Minneapolis, MN
Minneapolis Mayor reflects on progress and challenges in 2024, looks ahead to 2025
Mayor Frey One on one 10p
In a series of one-on-one interviews with journalists on Monday, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey summarized what he saw as progress in the city in 2024 as the year winds down.
Asked if there was one thing he’s most proud of at year-end as the city’s chief executive, Mayor Frey said it was “difficult to identify one single element.” before, first, landing on housing.
“One piece that we are being recognized on nationally is our work around housing,” he said.
“We’re providing people with that foundational right of housing.”
It’s a talking point that can be traced back to the mayor’s earliest campaign days. Years later, getting people into stable housing remained among his central strategies, and he was proud of the progress made in 2024.
“We’re producing eight-and-a-half times the amount of deeply affordable housing that we were before I took office,” Frey said.
More affordable housing means fewer people who are homeless, the mayor said, adding, “But if we’re talking about unsheltered homelessness, specifically homeless encampments, this is a far more complex issue.”
MPD Police Brian O’Hara has said encampments have been shooting hot spots in 2024, with nearly a quarter of incidents in the 3rd Precinct within 500 feet of one.
“Let’s get them the addiction treatment that they need, the wraparound services that they need, the culturally sensitive healing that we should be providing. Let’s do all those things, and when that service is rejected, yes, we do need to close homeless encampments,” Frey said of his administration’s homeless response strategy.
Police recruitment was another point of progress for the Minneapolis Mayor. Applications to wear the MPD uniform were up 45% in 2024 compared to the prior year, he said.
“We’ve turned a corner. We’re netting positive in terms of officers this year of 2024, and I anticipate 2025 being a banner year,” Frey added.
Asked, he also acknowledged it could be tougher in 2025 with money for those efforts slashed.
Members of the City Council’s veto-proof progressive majority said it was among many tough decisions ahead of a tough budget year, which includes a rise in the property tax levy.
“I made my objections to that budget clear back earlier in December,” the Mayor told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS on Monday. “Now we got to move forward.”
Looking to 2025, he said there will be a focus on improving what he referred to as “basic city services, including 911 call response.”
The planned opening of a new 3rd Police Precinct in 2025, five years after the former building burned — would be a part of that, he said.
“And we’re trying to provide a response, not just from police officers in adequate time frame – in a fast time frame, but also provide a unique skill set that is matched with the unique circumstances on the ground, whether that’s a mental health responder or a social worker. We want to get that done in the form of a south side safety center,” Frey said.
2025 is also expected to be a campaign year for sitting mayor. Frey has not officially announced, but confirmed he plans to seek re-election.
If so, he faces a run against City Council Member Emily Koski and State Senator Omar Fateh, among others.
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.
Minneapolis, MN
-12 Windchill Friday, Arctic Blast To Stick Around: MN Weather
MINNEAPOLIS — A blast of arctic air is set to hit the state early Friday morning, bringing subzero wind chills and some of the season’s lowest temperatures so far.
On Thursday, expect partly sunny skies with a high near 21 degrees in the Twin Cities metro area. The real cold starts overnight with temperatures plunging to around 8 degrees. Northwest winds at 10 to 15 mph will make it feel even colder.
Friday night is when things really take a turn, with the mercury dropping to 1 degree and wind chills as low as -12 degrees.
After a mild December, January will bring more typical winter weather, with temperatures likely dipping below the seasonal average for this time of year.
Here’s the full NWS forecast from the Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport:
Thursday: Partly sunny, with a high near 21. West northwest wind 5 to 10 mph.
Thursday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 8. Northwest wind 10 to 15 mph.
Friday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 15. Northwest wind 10 to 15 mph.
Friday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 1. Wind chill values as low as -12. Northwest wind 10 to 15 mph.
Saturday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 12. Northwest wind 5 to 10 mph.
Saturday Night: Mostly cloudy, with a low around 1. North wind 5 to 10 mph.
Sunday: Partly sunny, with a high near 13. North wind around 10 mph.
Sunday Night: Mostly cloudy, with a low around 5. North wind around 10 mph.
Monday: Partly sunny, with a high near 16. Northwest wind around 10 mph.
Monday Night: Mostly cloudy, with a low around 5. Northwest wind around 10 mph.
Tuesday: Partly sunny, with a high near 13. Northwest wind around 10 mph.
Tuesday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 0. Northwest wind 5 to 10 mph.
Wednesday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 12. West northwest wind 5 to 10 mph becoming southwest in the afternoon.
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