Powderhorn crime watch

by Dennis GeIsinger

The monthly 3rd Precinct Advisory Council (3-PAC) was held on Feb. 25 in the precinct headquarters community room on Lake and Minnehaha. Inspector Lucy Gerold updated the state of the precinct with reports on recent crime activity and presented the 3rd’s Officer of the Month. Community Crime Prevention/Safety for Everyone (CCP/SAFE) officers helped field questions from attendees and a report was given on the city’s bait car program. Minneapolis started the first comprehensive bait car program in the U.S. in 1997 and has seen a reported 30 percent drop in car thefts.

The Feb. 17 wounding of a man in a shooting on I-35W near Lake Street headlined 3rd Precinct crime last month. The drive-by caused a shutdown of two northbound lanes on the freeway and a miles-long traffic backup. That Sunday afternoon, a carload of people had pulled alongside another car near the Lake Street exit and shots were fired, striking the driver of the second vehicle.
The injured driver, who had three passengers, was taken to Hennepin County Medical Center (HCMC) and treated for non-life-threatening injuries. Blocking entrance and exit ramps, state troopers and city police searched the freeway for nearly two and half hours, causing traffic delays.

K9 squads assisted at the shooting scene.
The week of the 12th through the 18th also saw officers responding to a domestic disturbance on the 2800 block. of 31st Avenue South. One suspect was charged with domestic assault, 9-1-1 interference, and driving with a suspended license after he allegedly assaulted his girlfriend verbally and physically, breaking her phone and fleeing in her car when she tried to call for help. He was later located with the car.

Seven people were also arrested the same week for robbery, five after a group assault near a public transitional school in the vicinity of Lake and Hiawatha, with the victim requiring treatment at HCMC. Two more were taken into custody when they were stopped near 38th and Nicollet, after their white van had been identified by witnesses as involved in a number of robberies where shots were fired.

A report made to police of a hit-and-run on the 3000 block of Nicollet was later filed as unfounded, but resulted in the arrest of one for aggravated burglary. Police are checking store video for information on the robbery of a victim who was taken behind a convenience store at 38th and Chicago.

No incidents were reported after police were called to monitor traffic and provide crowd assistance during a 10-block march of some 200 people demonstrating about immigration issues near Lake and Chicago on Feb. 16. Marchers shouting “Si se puede!” [Yes, it can be done!” the motto of the United Farm Workers] carried signs that read, “No human being is illegal” and “We are all immigrants in the struggle.” They were responding to immigration proposals presented by Gov. Tim Pawlenty in January that called on local law enforcement to aid in carrying out federal immigration law.

Robbery proved a recurring theme during the second week of February on the Southside, and police are still looking for a man identified in security photographs for involvement in a stickup at the Walgreen’s at 45th and Hiawatha on Jan. 12. The same man is suspected in two Super America robberies in Minneapolis and St. Paul, along with several other store robberies in the metro area during the first half of February. He is described as a white male, 5’ 7” to 5’11” tall, wearing blue jeans and a green hooded sweatshirt with a Guinness beer logo on the front.

Two robberies believed to involve the same man occurred on the 2100 block of Milwaukee Avenue, and also near the intersection of 20th Avenueand 9th Street South within minutes of each other around midnight on Feb. 8. A woman walking on Milwaukee Avenue was grabbed from behind, forced to the ground and robbed of $31. Another woman walking alone was also grabbed from behind, her assailant covering her mouth, knocking her to the ground and demanding money. The suspect fled without getting anything after witnesses arrived.
On Tuesday, Feb. 5, the Police Juvenile Unit investigating a single gunshot in the area of the LRT station at Hiawatha and Lake found an uncooperative wounded juvenile. After the victim was transported to HCMC, officers located other juveniles as witnesses to an apparent fight between classmates. Also under investigation is an assault and purse snatching on the 2900 block of Bloomington Avenue. The purse was later recovered in the rear of the address without cash.
After a Police K9 squad observed a vehicle in the 3rd Precinct that had been reported as part of a shooting in Richfield, five alleged gang members were taken into custody.

Another case involving reputed gang members reached a dead end after a man said a member of a gang robbed him at gunpoint in a parking lot on the 800 block of West Lake Street. Officers later recovered the suspect’s car, which had been reported as used to transport the victim of a shooting the week before. After the car’s owner provided a false address and the victim was unable to be located, the case was determined to be unfounded.

Two men, Jarvis Jeralle Wright, 38, and Raymario Devaughn Willis, 26, were in court the first week of February charged with counterfeiting intellectual property. They were arrested inside a street-front barbershop at 116 W. Lake St. for allegedly making and selling bootleg movies.

In December, police had seized more than 400 movies recorded onto discs inside the store. The two allegedly sold them with a sign in the front of the shop reading, “Ask Jarvis or Rio about DVDs $1.” A conviction carries a sentence of up to three years in jail and/or a $50,000 fine. Police searching the store also found a small amount of alleged marijuana.

A search warrant executed on the 400 block of 33rd Street East during the first week of February produced almost five grams of possible meth, some 12 grams of marijuana, a replica handgun and several photos of gang members, documents and photos of handguns on a cell phone, along with $442 in cash. One man was charged with possession of narcotics and four others in the residence were cited for participating in a disorderly house. SWAT officers were forced to shoot and kill a pit bull that had challenged them at the entrance of the house.

Officers dispatched to a report of a shooting on the 3400 block of 17th Avenue South, arrived to find a 19-year-old man wounded in his upper torso. He was taken to HCMC and stabilized with a non-life-threatening injury. A possible gang-related house party led to a dispute that spilled out onto the sidewalk where the shots were fired. The shooting suspect reportedly knew the victim. There were several witnesses, but all were gone by the time police arrived.

A burglary in progress at a school on the 3100 block of East 28th Street during the last week of January led to the arrest of three juvenile suspects.

A man who said he was trying to buy marijuana reported being robbed at gunpoint on the 2900 block of 30th Avenue South. According to the report, when he went back to the dealer’s residence to ask for his money back, he was hit in the face with a shovel and forced out of the house at gunpoint. Bleeding from a broken nose, the man drove to a grocery store parking lot, flagged down officers and led them back to the house. Police recovered guns and the shovel used in the assault, and arrested five (three of them juveniles) for aggravated robbery, assault, and for curfew violations.

Two juveniles were arrested for robbery at 32nd and Pillsbury after taking money from a victim at knifepoint. Two more were arrested and charged with assault on the 3800 block of 27th Avenue South after they shot out a car window in traffic.
Earl Ward, a violent repeat offender, was arrested on the 3500 block of 3rd Avenue South for criminal sexual conduct/rape, kidnapping and for making terroristic threats.

The Field Regina Northrop Neighborhood Group Community and Safety Committee met Feb. 26 at McRae Park. On hand was Lt. Arthur Knight, the new supervisor for the sector who replaced Lt. Mike Sullivan, recently named supervisor for Sector 1, the four Phillips neighborhoods.