FOUNTAN, Minn. – A semi-truck driver, Kevin Duane Koch, 64, of Chatfield, was injured when his rig went out of control and rolled. First-responders described Koch’s injuries as non-life threatening, He was taken 36 miles to a Rochester hospital. The accident was about 3:20 p.m. on U.S. Highway 52 between Chatfield and Fountain. The 2013 Peterbilt semi was headed north toward Interstate 90 Rochester.

WINONA, Minn. – When a Winona man returned to his car with a bag of fast food, his dog was missing. He told police he had left the car unlocked with a window cracked. He was sure that someone had stolen his dog. Police began a search for video cameras in the area for clues. This was in the afternoon in 100 downtown block of East Third Street. An hour later, somewhat sheepishly, the man called police that he had returned home and found Bowser had been there all the time.

PRESTON, Minn. – A Spring Valley woman was charged formally for a hit-and-run involving an Amish buggy in February. Brittany Edgar, 32, was advised of six charges. These include criminal vehicular operation, leaving the scene of, driving carelessly, and giving false information to an officer. Fillmore County Judge Jeremy Clinefelter set a further hearing for Edgar in July. In the accident a buggy carrying nine people — two adults and seven children – was struck from the rear. NOTE: This case is unrelated to a separate Amish buggy accident in September near Spring Valley with two fatalities and charges against twin sisters.

Earlier: Hit-run charges levied in February buggy wreck

Earlier: Loose ends still in car-buggy collision

Earlier: Children in car-buggy wreck medically cleared

Earlier: Hit-run driver strikes buggy; six Amish injured

ETTRICK, Wis. – A shooting death on the major highway between Galesville and Blair has been declared a homicide by Trempealeau County Sheriff Brett Semingson. The sheriff said he has called in state criminal investigators. Semingson has been sparse with details. Even five days after the crime the sheriff hasn’t released the victim’s name, even though standard police practice is to withhold names from the public only until kin are notified or 24 hours at most. Not surprisingly, Semingson’s information vacuum has fueled street talk in Ettrick, population 520, about the case. Among the consensus:

> The victim was a man in his 30s from Ettrick. Married and father of 6- year-old. Everyone knows his name, but with outsiders, perhaps in deference to the sheriff, they stop short of sharing his name.

> The victim was shot twice in the head in his car while driving in a 55 mph section of U.S. Highway 53. The car then wrecked.

> There is little consensus among townspeople about a motive. Speculation incudes road rage and a grudge amid a range of unseemly and unflattering conjecture.

> The victim was driving home from the Twin Cities, a 2-1/2 trip trip via Winona

> The shooting was in the Frenchville area south of Ettrick a few miles toward Galesville, near either the the crossroads with Truax Road, which connects with other backroads; or with County Road TT, which leads to a shortcut into north Galesville; or perhaps in between.

> The investigation has extended into Jackson County to the north, which includes Taylor, population 500, 17 miles away; Hixton, population 600, 24 miles away; and Black River Falls, population 3,500, 26 miles away.

Earlier: Authorities mostly mum on Ettrick mystery death

Semingson. Trempealeau County sheriff from Osseo. Re-elected in 2022. Based in Whitehall county seat. His usual practice, even in more routine cases, is to hold back on releasing names and details to public.

WINONA, Minn. – A car missed a sharp turn on a leafy residential street behind Westgate Bowl and rammed through the  front deck of a house. This was about 1:50 a.m. Police said the driver was drunk. A blood-alcohol test showed a hopeless blood-alcohol level of 0.31%, almost quadruple the legal threshold for impairment. Everyone in the house was jolted awake. No one was hurt – except the driver, Chad Michael Levinski, 42, of Winona. He had a bloody nose. This was in the 1550 block of Heights Boulevard.

WINONA, Minn. – A police officer stopped a Winona driver on a traffic issue and took him in for something more — suspected marijuana impairment. The officer said the smell of burned marijuana coming from driver’s open window was impossible to miss. The stop was about 1:50 p.m. A field breath test showed Lahenry Lamon Gills, 24, with only .03% blood-alcohol, an acceptable level. A later blood sample at the jail for drugs, which is not possible to evaluate locally, was sent a state lab. Charges, will be delayed until the results come back.

ROCHESTER, Minn. – Two cars burned up in an apartment building parking lot, both a total loss, and shriveled the vinyl siding on the building. A third car was scorched. There were no injuries. The fire was reported about 6:20 p.m. Firefighters quickly knocked down the fire in the vehicles, then focused on protecting the apartment building from further damage.

Andover Apartments. At 1942 8-½ Street Southeast. Image: Rochester Fire Department

ROCHESTER, Minn. – An Owatonna school girl, Olivia Flores, 18, died from injuries in an intersection collision outside the Apache Mall regional shopping center in Rochester. She died at s hospital. Her high school graduation was scheduled in another three weeks. She was 40 miles from home on a weekend shopping spree with a friend.

Earlier: Seven hurt in multi-vehicle crash at Apache Mall

Flores. Had been keen on a “gap year” after high school.

Baseball: Coe 12, UW-LaCrosse 11

Baseball: UW-LaCrosse 19, Benedictine 15

Baseball: LaCrosse Aquinas Blugolds 5, Stevens Point Pacelli Cardinals 0

Fire too far gone when crews arrive. At S3226 Brandhorst Road seven miles east of Fountain City near Bohri Cemetery. Image: Buffalo County sheriff

Neighbor tried banging at doors, nobody home

FOUNTAIN CITY , Wis. – Fire engulfed a rural house on Brandhorst Road while everyone was away. A family of three lived there at the house. Three pet cats and a dog perished inside. The residence was declared a a total loss. A 911 call from a neighbor to the Buffalo County sheriff 25 mles way reported the fire about 4:50 p.m.

Ruts in sand. Jeep on side. Driver crawled from wreckage. Injuries minimal. Image: Buffalo County sheriff

Driver ticketed: Failure to maintain control

MARSHLAND, Wis.  – A Galesville driver lost control on the curvy, narrow and unpaved road up Pieper’s Valley and rolled. Somehow he avoided serious injury. David J. Knott, 26, was taken 14 miles to the Winona hospital with a broken wrist. The accident occurred about 2:45 p.m. Knott told Buffalo County deputies he was coming up on a hillcrest and realized too late he was too close to a mailbox. He swerved to correct but overdid it, he said. The vehicle, a soft-top Jeep, went into the ditch and flipped on its side. Knott was alone except for his dog, which was unhurt.

HOMER, Minn. – A Winona driver had a heckuva time getting out of the Black Horse bar parking lot. Witnesses who saw the whole show said Pamela Ann Smith, 74, first found her preferred exit path blocked by another vehicle. She slammed into reverse  – and rammed into another car, then a second car, and then a third. When a deputy sheriff arrived, Smith said she hadn’t realized backing into another car. Later she recanted a bit and acknowledged hitting two cars. Then the deputy pointed to all he rumpled metal in the parking lot and stated the obvious: Three. In a field sobriety test Smith demonstrated balance and dexterity difficulties. Also, the deputy said, she had bloodshot and watery eyes and slurred speech and smelled of a few too many drinks at the Black Horse. Her breath tested on the spot at 0.24% alcohol, triple he legal limit. A second test at the jail showed 0.22%.

ST.PAUL, Minn. — The Minnesota Legislature approved $12 million to build a system to slow further invasion of aggressive carp in the Mississippi River north beyond and Fountain City. The money is in a larger outdoor-heritage budget package. The Senate approved the $192 million package 43-23 and the House 115-13. Governor Tim Walz was expected to accept the package. The deterrent system would be at the Fountain City dam just north of Winona. The state Natural Resources Department testified at legislative hearings that there was “a limited but feasible window of time for a deterrent to be installed.” The target is silver and bighead carp that have upset ecological balances since 1980 when an Arkansas hatchery lost them. Since then the carp have moved inexorably north. In 2023 fishery researches captured the first of the aggressive carp near Winona. Soon  500 more were  caught. Here is how southern Minnesota representatives voted:

Verbatim

Peter Sorensen, a University of Minnesota fisheries researcher: “Without a carp deterrent, the native fish and river ecosystem did not have a chance. Now they most definitely do. No other state has taken significant action before it was too late. No other state has taken significant action before it was too late. Minnesotans should be proud.”

Earlier: Invasion of dreaded “flying carp” reaches Winona

Earlier: Leaping carp alarm: Biggest catch yet near Winona

Earlier: Legislature ponders stop-the-carp funding

Earlier:Any new tricks to corral bad carp? Still looking

Earlier: Carp on move upriver: DNR doing enough?

LEWISTON, Minn. –A teenager drove out from Rupprechts Valley  Road onto U.S. Highway 14 into a second vehicle. She was unhurt. The driver of the other car, Jessica Hailee Cevirak, 26, of Winona, had injuries that appeared non-serious but that warranted an ambulance trip 17 miles to Winona hospital to be sure, deputies said. Police didn’t release the name of the teen-age driver but said she was 16. She was in a 2006 Chevrolet Impala, whose airbag deployed. Cevirak, in a 2016 Toyota Corolla, whose airbag didn’t deploy, was headed west toward Rochester on U.S 14. This was about 12:50 p.m.

Rachel Mergen (Winona Daily News, May 13, 2024): “Goodview Resident Achieves Black Balt in Karate at 71 Years Old”

Bob Timmons (Minneapolis Star Tribune, (June 18, 2024): “Minnesota Driftless  Hiking Trail Takes Significant Leap Ahead”

Jeremy Wall (WKBT, May 16, 2024: “New Music Hall Spatks Excitement in Winona Community with Local and Wold-Class Performances”

On West End near Cotter schools. Company manufactures ultra-lightweight custom and handmade backpacking gear. Image: Steve Lunde

Incidents all anonymous and in night-time dark

WINONA Minn. – Police have not established a link between vandalism on the Enlightened Equipment camping-gear factory a week ago and a wave of hate-group flyers scattered anonymously around the same West End neighborhood. There was no explicit terrorist message at Enlightened Equipment, police said. A jar filled with brown liquid was thrown from a passing car and smashed on the building about 10:30 at night. The liquid was not identified, but police who investigated the next morning said that it didn’t appear to be an incendiary. The building, 1124 West Fifth Street, is near the Cotter schools where two days later the police started receiving reports of messages left on yards and sidewalks the white supremacist group Aryan Freedom Network. When the propaganda drops were made hasn’t been established; It is pattern for AFN and other hate groups to make anonymous drive-by drops of propaganda at night. Police have not reported finding video of the drive-by propaganda drops. In the Enlightened Equipment attack, a witness told police that the jar was hurled from a white Honda.

Earlier: Jar heaved at Fifth Street building, shatters

Earlier: Expert unsurprised at hate-monger tactics in Winona

Earlier: Cops: No local link seen in neo-Nazi messages

Earlier: Hate group droppings around town: “Join us”

ROCHESTER, Minn. – Three vehicles, including a State Patrol cruiser, collided near the Apache Mall shopping center. Seven people were taken to hospitals, at least one in critical condition. The crash was about 5:45 p.m. at Highway 14 and Memorial Parkway Southwest. Preliminary forensic mapping by police suggested this sequence

> The State Patrol car was east-bound on 12th Street.

> A Ford Focus was west-bound on 12th Street, turning into Apache Mall.

> The Focus was pushed into a Toyota RAV4, which was pulling out of Apache Mall and waiting to turn onto 12th Street.

> The Toyota was propelled into a ditch.

In the vehicles:

> State Patrol cruiser: Trooper Shane Roper, 32, of Rochester, and Peter Meyer, 20, of Zumbrota, a ride-along passenger.

> Ford Focus: Angelina Bartz, 21, of Owatonna, the driver; Olivia Flores, 18, of Owatonna; and Katarina Bartz, 19, of Owatonna.

> Toyota RAV4: Emie Pasco, 36, f Owatonna, the driver; and Gabriella Parker, 12, of Owatonna.

Moments after impact. From a traffic monitoring camera. The Toyota is out of range in the field. Image: Minnesota Transportation Department