2600 block of Fremont Avenue South, according to dispatch audio. Police said the victim reported that he was shot inside an Uptown bar, but after police went to check, they reportedly found no evidence of a shooting at that location. Police indicated at the time that the victim may not have been truthful about how or where he was shot. No public information was issued by police about the shooting.

Minneapolis Fire Department responders were dispatched with EMS and police about 2:30 a.m. Friday for a technical rescue of a man who said he had rappelled 85 feet down a storm drain in downtown Minneapolis and couldn’t get back up. The rescue took place near 2nd Avenue South and Washington Avenue South inside a road construction zone. Upon arrival, responders said the male told them he was not injured, he was just unable to get himself out of the drain, according to dispatch audio.

The fire department said in a social media post that upon arrival, fire rescue crews cut through the fencing, set up a high point anchor rope rescue system and scaled down over the edge to rescue the victim. Once fire rescue crews reached the victim, they performed a medical assessment and confirmed no injuries.

Hennepin EMS later posted photos on their Twitter page of the rescue (top and below) and called the man an “urban explorer.” Information wasn’t immediately available on whether the man was cited for trespassing or any other crime.

Rayco Delshaune Traylor made his first court appearance on Friday in Hennepin County after being charged with first-degree assault involving a 2-year-old child. Responders were dispatched on Sept. 4 to an apartment 7900 block of Zane Avenue North where they found the unresponsive child of Traylor’s girlfriend who had been in Traylor’s care, according to the criminal complaint.

A medical examination revealed the child had several broken bones, a skull fracture, a vertebral fracture, spinal cord injury, and numerous burns in various stages of healing believed to be from cigarettes. Since being hospitalized, the child had not moved her legs.

The child’s mother, Tabitha Sylvia Chisholm, 26, was also charged with felony counts of neglect resulting in harm and child endangerment. Chisholm told police that she had noticed injuries the week prior but didn’t seek medical care because she didn’t want people to think the injuries were from abuse and risk losing her child.

Traylor has 25 prior convictions including three felonies for violent crimes. Traylor also has at least twelve open cases involving numerous felony and gross misdemeanor charges. He had repeatedly been released from custody on zero or low bail between being charged in new cases that stretch back to 2019.

Traylor and Chisholm remain in custody on bail amounts of $250,000 and $50,000, respectively.

Ramsey County Courts unsealed a charging document Friday against Antonio Dupree Wright, 41, who is charged with six counts of murder and attempted murder in the St. Paul triple homicide that also wounded two others on Sunday, Sept. 4 on the 900 block of Case Avenue East. According to the charges, Wright is a heroin dealer with ties to the Vice Lords gang who thought the victims were snitching on him.

Antonio D. Wright/Minnesota Department of Corrections

The charges say Wright has eight prior felony convictions and is also facing separate charges of kidnapping and attempted murder from a Sept. 2 incident. In that case, Wright pointed a gun at a man’s head because he thought the victim “had snitched on him after the man overheard Wright discussing a murder.” Wright “shot the man four times when the man fled the vehicle he had been forced into,” the charges say.

Wright was arrested in Chicago, Ill., where he remains awaiting extradition to Minnesota.

Jonte Jamel Yates, 33, of Phoenix AZ, was booked into custody in Hennepin County Jail on Friday evening after being wanted since 2020 on multiple felony and other warrants. Yates, formerly of Brooklyn Park, was charged in 2020 in relation to a series of apartment burglaries in Brooklyn Park where Yates and his accomplices targeted mostly Hispanic families. Yates told police after he was arrested that “Mexicans don’t want to call the police so most of the time, the burglaries go unreported.”

Jonte Jamel Yates (Ramsey County Jail 2020 warrant mugshot)

In addition to several warrants for felony burglary cases, Yates’ other warrants spanning three counties include multiple domestic assault charges, stalking, and receiving stolen property.

Yates has twenty prior convictions including seven felonies. Yates was previously allowed to serve the felony sentences in five separate first- and second-degree burglary cases in Hennepin County concurrently. Another felony sentence for receiving stolen property was stayed in Anoka County. Yates was out of custody awaiting sentencing on his seventh felony conviction when he absconded in 2020.

There were two reports of pedestrians injured in hit-and-run crashes Friday night in the University of Minnesota area, according to dispatch audio. The first occurred about 10:35 p.m. near Washington Avenue Southeast and Harvard Street Southeast. Information about that victim’s injuries was not immediately available.

The second hit and run occurred about an hour later around 11:30 p.m. at Church Street Southeast and University Avenue Southeast. Arriving officers aired that the victim was “severely injured” with an open fracture to the left knee and bleeding above his eye but was conscious and alert at the time. Police aired that they were applying a tourniquet to the victim’s leg. Another officer aired several minutes later that they may have located the suspect vehicle, reported to be a blue Toyota Prius. Audio indicated that a suspect was taken into custody. Hennepin County Jail records show a person arrested by U of M police was booked on criminal vehicular operation, but the person had not been formally charged as of noon Monday. Information later posted in a University of Minnesota parents’ group on Facebook indicated that the victim was a student. The crash was reportedly captured on traffic or surveillance video, according to dispatch audio. No public statement was issued by police about the incident.

A male was shot in Brooklyn Park Saturday and was later found in Fridley inside a vehicle. BPPD released a statement saying they responded just after 9 p.m. on a report of shots fired at McDonald’s at 1480 85th Avenue North. Officers located several spent shell casings in the parking lot. Meanwhile, Fridley police located a gunshot victim about 9:15 p.m. near Osborne Road Northeast and Able Street Northeast in their city. The BPPD statement indicated the vehicle found by Fridley police had bullet damage and matched the description of the one in their incident, per witnesses. The male victim was transported to North Memorial hospital with a non-life-threatening gunshot wound. BPPD said that witnesses who were with the victim were uncooperative with officers, and the incident remains under investigation.

Around Minnesota

Shannon Stefan Woods, 23, of Michigan was charged Thursday in Stearns County Court with second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon for allegedly shooting at a vehicle during a road rage incident near St. Joseph on Tuesday. The other driver was grazed in the nose by the bullet.

Shannon Stefan Woods (Stearns County Jail)

Charges say the victim told police that he had become frustrated with not being able to pass the suspect’s vehicle on I94. The vehicles went back and forth, and when the victim’s vehicle slowed down near the St. John’s exit, the suspect vehicle pulled up next to him. The victim said he flipped off the suspect who then fired shots.

When police located Woods in his vehicle near the Melrose exit, they located spent casings inside the vehicle. Woods admitted to firing the shots to “scare” the victim. Woods stated that he shot the firearm because the other driver put his life in danger, although he told police that the victim was not doing anything to put his life in danger when he fired his gun. Woods admitted to shooting two or three times.

Court records indicate that Woods remained in custody as of Monday on $75,000 bail.

St. Cloud police reported a burglary had occurred at the St. Cloud Islamic Center located in the 300 block of 5th Avenue South early Thursday morning. Upon arrival, officers determined that an employee had arrived and found damage to the building. Through the investigation officers determined that a male and female had damaged an exterior door to gain entry to the mosque and then caused additional damage inside to include some broken ceiling tiles and an office that was ransacked. The suspects had left the scene prior to the arrival of the employee. By 6:43 a.m. officers were able to locate both suspects at a nearby hotel at which time they were taken into custody without incident. A search warrant was executed on the hotel room they were occupying. Evidence was collected which linked them to the scene.

Logan Oliver Smith and Victoria Catalina Veliz (Stearns County Jail)

SCPD said the suspects were identified as 23-year-old Logan Oliver Smith from Rogers, and 25-year-old Victoria Catalina Veliz from New Hope. Both suspects were transported to the Stearns County Jail and were charged Friday with second-degree burglary of a religious building. SCPD said video surveillance confirms that Smith and Veliz were the only two suspects responsible for the burglary. The incident is being processed as a bias-motivated crime and coordination with the FBI has occurred and is ongoing, police said.

Court records show that both made initial court appearances on Friday. Smith was granted a public defender and Veliz has retained a private attorney. Both appear to have been released from custody on bail or bond. Both have next court dates scheduled for Jan. 6, 2023.

Duluth police reported after 6 p.m. Sunday that they responded to a shooting near the intersection of East 4th Street and North 6th Avenue East. They reported that an individual had sustained non-life-threatening injuries from a gunshot wound.

DPD later posted a photo and asked for the public’s help in locating a vehicle they said was involved. On Monday, DPD said in another post that the vehicle had been located in the 200 block North 16th Avenue East, and the investigation continues.

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Minnesota Crime Watch & Information publishes news, info and commentary about crime, public safety and livability issues in Minneapolis, the Twin Cities and Greater Minnesota.

 

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Minnesota Crime Watch & Information publishes news, info and commentary about crime, public safety and livability issues in Minneapolis, the Twin Cities and Greater Minnesota.

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