Minneapolis, MN
Minneapolis Mayor Frey vetoes Hennepin Ave redesign, 24-hour bus lanes
MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) – After a battle between council members and companies over a redesign of Hennepin Avenue in Minneapolis so as to add bike and 24-hour devoted bus lanes was accredited by the Minneapolis Metropolis Council, it has now been vetoed.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey despatched a letter to council members Friday, informing them that he had vetoed each the format for the Hennepin Ave S Avenue Reconstruction Mission (between Douglas Ave and W Lake St.) and a decision directing the Metropolis Engineer to ascertain parking restrictions on Hennepin Ave S between Douglas Ave and W Lake St per the Metropolis Council accredited format.
“I proceed to help the Public Works advisable format, which has been unaltered because it was launched in late 2021. The proposed format options transit precedence lanes, an off-street bikeway, and vital security enhancements – all of which successfully reprioritize how we use public area to enhance the lives of Minneapolis residents,” Frey stated within the letter. “I absolutely help a bus solely lane with specified hours of operation to cut back congestion and car miles traveled. I can not, nonetheless, help retaining bus-only lanes 24-hours a day when buses don’t run 24 hours a day. This is able to ignore the numerous small companies, lots of them BIPOC-owned, who compromised each for the presence of a protected bike lane and prioritized bus lanes on the expense of a considerable quantity of parking. A lot of those self same enterprise house owners and staff have navigated profound financial stressors starting from the worldwide pandemic, the civil unrest of 2020, rising inflation, and a workforce scarcity. Let’s no less than present a willingness to work with them.”
The redesign and reconstruction of one of many metropolis’s busiest streets has been within the works for some time. Public Works beforehand unveiled its ultimate suggestion that proposed reducing car lanes down to 2, including 24/7 devoted transit lanes, and a two-way protected bike lane between Lake and Franklin.
“Though it’s well-intentioned the priority I’ve is that we’re going to finish up with stop-and-go site visitors. All it’s going to take is one particular person parking in that [dedicated bus] lane for that to impression operations and go away busses ready,” stated council member and Public Works committee chair Andrew Johnson at a June 9 assembly. “We’re going to have individuals being ticketed, site visitors backed up, and it’s going to be a multitude – and we don’t actually have any instance of this working efficiently but. The concept is that inside a pair years we’ll determine it out, however I feel that’s backwards… I really feel like that is set-up the place individuals is perhaps promised one factor, and getting one other.”
If accredited as-is, the design would go away behind roughly 20 parking spots, for which companies alongside the road have been combating.
“We are able to obtain our shared local weather and transit objectives whereas preserving an inexpensive variety of parking areas for group companies by permitting for a versatile operational plan that’s able to providing transit service as much as 24-hours a day,” Frey stated within the letter. “I’m urging you to work with my administration and Public Works management group to do precisely that. This plan have to be pushed by metrics corresponding to transit delay, velocity, and reliability; hall operations; and security.”
Minneapolis, MN
Minnesota weather: Cold as the sun finally returns Friday
MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) – Expect a bright, sunny but cold day on Friday with temperatures in the teens.
Friday’s forecast in Minnesota
What to expect: Friday will bring clear skies and abundant sunshine across much of the state. Temperatures will be in the low to mid-teens for central and southern Minnesota, with highs in the single digits for northern regions.
The Twin Cities metro daytime high is 14 degrees, about 10 degrees below average for this time of year. Though northwest breezes at 10-15 mph will likely make it feel far colder.
The overnight hours are quiet and cold with subzero temperatures across much of Minnesota and lows around 0 degrees in the metro area.
Sunny but cold weekend
What’s next: Expect a seasonably cold weekend with plenty of sunshine on Saturday for most of the state, though cloud coverage will increase for southern and southwestern Minnesota. Sunday may see a few additional clouds with highs in the lower to mid-teens.
Looking ahead, temperatures remain fairly steady in the teens with a mix of sunshine and clouds.
Here’s a look at your seven-day forecast:
Minneapolis, MN
St. Paul murder charge: Minneapolis man shot with kids in car wasn’t intended target
A Minneapolis man who was fatally shot near a busy intersection in St. Paul while two young children were in his vehicle was not the intended target, according to charges filed Thursday.
Andre L. Mitchell, 26, was killed in a daytime shooting in November. His 2-month-old child was in the backseat, as was his 5-year-old sister. Mitchell’s little sister later told investigators that the car’s windows broke during the shooting and she covered the baby with her body while shots rang out.
The baby’s carseat was filled with broken window glass and there was a bullet hole in it, but the infant wasn’t harmed.
Officers were called to Aurora Avenue just off Dale Street at 1:35 p.m. on Nov. 22 on a report of a shooting outside an apartment building. Police found Mitchell near a Mazda’s front passenger seat with gunshot wounds to his upper torso. He died as St. Paul Fire Department medics were taking him to Regions Hospital.
A 26-year-old man who’d been in the Mazda with Mitchell said they were waiting to pick up the mother of Mitchell’s child, who was working as a personal care attendant, when a black sport-utility vehicle drove past. The SUV’s rear passenger door opened and the man heard multiple gunshots. There were at least 13 bullet holes in the driver’s side of the Mazda and Mitchell was shot seven times.
The man with Mitchell said neither he nor Mitchell were from the area, and he didn’t know of Mitchell having any enemies.
Earlier confrontation
Officers were originally called to the Aurora Avenue apartment building about an hour before the shooting. A 23-year-old woman reported “that at least five women associated with the father of her child were making threats outside her apartment door,” that one of the women pointed a gun at the door and others had mace and knives, the complaint said.
She said she had let a cousin of her child’s father stay at her apartment, but the cousin became disrespectful and she kicked the cousin out. As a result, she said she’d been threatened.
Neither Mitchell nor the man in the Mazda with him were the father of the woman’s child or his cousin.
Security camera footage showed a Mitsubishi Outlander, which appeared to have five people inside, stopped five feet from the Mazda. Four people fired handguns from the Mitsubishi toward the Mazda, before driving away. Police found the Mitsubishi is owned by a financing company and is associated with Steven Rawls Jr., 25, of Minneapolis, the complaint said.
Rawls is a brother of the 23-year-old woman who reported the initial problem. Phone location records showed Rawls’ phone was in the area of the homicide at the time of the shooting, the complaint said.
A group of people got into the Mitsubishi, driven by Rawls, “and shot up a car full of people not involved in the earlier incident,” killing Mitchell, the complaint said.
Arrested at hospital
Police arrested Rawls on Tuesday after he arrived at Hennepin County Medical Center with a gunshot wound to his hand. He told police he owned the Mitsubishi, but said he loaned it out. He said he did not go to St. Paul on Nov. 22.
When investigators asked Rawls if he recalled his sister having a problem on Nov. 22, he said he never left “Minneapolis that day as he was praying,” the complaint said. “When pressed and told that his statement wasn’t true, Steven Rawls asked for a lawyer and the interview was ended.”
Rawls is charged with aiding and abetting murder and attempted murder. He is due to make his first court appearance in the case Friday; an attorney for him wasn’t listed in the court file Thursday.
The investigation into Mitchell’s homicide is ongoing.
Minneapolis, MN
Murder charges: Minneapolis man wildly fires gun after fight, accidentally kills friend
A Minneapolis man who wildly shot his gun into a crowded intersection after a fight accidentally shot his friend in the head and killed him, according to criminal charges filed in Hennepin County District Court last week.
Jermaine Sylvester Watkins, 50, was charged with second-degree murder and illegal possession of a firearm in connection with the shooting death of William Demone Walker, 46, of Denver. The shooting happened in the 1700 block of 25th Avenue N. at 6:15 a.m. on Oct. 19, 2024, following an after-bar party in north Minneapolis.
Watkins made a first court appearance on Thursday, and his bail was set at $1 million. He was on supervised release with the Minnesota Department of Corrections at the time of the alleged murder. His probation stemmed from a conviction in 2014 on two counts of first-degree robbery and one count of kidnapping.
According to court documents:
Surveillance video showed Watkins, Walker and several other people attended a late-night party in the 2400 block of Logan Avenue N. Watkins was wearing a Halloween mask that illuminated his face. Several partygoers later spilled out into the street with at least a dozen people in the intersection of 25th and Logan avenues, and a fight broke out.
Surveillance video showed a man dressed similarly to Watkins with an illuminated mask draped over the back of his neck, running down 25th Avenue, firing backward while swinging his arm. A bullet struck Walker, who was standing near the driver’s side of his vehicle, in the head. The video showed the shooter firing 10 shots, and 10 shell casings were found at the scene.
Shortly after Walker was shot, a woman ran up and climbed in the passenger seat of his car. She told the shooter to stop firing and get in the car. Shortly after she appears to realize Walker was shot. She ran over to him and said, “Frog, you shot him.”
Investigators spoke with Walker’s mother who told them “Frog” was a nickname for Watkins and that he was an associate of her son. Another witness who knew Watkins identified him in several still images from the surveillance videos the night of the party.
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