January 6, 2005 - St.Paul's police chief rejects a call from civil rights leaders to fire an officer involved in a scuffle last week with an 85-year-old man. Chief John Harrington says Officer Mike Lee acted appropriately when the man, Leon Nins, refused to cooperate during a traffic stop and began kicking the officer. Lee ended up using pepper spray to subdue Nins. Harrington says officials plan to charge Nins with assaulting an officer.
January 7, 2005 - St.Paul's police chief rejects a call from civil rights leaders to fire an officer involved in a scuffle last week with an 85-year-old man. Chief John Harrington says Officer Mike Lee acted appropriately when the man, Leon Nins, refused to cooperate during a traffic stop and began kicking the officer. Lee ended up using pepper spray to subdue Nins. Harrington says officials plan to charge Nins with assaulting an officer.
January 10, 2005 - The St. Paul officer at the center of a police brutality complaint against an 85-year-old man will face a federal civil rights trail in an earlier case. The US Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled officer Michael Lee and the St. Paul Police Department are not immune from a civil rights complaint in the 2001 shooting of Charles Craighead. Lee mistook Craighead for a car jacker and fatally shot him. Craighead was wrestling over a gun with the suspected carjacker. Frederick Goetz is the attorney for Craighead's family. He says the ruling provides an opportunity to air the facts of the case.
January 11, 2005 - The St. Paul officer at the center of a police brutality complaint against an 85-year-old man will face a federal civil rights trail in an earlier case. The U-S Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled officer Michael Lee and the St. Paul Police Department are not immune from a civil rights complaint in the 2001 shooting of Charles Craighead. Lee mistook Craighead for a car jacker and fatally shot him. Craighead was wrestling over a gun with the suspected carjacker. Frederick Goetz is the attorney for Craighead's family. He says the ruling provides an opportunity to air the facts of the case.
February 7, 2005 - Late Friday a Hennepin County grand jury decided against charging an officer who shot and killed a teenager last October. But a group of community activists and members of the victim's family are skeptical. The police say 15-year-old Courtney Williams was holding a pellet gun when he was shot by officer Scott Mars. Family members say Williams didn't have the gun when he was shot. And they say there are other questions about the night of the shooting that don't make sense.
February 7, 2005 - Minneapolis police officials support a Hennepin County grand jury decision against charging an officer who shot and killed a teenager last October. But a group of community activists and members of the victim's family are skeptical of the grand jury's findings. The police say 15-year-old Courtney Williams was holding a pellet gun when he was shot by officer Scott Mars. Family members say Williams didn't have the gun when he was shot. Williams' aunt Ella Davis Suggs says they have other questions as well.
February 8, 2005 - A Hennepin County grand jury found that a Minneapolis police officer who shot and killed a teenager with a pellet gun was justified in his actions. But relatives of the teen say they have unanswered questions about his death. Last October officer Scott Mars shot 15-year-old Courtney Williams. Police say Williams was carrying a pellet gun that resembled a real gun and was shot after he didn't follow the officer's request to drop it. Family members say Williams didn't have the gun at the time of the shooting. But Sgt. John Delmonico says witnesses saw Williams carrying the gun.
March 22, 2005 - Mainstreet Radio's Dan Gunderson reports from Bemidji, where ten people are dead after a shooting rampage on the Red Lake Indian Reservation in northern Minnesota. At least 14 people were reportedly wounded in the shooting which happened yesterday afternoon. Tribal police closed the reservation to reporters late yesterday. Red Lake police and the FBI are working together to investigate the shootings.
May 6, 2005 - St. Paul Police officials say they're confident they are holding the two men who allegedly shot and killed a St. Paul police officer early this morning. Sgt. Gerald Vick was gunned down outside a bar in East St. Paul's Dayton's Bluff neighborhood. For hours legions of law enforcment officers searched a 1 and 1/2 mile square area of the neighborhood where the shooting took place. It was the first fatal shooting of a police officer in St. Paul since 1994 when two members of the department were shot on the same day, in the same part of the city.
May 6, 2005 - St. Paul Police Chief John Harrington says several arrests have been made in this mornings fatal shooting of Sergeant Jerry Vick on the city's East Side. Police say two of the suspects in custody appear to be dressed in clothing that is similar to what the suspects were wearing when they fled the crime scene. Police say they're still searching the area and aren't certain that they have the people who shot Vick in custody. Harrington says Vick was working with Sergeant Joe Strong when the two encountered at least two men in an alley. Vick was shot several times. Harrington said Strong returned the gunfire, but didn't say if either suspect was hit. Strong was not injured. Harrington says Vick's loss is being felt by the entire police department.