MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — St. Cloud State University officials say they’re investigating a reported sexual assault.

A tweet from the university’s public safety department said the victim was approached from behind and forced into the backseat of a car.

Anyone with information should call 911 or public safety at 320-308-3333.

A sexual assault has been reported to the university. The victim was approached from behind and forced into the backseat of a car. The incident is under investigation.

If you have been a victim or witness to a crime call: St. Cloud PD at 911, or Public Safety at 320-308-3333. pic.twitter.com/jJG27IfGA2

— SCSU Public Safety Department (@SCSU_pubsafe) October 29, 2019

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — A 37-year-old St. Paul woman faces serious charges after she allegedly repeatedly choked a man, killing him, after a night of drinking and drugs.

According to charges filed in Ramsey County, Evonne Sharkey faces second-degree unintentional murder and second-degree manslaughter, both felonies, in connection to the Oct. 27 incident.

Sharkey allegedly met the victim at park and agreed to drink together at the victim’s apartment on the 600 block of Front Avenue. The two, and another woman, also smoked crack, according to the complaint.

Sharkey told police that the male victim repeatedly sexually assaulted her during the course of the night. Later in the bedroom, they began fighting and wrestling and Sharkey allegedly “choked him out.” She said he came to as she was getting her things together, so she choked him out again. That’s when she allegedly tied him up. He came to again as she was leaving, so she allegedly choked him out for a third time before she left.

Police say they found the victim in his bedroom deceased, with his arms bound behind his back with a thick cord apparently used from bedroom drapes in the room. Duct tape also bound his wrists and ankles. And there was a hand towel in his mouth. Officers could not find signs of a struggle in the apartment.

When asked what was going through her mind when she was choking him out, she said she was drunk and that she wanted to show him she was stronger than him. She also said it “was an accident” and that she “never meant to hurt that man – that was never my intention.”

Sharkey has a prior third-degree assault conviction out of Beltrami County.

If convicted, Sharkey faces up to 40 years in prison on the murder charge.

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Authorities say an illegal device used to vape alcohol was recently confiscated from a bar in suburban Dakota County, and the bar owner was fined for having it.

The Department of Public Safety says the owner of the bar didn’t know the device was illegal and purchased it online after hearing about it from a friend at a Wisconsin bar.

Advocates who fight addiction say inhaling alcohol is dangerous and can lead to quick alcohol poisoning and lung damage.

DPS’ Alcohol and Gambling Enforcement Division, the state Poison Control System and others are holding a news conference Wednesday to educate people about the dangers. The Alcohol and Gambling Enforcement Division has also emailed the state’s alcohol industry to warn local establishments.

Alcohol vaping devices are illegal in Minnesota.

(© Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Minnesota Vikings safety Jayron Kearse was charged Tuesday with multiple gun and alcohol counts after authorities say he was driving impaired while a loaded handgun containing more than two dozen rounds was on the floor of his car.

Kearse, 25, was arrested early Sunday after he drove his car onto a closed portion of Interstate 94 in Minneapolis.

Prosecutors charged him with five counts, including a gross misdemeanor count of carrying a gun without a permit. The other four counts were misdemeanors, including two drunken driving counts.

According to the criminal complaint, a state trooper who stopped Kearse noted a strong smell of alcohol coming from the car and Kearse’s eyes were bloodshot and glassy. Kearse failed field sobriety tests and had a blood alcohol level of 0.10%, above Minnesota’s legal limit.

Two other people were in the car at the time, the complaint said. When the trooper went to check on the male passenger, he saw a 9mm Glock handgun partially hidden under the passenger seat. The gun was loaded with 28 rounds and had one round in the chamber, the complaint said.

The complaint said Kearse admitted he consumed four drinks before driving, and that he carries the gun for protection. The Vikings were off Sunday after defeating the Washington Redskins 19-9 on Thursday night.

Kearse spoke to reporters at practice Monday and apologized to the team and fans.

“I definitely take this matter seriously, and I’m sorry for putting anybody in harm’s way and I will go through all the necessary steps to improve myself,” he said.

A fourth-year safety and special teams captain, Kearse has 11 solo tackles this season.

(© Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — The Carlton County Attorney’s office says the use of deadly force by a sergeant against Shawn Olthoff in his mother’s Moose Lake residence in July was justified.

An arrest warrant for Olthoff was executed on July 29 at the Hillside Terraces Mobile Home Park, two days after authorities say he pointed a gun at an officer during a traffic stop before fleeing the scene. Law enforcement entered the residence, then fired a stun grenade inside.

Shawn Olthoff (credit: St. Louis County Jail)

Carlton County Sergeant Jason Wornygora told investigators he believed Olthoff was about to fire on him and other members of the county’s consolidated emergency response team, so he fired two rounds at Olthoff.

County Attorney Lauri Ketola says Sgt. Wornygora was justified in shooting Olthoff, who survived with permanent injuries.

The shooting was investigated by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — Investigators are searching for armed robbers hitting cell-phone stores across the metro.

Eight stores have been robbed this month, seven of them at gunpoint.

Investigators say the robbers have been showing up at closing time and demanding access to the safes.

Employees have been tied up with zip ties and duct tape while the robbers fill bags with phones and tablets.

Security cameras caught a few pictures of the suspects.

Investigators say they typically wear hoodies pulled tight around their faces or Halloween masks.

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Minnesota Vikings safety Jayron Kearse was charged Tuesday with multiple gun and alcohol counts after authorities say he was driving impaired while a loaded handgun containing more than two dozen rounds was on the floor of his car.

The 25-year-old Kearse was arrested early Sunday after he drove his car onto a closed portion of Interstate 94 in Minneapolis.

Prosecutors charged him with five counts, including a gross misdemeanor charge of carrying a gun without a permit. The other four counts were misdemeanors, including two drunken driving counts.

According to the criminal complaint, a state trooper who stopped Kearse noted a strong smell of alcohol coming from the car and Kearse’s eyes were bloodshot and glassy. Kearse failed field sobriety tests and had a blood alcohol level of 0.10%, above Minnesota’s legal limit.

Two other people were in the car at the time, including Vikings cornerback Mike Hughes. The complaint said when the trooper went to check on the male passenger — Hughes — he saw a 9mm Glock handgun partially hidden under the passenger seat. The gun was loaded with 28 rounds and had one round in the chamber, the complaint said.

The complaint said Kearse admitted he consumed four drinks before driving, and that he carries the gun for protection. The Vikings were off Sunday after defeating the Washington Redskins 19-9 on Thursday night.

Kearse spoke to reporters at practice Monday and apologized to the team and fans.

“I definitely take this matter seriously, and I’m sorry for putting anybody in harm’s way and I will go through all the necessary steps to improve myself,” he said.

A fourth-year safety and special teams captain, Kearse has 11 solo tackles this season.

(© Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – Police are sounding an alarm about the dangers of vaping alcohol. It comes after an alcohol vaping machine was confiscated from a local bar.

Vaping machines are illegal in Minnesota. And as Reg Chapman shows us, the Department of Public Safety wants to educate those in the industry about the law and the dangers.

“First I heard of this vaping machine from a friend of mine at a bar in Wisconsin. He told me it was the new biggest thing and people were having fun,” said Curt Woldengen.

Curt Woldengen owns the Round Up bar in Hampton. He thought an alcohol vaping machine would spark business for his neighborhood bar.

“It was new, it didn’t seem dangerous, so I got on the internet and purchased the device last summer,” explained Woldengen. “Unfortunately, I didn’t do my homework.”

Woldengen did not realize alcohol vaping machines are illegal in Minnesota. An anonymous call to police led to the machine to be confiscated and Woldengen fined for breaking the law.

“We want everyone to know whether you are a citizen, a licensee or a bar owner in this state that this is something that is not only illegal, but it’s also potentially dangerous for you and anyone who uses it,” said Special Agent Terry Kelley with the Department of Public Safety.

Special Agent Terry Kelley says an email has been sent out to the Minnesota alcohol industry to warn them about the illegal device.

“This creates a mist, it takes the alcohol and turns it into tiny alcohol droplets. Nothing is burned,” explained Dr. Ann Arens.

The droplets are collected in a balloon and then inhaled. Medical experts can’t say vaping alcohol is safer than drinking it.

“Remember when you are inhaling alcohol, it’s not just the ethanol that’s in there that you are inhaling,” Dr. Arens explained. “Whatever flavor agents that are in there and those chemicals, we have no idea what effect that will have on the lungs.”

There is also the issue of enforcement. Police say there is no way of testing for alcohol vaping intoxication.

If you have one of these illegal alcohol vaping machines you can call the Department of Public Safety. They will help you properly dispose of the machine.

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – Minneapolis police are investigating after a man was found dead in his home on the city’s north side.

The Minneapolis Police Department says they found the man’s body late Wednesday night at a home on the 3900 block of Lyndale Avenue North after his relatives went to check on him.

Police say investigators have interviewed people at the scene. So far, no one is in custody, but the homicide unit has started a death investigation.

The Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office will release the man’s name, as well as his cause of death.

Anyone with information on the death is asked to call police at 612-692-8477 or leave an anonymous tip at 612-692-8477.

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – Perhaps after supplies for a fancier Halloween costume, a pumpkin-masked thief reportedly swiped $400 worth of bed sheets last week from a Twin Cities store.

The Eagan Police Department tweeted an imaged of the masked thief Thursday, asking for the public’s help in possibly identifying the individual.

According to investigators, the theft happened on Oct. 24, when the masked person entered the Bed, Bath & Beyond off Promenade Avenue and spoke to a worker, who reported that the person had a man’s voice.

When the worker went to attend to someone else, the pumpkin-masked person allegedly grabbed $400 worth of bed sheets and fled the store.

Anyone with information on the theft is asked to call Eagan police at 651-675-5799.

THE PUMPKIN CAPER:
In keeping with today’s Halloween theme, we are asking for the public’s help in IDing this suspect. This past week the suspect stole bed sheets from an Eagan retail store. Please contact us at (651) 675-5799 or eaganpd@cityofeagan.com with any information. pic.twitter.com/B8nlsQ3lC6

— Eagan Police (@EaganPolice) October 31, 2019

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — Jovan Davell Brown, the 42-year-old driver who crashed into Minnesota’s Largest Candy Store in Jordan this summer, has been charged with two DWI counts. The criminal complaint states the night of the 1 a.m. crash, Brown admitted to consuming alcohol prior to driving.

RELATED: Car Crashes Into Minnesota’s Largest Candy Store

More than two hours after the Aug. 11 crash, blood samples taken from Brown determined his BAC was 0.19, over twice the legal limit for Minnesota drivers.

Brown said the collision occurred when he tried to pass another vehicle. He was later taken to a hospital for a minor arm injury. No others were injured in the crash.

The store owners estimated damage costs were around $50,000 in merchandise alone.

RELATED: Owners Able To Laugh After Car Crashes Through Minnesota’s Largest Candy Store

The criminal complaint also states Brown was convicted for a DWI in Dec. 2013. The maximum penalty is one year in prison, a $3,000 fine, or both.

Brown is set to make his first court appearance on Dec. 2 in Scott County.

LA CROSSE, Wis. (AP) — A jury has acquitted a La Crosse man accused of killing his former girlfriend and disposing of her body in a lake.

The La Crosse Tribune reports jurors deliberated for about five hours Thursday before finding 39-year-old Erik Sackett not guilty in the death of 35-year-old Erin Somvilai. Her body was found in a Vernon County lake near Sackett’s family cabin in June 2018, nearly two weeks after her family reported her missing.

In closing arguments, La Crosse County District Attorney Tim Gruenke accused Sackett of wanting to get rid of a problem and throwing Somvilai away like garbage.

Defense attorney Chris Zachar countered that the prosecution failed to prove its case.

Police say Somvilai’s body had been weighted with concrete blocks. A fisherman discovered her body.

(© Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — A Minneapolis business owner is having an unusual reaction towards the person who shot at him from close range. The shooting happened Wednesday at Webber Mart in Minneapolis near the Camden neighborhood.

The shop owner says he turned down some teenagers who were trying to buy tobacco.  After they left the store, one of them shot at the owner — twice. But the owner is not angry.

From the neatly lined shelves to the feline fellowship — the store cat– it’s a place to retreat and to trick-or-treat.

“This is my neighborhood. This is my community,” owner Kevin Aldwaik said. “This is my business, my neighbors.”

Aldwaik is very conscious of security and has cameras covering his store — cameras that were rolling Wednesday afternoon. Kevin says some teens walked into his store asking to buy cigarettes. He turned them down because they didn’t have IDs.

“This is when he [became] verbally abusive, starting threatening that, ‘I’m gonna do this. I’m gonna rob. I’m gonna do that.’ I say ‘No, no. Listen, I have other kids in here. You need to get out of here,'” Aldwaik said.

The video shows Aldwaik walking out after them and when one of the young men shot at him two different times. Aldwaik had a surprisingly calm reaction.

“I wasn’t really scared,” he said. “I was more angry that we keep dealing with this violence issue over nothing.”

He said he wants the person held accountable, and but mainly he wants the person helped.

“People call and worry about me,” he said. “Don’t worry about me. I want you to worry about the kid that did this.”

Aldwaik said he and his council representative want similar change.

“It’s weaving together the law enforcement, the community, and social services,” said Phillipe M. Cunningham, a Minneapolis City Councilember from Ward Four. “What that does is it provides multiple off-ramps.”

Police say they haven’t named any suspects, but have leads on the case.

“I want all of them not to resort to violence or guns,” Aldwaik said.

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – A double shooting overnight in St. Paul left a woman injured and a man dead.

The St. Paul Police Department says officers responded to a call of shots fired around 2:15 a.m. Friday at a parking lot of an apartment building on 1300 block of Davern Street, in the Highland Park neighborhood.

Officers found a man and a woman inside an SUV. The man was dead and his wife was suffering a gunshot wound to the leg. Emergency crews brought her to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

Police do not believe the shooting was random, although the circumstances surrounding the shooting remain unclear.

So far, no arrests have been made. Anyone with information about the shooting is asked to call 651-266-5650.

This is the 27th homicide in the city this year.

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — The Children’s Theatre Company in Minneapolis has settled all remaining lawsuits filed by former students who alleged they were sexually abused by staff decades ago.

When the Minnesota Child Victim’s Act passed in 2013, extending the time period for filing past abuse cases, 16 former Children’s Theatre Company actors filed civil litigation. Each was seeking monetary damages for being sexually abused by former theater staff decades ago.

Abuse survivor Laura Stearns was 15 at the time of her alleged assaults.

“Children’s Theatre Company has an opportunity to embrace the legacy of harm and turn it into a legacy of advocacy. I wish it had been sooner, but it’s better late than never,” Stearns said.

Between 1975 and 1985, more than 100 children are believed to have been abused by an estimated 20 theater teachers and staff.

At Friday’s news conference announcing resolution of the civil suits, the theater’s managing director issued a long overdue apology to all victims.

“We are sorry this was not adequately punished at the time and so sorry that the pain of survivors was not recognized. Sorry that survivors had to suffer in silence for so long,” Kimberly Motes said.

Terms of the settlement remain confidential. However, Motes did say the theater will strengthen its policies geared to protection of children. In addition, it will spend $500,000 towards establishment of an independently-operated victims’ therapy fund.

“Because we know the abuse suffered there was not just sexual. The fund will recognize the multiple types of harm that was done during those decades,” abuse survivor Jina Penn-Tracy said.

Former theater teacher Jason McLean and co-founder John Clark Donahue were named by victim’s civil suits, but never criminally charged. McLean fled to Mexico several years ago but is believed to be back in California. Donahue is no longer living.

“And at this point in time, in so many ways, this is nowhere near an end but rather a beginning,” Jeff Anderson, the plantiffs’ attorney, said.

A beginning of a healing process that is decades overdue.

ST. PAUL, Minn. (WCCO) — St. Paul police are searching for the gunman in the city’s 27th homicide of the year. The shooting marks the deadliest year for the city in the past decade.

WCCO’s Reg Chapman has more on what police are doing to get ahead of the violence.

St. Paul police are working around the clock investigating shooting after shooting. This week alone, there have been three homicides in the city of St. Paul. The latest, in the Highland Park neighborhood on Davern Street.

Police found a man shot in the head, his wife, also shot but expected to survive.

RELATED: Man Dead, Woman Injured After Overnight Shooting In St. Paul

“It’s kind of a domino effect a little bit, but it takes a lot of resources for us to deal with these kinds of scenes,” said Sgt. Mike Ernster.

Sgt. Mike Ernster says Chief Axtel’s five-step plan to address the violence is helping investigators who are stretched thin.

“Bringing in investigators from other units to focus on these high priority crimes that we have going on with our community,” Sgt. Ernster said.

Adding officers to each patrol district is leading to traffic stops, resulting in the confiscation of illegal guns.

“On the 23rd we took two guns off the street, the 24th we took one, the 25th we took at least two guns off the street,” explained Sgt. Ernster. “So out of these five guns in three days,  it’s a testament to the officers getting out there boots on the ground type work.”

New technology from state and federal partners is helping St. Paul police match shell casings to guns.

That’s helping investigators arrest suspects in the city’s rising number of homicides.

“We’re trying to get ahead of this cycle of violence,” said Sgt. Ernster.

Officers are also canvassing neighborhoods where crime is a problem, asking people to tell what they know.

“We have received tips from the public that have resulted in recovery of firearms on the street and we want it to continue. We need to work together to help make our community safer,” added Sgt. Ernster.

Mayor Melvin Carter has scheduled three community meetings this month to discuss public safety.

He is also considering proposing a supplemental public safety budget to city council before it votes on next year’s city budget in December.

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — Democratic Minnesota State Senator Scott Dibble says he is the victim of revenge porn.

He says he had a brief relationship with a former friend, but when he tried to end it, the friend started to threaten him. Dibble says the harassment went on for five months.

Scott Dibble (credit: CBS)

On Friday, Dibble says intimate photos, videos and texts were sent to his colleagues. Dibble asked that those be kept private.

“This has been one of the hardest days of both my personal and professional lives,” Dibble said. “I am thankful for the outpouring of support I have received from my family, friends, and my colleagues on both sides of the aisle.”

Dibble helped lead to effort to make same-sex marriage legal in Minnesota, which was enacted in 2013.