A man received a 47-year prison sentence for killing two people in Minneapolis, including a man from St. Paul, and for the attempted murder of an additional two people.

Ali Reed, a 26-year-old from St. Paul, lost his life “simply by being at the wrong place at the wrong time,” his mother said previously.

Reed and another person encountered a group of three males walking near 21st Street East and Chicago Avenue South on June 25, 2023. After they crossed paths, a man in the group of three pulled out a handgun and shot Reed. Reed collapsed and died at the scene. The person with him ran away and was shot at.

Then, on July 23, 2023, police responded to a shooting at an apartment in the 3000 block of East 58th Street and found Tonia Powell, 30, with multiple gunshot wounds. She died at the hospital. Another woman in Powell’s apartment had also been shot; she underwent surgery and survived.

Investigators matched firearms evidence from both shooting scenes, and arrested Calon Markus Hatchett on July 24, 2023, with the gun used in the shootings, according to the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office. Hatchett was sentenced Wednesday.

Bethlehem Lutheran Church in the Midway in St. Paul, where Reed was baptized and where his funeral was held, dedicated a garden in front of the church as “Ali’s Garden” in June.

Reed’s family remembered him in his obituary as as “a smart, loyal, funny, and fearless man who was always ready for the next adventure. He had a contagious smile and outgoing personality.”

Originally Published: August 29, 2024 at 9:45 a.m.

In the early days of the George Floyd riots, while the police were overwhelmed, someone smashed a car into Thurston Jewelers on Lake Street in Minneapolis.  The store was overrun by looters. The display cases were smashed. Lloyd Drilling says he was lucky that the most expensive jewelry was in the safe. Anything that could be carried out the door was stolen.

“So, that basically put us out of business for a few months, and we had to rebuild the store and fix it back up,” says Drilling.

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The jewelry store bounced back, but the customers did not.

In the town that pioneered the movement to defund the police, the homeless population is present on most city blocks. Open-air drug use is so common it doesn’t attract attention and petty crime plagues the businesses who were able to re-open.

As a result, Drilling says, the suburban population which used to push his business from surviving to thriving does not come downtown anymore. “I think they feel like they are unsafe in the city, in this area and in the [other] areas. They’re a little scared to come down here,” says Drilling.

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Criminals make every aspect of business difficult in downtown Minneapolis. Koby Rich opened a cosmetic store. He keeps a painted rectangle of plywood on the front door of Rich Girl’s Cosmetics because vandals keep breaking the glass on his front door. He’s tired of spending money to fix it.

“It makes it tough because vandalism it causes, you know, when your windows get busted out, when you get your doors kicked in when you get your whole store tore up,” says Rich.

A protester holds a sign that says Blue Lives Murder on Friday night, May 29, 2020.  (Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

Jim Schultz with the Minnesota Private Business Council says there is a direct link to the rise in criminal activity and the leadership of Governor Tim Walz. “A lot of Democrat leaders in the state got behind really reckless policies when it comes to policing and crime,” says Schulz. “And the result was the greatest increase in violent crime in Minnesota’s history. And Tim Walz has presided over that. Minnesota’s businesses continue to feel the effects of that.”

Even without the crime, business owners and business leaders say Minnesota, with Governor Walz at the helm, has not been friendly to job creators.

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The state has the highest statutory corporate tax rate in the United States at 9.8 %. Doug Loon with the Minnesota Chamber of commerce says the Walz administration missed opportunities to grow jobs because the Governor had other priorities. “Many progressive policies passed by the legislature and signed by the Governor have limited the private sector from reaching its economic potential,” says Loon.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the running mate of Vice President Kamala Harris, Democratic nominee for president, attends a rally to kick off their campaign at the Liacouras Center in Philadelphia, Pa., on Tuesday, August 6, 2024. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

The chamber says Minnesota now ranks 47th out of all the states in the nation for job creation and 46th for Gross Domestic Product.

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Kent Bergman opened the Campanelle restaurant in Lino Lakes, a suburb of Minneapolis. He endured the covid lockdowns. But burdened with taxes and regulations, he’s still living off his own savings, unable to take home a profit. “With all the mandates and everything coming down on us as a restaurant a small business we are in, the state’s making it almost impossible for a small business or a restaurant to make it,” says Bergman.

Powerful thunderstorms will ramp up this week across the Central states, AccuWeather meteorologists warn, as a potent storm advancing across southern Canada sparks rounds of severe weather from the Dakotas to the Ohio Valley.

The pattern will usher somewhat cooler and less humid conditions into the Plains and Great Lakes, where highs have been soaring into the upper 90s recently.

Through Wednesday night, the area at risk for severe thunderstorms will span from far southern Manitoba and Saskatchewan into the Dakotas. The strongest thunderstorms are expected to develop later in the afternoon and will be capable of producing damaging wind gusts, large hail, flooding downpours and even a few tornadoes.

Storms Wednesday night can wane into the early morning hours on Thursday across South Dakota and portions of southern Minnesota. The threat of thunderstorms will be renewed by the afternoon from northeastern Minnesota and southward through central Kansas.

“An active stretch of weather is set to continue across the Midwest in the days leading up to the extended Labor Day weekend, with the risk for damaging thunderstorms still in the offing,” AccuWeather Meteorologist Brandon Buckingham said.

Forecasters are highlighting a “moderate risk” of storms within this region, particularly between the population centers of Minneapolis and Des Moines, Iowa.

Similar severe weather hazards will be possible again from Thursday to Thursday night, ranging from flooding downpours and hail to damaging wind gusts and isolated tornadoes. The AccuWeather Local StormMax™ for damaging wind gusts on Thursday is 85 mph.

As the week continues, yet another day with a risk of severe weather will develop farther east into the Great Lakes.

From Friday afternoon to Friday night, residents from the Chicago suburbs to Indianapolis on eastward to Detroit will be face the threat of disruptive storms. Those traveling along interstates 57, 69, 70 and 75 may experience travel slowdowns or delays during the evening commute as the holiday weekend officially begins.

While the area likely to be impacted by storms on Friday is smaller than on Thursday, it includes a handful of higher population centers and metro areas. This region has already faced disruptions from storms earlier in the week, and additional impacts on Friday could double down on those still recovering.

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“Many residents are still without power across Michigan in the wake of the thunderstorm activity on Tuesday, which can pose a heightened risk as additional strong storms are expected again on Friday,” pointed out Buckingham.

Into the weekend, pockets of showers and thunderstorms may continue to impact portions of far northern Minnesota into northern Michigan. However, a zone of high pressure migrating into the northern Plains will promote mainly dry weather from the Dakotas to Illinois.

Want next-level safety, ad-free? Unlock advanced, hyperlocal severe weather alerts when you subscribe to Premium+ on the AccuWeather app. AccuWeather Alerts™ are prompted by our expert meteorologists who monitor and analyze dangerous weather risks 24/7 to keep you and your family safer.