Powderhorn crime watch

by Dennis Geisinger

Acording to the Minneapolis Police Department’s Community Crime Prevention/Safety For Everyone (CCP/SAFE) program, two city police officers were assaulted inside the residence at 3548 Columbus Ave. while investigating a report of gunshots fired in or around the house on the evening of Thanksgiving Day. When police arrived, a man had run into the house, and the police officers followed him.

The two officers were then reportedly “hit and slapped” by those inside, attempting to interfere with the man’s arrest.
“Five arrests were made,” said Minneapolis Police Information Officer Sgt. Jesse Garcia. The two officers involved are said to have sustained only minor injuries. According to Third Precinct Police Commander Lucy Gerold, charges of assault and obstruction were filed against four of the five: Antoine Ferguson, Danny Lee Braylock, Diane Nicole Ferguson, Dangela Kenosha Ferguson and Antonio Ferguson.

According to county property records, the house has been owned since 1990 by Addie M. Ferguson.

Reggie Ferguson, a relative, convicted in the ’90s of attempted murder, has been reputed leader of the Rolling 30s Bloods gang.
“That family has taken gang banging and made it a family business,” Sgt. Garcia said. “We’ve seen more activity at that particular address,” said Police Commander Gerold.

Charges of second-degree murder were filed Nov. 5 in the death of Kingfield neighborhood resident Mark Loesch, found murdered on a lawn in the 3700 block of Elliot Avenue morning of Sept. 13. Twenty-three-year-old Donald E. Jackson was charged after he and another man allegedly beat Loesch with a metal bat and then took $40 from his pocket.

An Associated Press story appearing Nov. 6 said, “Jackson told investigators that he and another man were selling drugs on the corner of 38th Street and Chicago Avenue when they saw Loesch, 41, on his bicycle and decided to rob him.” Jackson, who is being held in the Hennepin County jail on $1 million bail, was convicted in 2003 for first-degree aggravated robbery.
According to Police Commander Gerold, Jackson, to her knowledge, is not a gang affiliate.“We don’t have enough evidence to see anything that resembles a pattern” in reports of assaults on bicyclists and gangs, Gerold said.

Third precinct police reports for the second week of November say officers were dispatched to a coffee shop at the intersection of 47th and Cedar Ave. after burglars had pried open an unalarmed door, drilled through a safe door and stolen cash. Police say the burglary fits a pattern of coffee shop break-ins throughout area.

After failing three tobacco checks (selling tobacco products to minor) the tobacco dealer’s license for Venus Grocery, 3751 Portland, was revoked for one year beginning last October, according to City Council Member Elizabeth Glidden (DFL-Ward 8). The revocation was delivered to the store and the tobacco was ordered removed from the shelves.

Glidden says Ward 8 neighborhoods have been hit particularly hard by graffiti this year, with the Central and Powderhorn neighborhoods in the top ten of areas reporting. The city attorney’s office says the number of graffiti cases prosecuted in 2007 is double that of last year’s, with 36 cases of misdemeanor or gross misdemeanor graffiti vandalism charged to date. A reported 67 percent of all offenders charged this year were apprehended due to 911 calls. Penalties are regularly 10 to 15 days of jail or sentence-to-serve. Many of these cases are still awaiting court dates.

A “Stop Graffiti Now!” reward program pays citizens for reporting in-progress graffiti vandalism if it leads to an arrest and conviction. Residents are asked to call 911 and provide their name and contact information to police if they witness anyone applying graffiti to a home or a business. Complete a Graffiti Reward Program Claim Form and submit it and if your call leads to a conviction, you could receive up to $500