Minneapolis, MN
'Let Minneapolis burn': Retired police lieutenant rips Gov Walz for surrendering city to rioters
MINNEAPOLIS – A retired police lieutenant in Minnesota is pushing back against the narrative that Gov. Tim Walz is a “moderate” and tells Fox News Digital that the governor “intentionally” let Minneapolis burn during the 2020 riots because he “truly doesn’t like police.”
“He is not a moderate, he has never been a moderate and here in Minnesota he has been anti-police, he has raised taxes, he is nowhere near being a moderate,” retired Minnesota State Patrol Lt. John Nagel told Fox News Digital.
“He’s anti-police, defund the police, when you have police families, and we have an officer killed in the line of duty, when that family looks at the governor and says we don’t want you at the funeral. That should tell you a great deal of how law enforcement in general feels about Walz.”
Last year, the widow of Pope County Sheriff’s Deputy Josh Owen, who was killed in the line of duty responding to a domestic violence call, told Walz he was not invited to her late husband’s funeral because “he does not support law enforcement,” Alpha News reported.
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Retired Minnesota State Police Lt. John Nagel blasted Gov. Tim Walz’s relationship with police.
Nagel told Fox News Digital that a major reason law enforcement in Minnesota is unhappy with Walz was his slow response when asked to send in the National Guard as the city burned during the 2020 George Floyd riots, which Walz has faced fierce criticism for since becoming the Democratic vice presidential nominee.
Nagel, who is running for office as a Republican in Minnesota House District 46A, explained that he believes the slow response was due in part to a political calculation.
“We’re hearing this over and over and over again, he let Minneapolis burn,” Nagel said. “I think he intentionally let Minneapolis burn.”
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Building goes up in flames during the George Floyd riots in 2020. (Getty Images)
“I think it was all part of a much greater scheme because he truly doesn’t like the police. [Minnesota Attorney General] Keith Ellison has never liked the police. They have been involved with people who are defunding the police.”
Walz, who publicly backed “alternatives to policing” as the Minnesota City Council was pushing to disband the police department in 2020, has been widely criticized by Republicans for not doing more to support law enforcement during the riots.
“Tim Walz let Minneapolis burn for three straight nights without doing anything,” GOP Rep. Pete Stauber, who represents Duluth, Minnesota and surrounding areas, previously told Fox News Digital. “And he called the riots, he stated their actions were, this is a quote, ‘righteous anger.’ Hundreds of millions of dollars in damage to family businesses and buildings in Minneapolis.”
Stauber told Fox News Digital the “vast majority” of law enforcement in Minnesota are “disgruntled” with Walz’s “lack of support.”
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Vice President Kamala Harris and Gov. Tim Walz appear on stage together during a campaign event at Temple University in Philadelphia. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
Nagel, who served in uniform for 30 years, told Fox News Digital that Democrat policies are “hurting Minnesota,” causing people to leave “in droves” and argued that Walz has played a key part in the “dismantling of public safety in Minnesota.”
Fox News Digital asked Nagel what he thinks voters who were not familiar with Walz need to know about him from a veteran law enforcement officer’s perspective.
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“I think they need to understand that he’s not truthful, I think they need to understand that he’s power hungry, they need to understand that he’s not doing this for the good of the people,” Nagel said.
“He’s doing it for the good of himself, and he is going to be lockstep with whatever the Democrats want, and I think it would be, just take a look at Minnesota, he’s ruined Minnesota along with this trifecta of the Democrats. Can you only imagine what he’s going to be able to do with your federal tax dollars? And when North Korea decides to knock on the door, he and his president, are they going to be able to actually handle a national crisis when he couldn’t handle a crisis in Minneapolis?”
Fox News Digital reached out to the Harris-Walz campaign for comment and did not receive a response.
A shooting in north Minneapolis injured two men on Friday night.
Minneapolis police said officers responded around 9:30 p.m. Friday after multiple reports of gunfire near Lowry Avenue North and North Logan Avenue.Police said they found two men with gunshot wounds outside a home.
Officers said both men were outside when the gunfire started and a nearby hospital treated both men for non-life-threatening injuries.
Police are still investigating. Officers said no arrests have been made.
This is a developing story; check back for updates.
A 19-year-old man is injured after a shooting in north Minneapolis on Friday, according to police.
Officers responded to the incident on the 2600 block of North Humboldt Avenue at 5:03 p.m. Officials said they found the man inside a home with apparent gunshot wounds that were not life-threatening.
The officers provided medical aid before the man was taken to the hospital, police said.
According to investigators, the man was outside the home when shots were fired and ran inside after he was injured.
Police said Friday night that no arrests had been made and that they were working to learn what led to the shooting.
The Blueprint
A team led by Lupe Development Partners and Wall Cos. wants to bring more than 100 units of affordable senior housing to a triangular parking area near the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, the latest version of a yearslong effort to redevelop the site.
On Thursday, the Minneapolis Planning Commission Committee of the Whole reviewed plans for the five-story, 104-unit building at 600 Main St. SE. The project would require a comprehensive plan amendment, rezoning and other approvals.
Jess Olstad, a city spokesperson, said in an email that the committee took no formal action.
“The next step for the project team will be to conduct public engagement around their potential comprehensive plan amendment, and to prepare their land use applications for submittal,” Olstad said.
Steve Minn, vice president and chief financial manager of Lupe Development, said Friday that the project received “very positive feedback” from the committee.
“We’re just going to proceed with the rest of our application, which will be in the next week or so,” said Minn, who added that the proposed location is a “perfect site for housing” and that “senior housing is a need.”
A comprehensive plan amendment would require Metropolitan Council review. If the approval process goes well and financing comes together next year, the project could break ground in 2028, Minn said.
A 58-space “principal parking facility” currently occupies the 37,401-square-foot development site, which is framed by Sixth Avenue Southeast, Main Street Southeast, and a railroad property, according to a city staff report.
The project would primarily offer one-bedroom units, though the mix would also include some two-bedroom dwellings and efficiencies. Thirty-nine stalls of underground parking are also planned.
Located near the Stone Arch Bridge trailhead in the Mississippi River Critical Area Overlay District, the project would be “compatible with the surrounding neighborhood architecture,” according to a narrative submitted on behalf of the developer.
The plan includes site improvements such as structured parking and pedestrian spaces, and a new public trail, which would connect to existing Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board trails in Father Hennepin Bluffs Park.
According to the developer’s narrative, the project “represents a reinvestment in a privately owned, undeveloped parcel that is not used for park purposes and is not planned for acquisition.”
The project would align the property’s “land use, built form, and Mississippi River Corridor Critical Area Overlay District designations with the surrounding urban context and applicable regulatory framework,” the narrative states.
Wall Cos. and Lupe Development Partners, doing business as Bluff Street Development, have long wanted to redevelop 600 Main St. SE. In 2023, the developers pitched a plan for 80 affordable housing units on the site.
The developers’ history with the site goes back as far as 2009, when they proposed separate plans for a 98-unit and a 79-unit apartment project, as previously reported. In 2010, Bluff Street sued the city after the City Council rejected the plans. The lawsuit was dismissed in 2011.
When development efforts first started, the Mississippi River Critical Corridor Area rules and regulations had not been defined, and “there was a lot of angst in the community” about what those regulations would be, Minn said.
Those regulations are now “well defined,” clearing the way for development, he said.
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