Crime, Law and Justice

A Hennepin County jury on Wednesday convicted a Twin Cities woman of first-degree premeditated murder in the May 20 shooting death of her young son.

Officials with the city of Minneapolis say they’re making progress in negotiations with the state that could lead to a consent decree governing the Minneapolis Police Department’s policies and practices.  

A state order reduces the Ramsey County jail’s operational capacity to 324 inmates. The Department of Corrections issued a similar capacity reduction order to Beltrami County on Jan. 27. Both orders highlight a series of concerns about conditions in the state’s jails.

Minnesota’s 2020 Teacher of the Year Qorsho Hassan imagines the future of education -- how the pandemic and the murder of George Floyd shaped her vision for a new model of teaching and learning that centers student voice and leadership.

The move came after a state investigation into complaints from Ramsey County Public Health officials that inmates in need of emergency medical care were not getting it.

A Minneapolis police officer fatally shot Amir Locke last year seconds after a SWAT team entered a downtown apartment to serve a warrant. Locke was not suspected of any crime. No officers were charged. Locke family attorney Ben Crump announced the civil suit Friday.

Bloomington police say three adults were found dead in a parked pickup truck in the city on Wednesday night, in an apparent murder-suicide. Deaths included a father and son, and a male “business associate.”

Fernando Valdez-Alvarez, 19, of Minneapolis, admitted in court to shooting and killing 15-year-old Jahmari Rice and wounding another 17-year-old outside the South Education Center in Richfield on Feb. 1, 2022, prosecutors said Wednesday.

A defense attorney says a former Minneapolis police officer who held back bystanders while his colleagues restrained a dying George Floyd is innocent of criminal wrongdoing and should be acquitted. But prosecutors argue Tou Thao “acted without courage and displayed no compassion” even though he could see Floyd’s life slowly ebbing away.

Vice President Kamala Harris plans to attend the funeral of Tyre Nichols, who died three days after he was beaten by Memphis police officers just minutes from his home, the White House said Tuesday.