Minneapolis, MN
MPD taking heat from City Council and activists over delayed responses
The Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) is facing increased scrutiny after failing to take action against a man who made multiple threats to his neighbor as well as their delayed response to a U.S. Department of Justice investigation.
Minneapolis City Council members expressed their frustration with both incidents at a Monday City Council meeting. At that meeting, MPD officials said they needed more time to respond to the justice department investigation into their use of force at a June protest and a legislative directive filed by city council members that further questioned the MPD’s use of force.
City Chief of Staff Jared Jeffries said at the meeting that the city departments, including the MPD, did not have enough time to make an accurate update to the legislative directive. The directive asked the MPD to provide more data about its responses to protests in general.
Council Member Robin Wonsley (Ward 2) said a more detailed response would have allowed the Minneapolis police to address the community’s concerns.
“This legislative directive inquires about one particular protest that was the subject of resident inquiry,” Wonsley said in a statement. “Answering these questions is a way for MPD to demonstrate good faith engagement with the public and a willingness to be transparent.”
According to MPD spokesperson Garrett Parten, the MPD answered most of the questions in the directive to Wonsley before the directive was issued.
While the legislative directive reported the police department’s behavior in 2023, the Davis Moturi case and the MPD’s failure to protect him became the main focus of the meeting.
According to the Minnesota Star Tribune, Moturi made multiple phone calls and emails to the MPD about his neighbor John Herbert Sawchak for violating restraining orders and pointing a gun at him.
On Oct. 23, Morturi was shot by Sawchak in the neck, fracturing his spine. The next day, Sawchak was charged with second-degree attempted murder, first-degree assault, stalking and harassment.
According to the press conference, the MPD did not arrest Sawchak until early morning on Oct. 28, four days later. After the arrest, community members and the City Council questioned the MPD’s response time.
Alicia Granse, a staff attorney for ACLU-Minnesota, said this case drew media attention due to the police’s prolonged response to the suffering of a person of color.
“I think particularly the optics of this are quite bad,” Granse said. “Mr. Moturi is a Black man. A Black man called the police and asked for help, and he didn’t get it. Instead, he got shot by his neighbor, and then even after he got shot by his neighbor, the police didn’t want to go in and arrest this white man.”
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara issued an apology on Sunday where he said the Minneapolis police failed Moturi.
“We’re trying to rebuild a department that is severely understaffed,” O’Hara said at a press conference. “Yes, in this particular instance, we failed this victim, 100%, and to that victim, I say ‘I am sorry.’”
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored Peoples (NAACP) Minnesota President Cynthia Wilson said the apology from the MPD shows a willingness to change.
“When somebody acknowledges that there was an error made, I’m willing to sit down to see how we can move forward to doing things better so that it doesn’t happen again,” Wilson said.
Wilson said the NAACP-Minnesota is currently working with police on neighborhood disputes and neighborhood engagement.
Communities United Against Police Brutality President Michelle Gross disagrees and said the incident proves the MPD and city need new leadership.
“It’s not enough, you know, just to make some new policy and this and that and the other thing,” Gross said. “They’ve got to address the culture of this department. And that’s something that it takes a very strong leader to do.”
In a statement to the city, the group called for the termination of O’Hara and the resignation of Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey.
The City Council will hold a public hearing on Tuesday to give residents a chance to discuss MPD’s action regarding the Moturi case.
Gross and Wilson said the Minneapolis police need to be more transparent with the public.
“We’re the public and the public deserves to know exactly what’s going on,” Wilson said. “There’s a lot of distrust that’s been lingering within the community for a long time. So it takes time to regain people’s trust.”
Minneapolis, MN
Minnesota weather: Gorgeous Sunday with a warmer Monday ahead
MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) – A sunny and warm Sunday is in store for the Twin Cities, with even higher temperatures expected on Monday before a chance of rain and cooler air returns later in the week.
Sunday forecast
Local perspective:
Sunday is starting with some cloud cover before sunshine moves in with highs near 70 degrees around the metro and southern parts of the state.
Winds will be much lighter than Saturday, coming from the south at 5 to 10 mph with only occasional gusts up to 15 mph.
The Brainerd Lakes area will see temperatures in the 60s, while the North Shore will be cooler, which is typical for this time of year.
Sunday’s weather is expected to be dry and pleasant.
Overnight, temperatures will drop to the upper 30s and lower 40s, with some clouds moving in ahead of Monday.
Extended forecast
What’s next:
Monday could be the warmest day of the week, with highs in the lower 70s for the Twin Cities and some spots in southern Minnesota possibly reaching close to 80 degrees.
Winds will shift from southerly to southeasterly and then easterly as the day goes on, but should remain light.
After the warm start to the week, a cold front will move through on Tuesday, bringing a chance for a few rain showers in the early morning.
Temperatures will likely drop to the upper 40s by Wednesday and Thursday, with another front possibly bringing showers late Friday into early Saturday.
The rest of the extended forecast calls for temperatures close to or just below average, with highs in the upper 40s to lower 50s.
The Source: This story uses information from the FOX 9 weather forecast.
Minneapolis, MN
Man found dead in south Minneapolis house fire
MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) – Firefighters are investigating the Minneapolis’s second fire fatality of the year after a man died in a house fire Saturday afternoon.
Fatal fire on 28th Avenue South
What we know:
According to the Minneapolis Fire Department (MFD), fire crews arrived shortly after 1:00 p.m. and found smoke coming from the second floor of a single-family home on 28th Avenue South. Bystanders alerted firefighters that someone might be trapped inside.
Crews had to work through heavy debris to reach the upstairs area. It took about 40 minutes to fully put out the fire.
During the primary search, firefighters found a man in his 60s dead on the second floor. No one else was found after searching all the floors.
Minneapolis Animal Care and Control took in a dog found outside the home.
Assistant Chief Wes Van Vickle said, “The department is grateful to the neighbors who alerted fire crews that someone may still have been inside, allowing them to act quickly.”
Fire safety reminders and community response
What they’re saying:
“This afternoon’s tragic loss of life weighs heavily on all of us, and we extend our deepest condolences to the family and friends of the deceased,” said Van Vickle.
He also encourages the public to regularly check and maintain smoke detectors and fire extinguishers at home.
There were no other injuries reported. The Hennepin County Medical Examiner is working to confirm the man’s identity.
What we don’t know:
The cause of the fire has not yet been determined, and the man’s name has not been released.
Minneapolis, MN
Minnesota serves as the flagship for nationwide ‘No Kings’ protests against Trump
ST. PAUL, Minn. — Organizers of Saturday’s “No Kings” rallies across the country are predicting that the protests against the actions of President Donald Trump and his administration could add up to one of the largest demonstrations in U.S. history, with Minnesota taking center stage.
Organizers say more than 3,100 events have been registered in all 50 states, with more than 9 million people expected to participate.
And they’ve designated the rally at the Minnesota Capitol in St. Paul as the national flagship event, in recognition of how the state where federal agents fatally shot two people who were monitoring Trump’s immigration crackdown became an epicenter of resistance.
Headlining that observance will be Bruce Springsteen, performing “Streets of Minneapolis,” which he wrote in response to the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, and in tribute to the thousands of Minnesotans who took to the streets over the winter. Springsteen’s Land of Hope & Dreams American Tour, which has a “No Kings” theme, kicks off Tuesday in Minneapolis.
Minnesota organizers have told state officials they expect 100,000 people could converge on the Capitol grounds, where last June’s event drew an estimated 80,000 people.
The St. Paul rally will also feature singer Joan Baez, actor Jane Fonda,Sen. Bernie Sanders and a long list of other activists, labor leaders and elected officials.
The White House dismissed the nationwide protests as the product of “leftist funding networks” with little real public support.
“The only people who care about these Trump Derangement Therapy Sessions are the reporters who are paid to cover them,” White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said in a statement.
Rallies are also planned in more than a dozen other countries, from Europe to Latin America to Australia, Ezra Levin, a co-executive director of Indivisible, a group spearheading the events, said in an interview. Countries with constitutional monarchies call the protests “No Tyrants,” he said.
For those unable to attend in person, another activist group, Stand Up For Science, is hosting a “virtual and accessible” event online.
National organizers told reporters in an online news conference Thursday that they expect Saturday’s protests to be larger than the first two rounds of No Kings rallies, which they estimate drew more than 5 million people in June and more than 7 million in October.
“This administration’s actions are angering not just Democratic voters or folks in big blue city centers – they are crossing a line for people in red and rural areas, in the suburbs, all over the country,” said Leah Greenberg, the other co-executive director of Indivisible. “The defining story of this Saturday’s mobilization is not just how many people are protesting, but where they are protesting,”
Two-thirds of the RSVPs have come from outside of major urban centers, Greenberg said, listing registration surges in conservative-leaning states like Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, Utah, South Dakota and Louisiana, as well in competitive suburban areas of Pennsylvania, Georgia and Arizona.
“Millions of us are rising up from all walks of life, from rural communities to big cities at No Kings,” said Katie Bethell, executive director of MoveOn, another major organizer. “And as we do so, we will send the loudest, clearest message yet that this country does not belong to kings, dictators, tyrants. It belongs to us.”
Copyright © 2026 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
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