WINONA, Minn. –  The Blizzard of 2022 kept police busy. Winona County deputies responded to 21 motorists in trouble, mostly with cars caught in snow drifts. City police had 14 such calls. There were no injuries.

Best wishes to our Winona Journal family.

Steve Lunde and John Vivian

MINNEAPOLIS  — The 19-year-old man who was killed in a shooting at Mall of America on Friday was Johntae Raymon Hudson. He was from  St. Paul. police confirmed. Police had delayed releasing  the man’s name until the county Medical Examiner performed an autopsy. Hudson was shot multiple times.

Earlier: Gospel singer, football pros at Mall raced for cover

BLOOINGTON, Minn. – Hundreds of peolpe at Mall of America tweeted and phoned their experiences after a shooting that killed a man at the Nordstrom department store. Jovonta Patton, a Billboard gospel singer, was filming an Instagram reel at a Gucci location inside Nordstrom. He quickly ran to a back room to hide. He and a handful of others stayed there about 15 minutes. Elsewhere in the mall were several New York Giants players in town for a game wth the Minnesota Vikings. They made it back to the hotel. Team announcer Bob Papa tweeted: “Scary here @mallofamerica. Shooting in mall. On lockdown at #TwinCitiesGrill. Two gunmen at least one victim.” An hour later, Papa tweeted again: “Safely out of mall and back at hotel. Prayers to victim.”

Earlier: Cops: Men arrested for Mall shooting not talking

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. – A fatal shooting at a Mall America department store was recorded on surveillance video, Police Chef Booker Hodges said. At a news conference Hodges said there appeared to be some type of altercation between two groups that all together were nine. Shouting escalated into a fistfight, then someone pulled a gun and fired several shots, the chief said. A second man may also have fired a weapon, he said.  This all was in no more than 30 seconds. Hodges said the shooter was among five men arrested 12 later at a house in the west Minneapolis suburb of St. Louis Park. Others were ben sought, Hodges said. He said violence would not be tolerated: “In Bloomington, if you come here and murder people at our mall, you get one of these at at Christmas” He waved an orange prison suit at reporters at the news conference. Hodges said there remained answered questions: “We don’t know why this happened. These people flat out are just not cooperating. And people don’t want to talk.”

Earlier: Mega-mall reopens to shoppers post-shooting

ST. LOUIS PARK, Minn. – Police, backed up by a SWAT team, captured five people in a house for a fight at the Mall of America in which one man was shot fatally and a woman was grazed. The arrests were 13 miles from the mall. Those arrested all were men: two of them 18 years old d three 17. Their names were not released immediately. Sources said that murder charges were being drafted. The raid, with riot officers from three jurisdiction, was about 8 a.m. – roughly 12 hours after the shooting. The suspects dispersed before police back-ups could control the scene. It was believed that some of them regrouped at a White Castle hamburger place near the mall but didn’t stay long, police said. Meanwhile, police were delaying release of the name of the victim, who died apparently instantly at the mall.

Earlier: Fatal shooting at Mall of America, then lockdown

Mall profile

The Mall of America opened in 1992. At 2.9 million square feet, it’s the largest mall in the Western Hemisphere and the 11th largest globally. Forty million shoppers visit the mall annually, many who fly internationally into MSP for the experience. There are 520 stores and 50 eateries. A central aquarium takes visitors through a 300-foot curved tunnel 14 feet under water. More than 4,500 sea creatures including sharks, turtles and stingrays live there. The aquarium offers sleepovers, scuba diving, snorkeling and birthday parties.

SPRING GROVE, Minn. – The origin of the fire that destroyed a Main Street landmark may have started in an upstairs apartment, but it seems unlikely that anyone will ever know for sure. After the fire was controlled —  but not yet extinguished completely , Fire Chief Trent Turner ordered the remaining rubble be leveled.  “The only way to extinguish it finally was to pull the building down,” he said.  Even so, Turner has asked the state fire marshal to investigate. What Turner knows for sure was that by the time the fire was discovered, flames already had climbed into space between an earlier roof and a new roof. At some point in the past, he said, the old roof had gone bad and a new roof was laid on top. “That’s where the fire had gotten into,” Turner said.

Earlier: Fire levels Spring Grove hardware, apartments

Downtown void. ThE two-story Ace hardware building once stood at 123 West Main Street. It’s like an essential organ is missing– a heart perhaps, said one townsperson who watched through the night from a safe distance down the block.

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. – Sixteen Bloomington police officers were on duty at the sprawling Mall of America when a fight broke out at the Nordstrom department store. One officer was at the watches of Switzerland shop, only steps away from the from the first-floor Nordstrom entrance. He heard a shot and was there immediately – even as Christmas shoppers by the dozen were scattering for cover. The commotion lasted  only seconds. The officer tried life-saving measures but was unable to save the victim. He then tended to a woman bystander whose jacket grazed by a bullet.

Earlier: Five arrests for Mall of America slaying

Mall security

Mall of America bans guns, but shoppers don’t pass through metal detectors. In October, however, management began testing a “weapons detection system” at one entrance. Violent incidents:

2019:  A man threw a 5-year-old boy off a third-story balcony.

2021:  Two mee were shot and wounded during a fight.

2022:  Two men fired gunshots during an altercation, then fled.

WINONA, Minn. – During a traffic stop the police officer spotted a clear baggie with a green leafy substance inside the car. Yes, said Derrik Deshawn Carpenter, 27, of Winona, it was marijuana. But, truly, officer, it’s the only drugs I have. In checking further, however, the officer found a baggie with meth, albeit only a trace. There also was a digital scale. For Carpenter it was a night and a place to remember: 12:04 a.m. at Fifth and Zumbro streets on the East End. He was charged with possessing illicit drugs.

WINONA, Minn. – A Winona woman showed signs of impairment in a traffic stop about 1 a.m. and failed field sobriety tests. At the jail, however, her blood-alcohol level tested only 0.07% — a hair short of the legal impairment level. The officer wished Sierra Waite, 20, a merry Christmas and issued a ticket only for under-age drinking.

WINONA, Minn. – Police finally got Anthony Whiteside Jr, 25, behind, but it it hardly went smoothly. Police said Whiteside twice became mean and physical with officers, backed off only when they resorted to threatening him with a taser, and had to be strapped into a resistance chair for booking. This all began when police took a 911 call about a domestic disturbance in the 400 block of Hamilton Street.

> A woman told officers that an argument with her live-in boyfriend escalated and he stormed off, then came back. He smashed a beer bottle, threw her in a bed, hit her face, forced her to the floor, and kicked her in ghe face, she said. Several children witnessed all this, she said. On the way out thus second time, he smashed a television, she said. She followed him to the door to lock it, and, she said, he punched her in the face. Although bruised and swollen, the woman declined medical attention, police said.

> Police found Whiteside 10 blocks away at a Franklin Street address. Police gave this account: Whiteside denied having been at the Hamilton address or even knowing the battered woman. Then he admitted knowing her but denied any violence. After he was arrested and on his way out, Whiteside slipped on ice and grabbed a knee of one officer going down. Another officer untangled them, and, as Whiteside became ore belligerent, the officer unholstered his taser but didn’t fire. Somehow they got Whiteside into the squad car.

> At he jailhouse, police said, Whiteside tried to get out of the cuffs. Then, according officers, this happened: Whiteside on an officer’s foot and wouldn’t get off. Both, again, tumbled to the ground. In the tumult, one of the officer’s knees struck Whiteside in the face, at which point Whiteside accused the officer of hitting him in the face and saying next time he would “blow up” the officer’s knee, whatever that meant. Whiteside continued resisting the officers, who, once inside the building, strapped inti resistance chair. At 10:47 p.m. finally he was booked.

None of the officers felt a need for medical attentin for their bruises.

Whiteside. Police said he was “very intoxicated” the whole time. There were piles of beer cans in the trash at the Hamilton address, they said.

Resistance chair. Standard equipment in a back closet at any jail for use when needed.

Tentative charges

> Two counts of domestic assault.

> Obstructing the legal process.

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. — A 19-year-old man was shot multiple times and killed inside the Nordstrom store at Mall of America. Police said the shooting was in group of at least five people, perhaps as many as nine. They fled. The 2.8 million square foot mall, the largest in the nation, was put on lockdown immediately.  The shooting was on the first floor inside the Nordstrom store. The victim was believed to be from the Twin Cities area. Police did not release his name immediately.

WINONA, Minn. – If shoplifting charges hold up against a Winona man, it will mean he wasn’t as clever as he thought. The mega-big box Walmart on the East End said that Alex Boyd, 45, loaded his cart with 17 items worth $305, including a 50-cent item. At the self-checkout lane, according to Walmart, Boyd scanned the bar code for the 50-cent item 17 times and left. Do the math: For $3.50 on his credit card, Boyd had $305 of stuff. Well, the machine was wasn’t as dumb as Boyd figured. It was on to him right away. The cops too.

ROCHESTER, Minn. – Strong winds stymied Rochester fire crews fighting a garage fire, pushing flames onto a patio deck and then a nearby apartment building. The apartments were saved, but the detached two-stall garage and a vehicle inside were a total loss. The fire was about 1:30 p.m. in the 2800 block of 25th Street Northwest.

UTICA, Minn. – A St. Charles man, Scotty Joe Pitcock, 58, was injured in a three-vehicle accident on ice near Utica. He was taken to the Winona hospital, his injures non-life threatening. Police said Pitcock’s Ford F150 pickup rear-ended a 2013 Ford C-Max, then hit a 2014 Ford Edge. The accident was about 2:15 p.m. on U.S. Highway 14. Unhurt were Delaney Anne Brummer, 19, of Rollingtone, and Sydney Taylor Pitzen, 20, of Rollingstone, in the Edge; and Andrew James Bergan, 25, of St. Charles, in the C-Max.

ALBERT LEA, Minn. –The Minnesota Transportation Department closed Interstate 90 west to the South Dakota border again —150 miles — because of zero visibility. The transcontinental trunk route would be barricaded at entrance ramps until at least 6 a.m., the department said. I-90 had been closed earlier but reopened in a brief let-up. Then the blizzard picked up again.  Sustained winds of 30 mph and gusts to 50 mph were creating massive snowdrifts and whiteouts, Things are just as severe across South Dakota. Too, the north-south Interstate 35  trunk,  which intersects I-90 at Albert Lea, was closed to Iowa. So too were lesser routes. These included Highway 218 between Austin and Blooming Prairie. Travel was discouraged on Highway 14 from a few miles west of Owatonna to Mankato.

Earlier: Winter storm advice: Stay off roads

GRAND MEADOW, Minn. – A Grand Meadow man has been charged with hiding cameras in a bathroom in his home and recording prepubescent children who assumed they were behind a closed door and out of anyone’s sight. Nicholas Adam Sneed, 45, was charged with interfering with privacy. The cameras were discovered after an internet policing agency notified Mower County Sheriff Steve Sandvik that child pornography had been uploaded to Sneed’s address. Deputies with a search warrant found numerous electronic devices and data storage devices and several videos produced at Sneed’s place with hidden cameras, according to the criminal complaint. There were videos with nude children. Investigators interviewed the children, some of whom, according to the criminal complaint, became emotional at learning they had been taped.

Sneed. Accused of collecting and making child porn.