WINONA, Minn. — Prosecutors asked the judge in the Jonahan Payton case to allow his criminal record to be considered against him. Payton, age 40, is accused of shooting up an East Side neighborhood in November. Police, however, haven’t established a motive, which means Paytin might argue it was all a mistaken or accidental. Hence, prosecutors want Payton’s lengthv rap sheet on firearm, stalking and burglary convictions to be considered. The judge took the prosecution request under advisement. Payton’s next court date is in February. Meanwhile he remains in custody in lieu of bail.

Earlier: Bail at $200,000 for East Side gunshots

Earlier: Motive still unclear in East Side gunshots

Earlier: East Side gunshots random? Targeted?

WINONA, Minn. – Police issued 68 citations overnight for violations of the city’s winter ordinance for alternate-side parking. The running tally:

> December 7: 68

> December 4, 5 and 6: Officers on other priorities

> December 3: 8

> December 2: 43

> December 1: 28

> November totals: 731

Earlier: Snow or not, Winona winter parking rules kick in

Holiday gift shop dazzle. At the Gundersen mother ship in  LaCrosse. Image: Steve Lunde

WABASHA, Minn. — A Rochester driver lost control on snow and ice along Lake Pepin and ran into the ditch. Lucas Arruda Olson, age 20, was taken 10 miles to the Wabasha hospital. His injuries were sustainable, said Wabasha County deputies. The accident was about 10:35 p.m. on U.S. Highway 61 between Lake City and Wabasha. Olson was southbound toward Wabasha in a 2019 Jeep Grand Cherokee.

ROCHESTER, Minn. – Trump deportation agents jumped an unmarked van, snatched a Somali man from the street, and hauled him away. A bystander posted video of the arrest online with an eyewitness account. The witness said the incident was over, the agents gone, in less than two minutes. This was on 14th Street Southeast near the Meadow Park apartments.

Rochester police confirmed they were alerted by a 911 call to a possible kidnapping as the event unfolded. It was all over when police arrived. Police later confirmed the incident was an operation by the U.S. Immigration Control and Enforcement agency. Whether ICE had alerted local police to its presence in Rochester was unclear. ICE sometimes makes an inter-agency courtesy all when it’s in an area. , sometimes not. Also unknown was whether the ICE unit made other arrests in Rochester. The arrest apparently was part of the agency’s Operation Metro Surge, in which has focused on Minnesota Somalis in recent days in Minneapolis. The operation is part of President Trump’s program to rid Minnesota of its Somali population. Estimates are that 70,000 to 120,000. Somalis live in the state.

Eyewitness account

The woman who taped he arrest cellphone asked to be identified only as “Suban,” She included a description of what she saw in her TikTok post. Later in a telephone interview with KTTC, she expanded on her account. Excerpts from TikTok post and KTC:

> “The minute he saw me recording and crying, he was comforting me, and he said it in Somali, ‘I’m cool. It’s okay.’ He repeated that multiple times and it really broke my heart. It was him who needed comforting in that situation.”

> “I wasn’t sure if they were agents or if they were kidnappers. I wouldn’t have not known in that situation. I told my younger sister to honk my vehicle so that at least people can come out and see the situation.”

> “He goes to our local mosque. He is very hardworking, and he’s very active in our community. Other than that, I have never heard of him or any crimes that he might have committed Suban explained the agents did not state their reason for the arrest at the time. She said she made her sister call 911.”

Blow-by-blow

The video shows three agents in a dark van with heavily tinted windows. They were bundled for the cold. Two wore wool-knit caps. All had dark glasses.  They had no uniforms or badges or other conventional identification of legitimate law officers. They showed no arrest warrant or other documents to justify yanking someone off the street. The Somali man was cuffed without resistance. One agent recorded the arrest. Unknown was where the Somalian was taken. ICE has contracts with a few county jails in the state to hold detainees. Detainees in some cases are sent to large federal camps for deportation with no notification to families, employers o anyone else.

Neighborhood profile. The arrest was outside Meadow Park Apartments complex in southeast Rochester at 412 14th Street.  Apartments range from one-bedroom units at $995 a month to three-bedroom units at $1,250. The complex has a record of management and maintenance compliance issues. It was purchased in April by an investment group led  Nick and Elaine Stageberg. The new owners have hied construction and clean-up crews and property managers to address problems

Earlier: Trump’s new Minnesota anti-immigrant purge nets 12

Earlier: An unhinged Trump in angry Minnesota attack

Earlier: Trump to Minnesota Somalis: Go back to Africa

WINONA, Minn. — A Winona driver was arrested during a traffic stop on suspicion of meth use. The arresting officer said William Alan Post, age, 39, was jerky, spoke rapidly and had watery eyes — all symptoms associated with meth. He then failed field sobriety tests that check for dexterity and balance. At jail a blood sample was taken and sent to an outside lab. A specific charge will hinge on test results, police said. The traffic stop was about 8:55 a.m. at King and Orin streets on the West Side.

KELLOGG, Minn. — Two drivers were injured in a collision on ice and snow near the J-turn on U.S. Highway 61 into Kellogg — the infamous Kwik Trip exit. Taken eight miles to the Wabasha hospital with e sustainable injuries:

> Benjamin David Timmerman, age 26, of Rochester, driving a 1996 GMC Suburban.

> Laura Ann Lenz, 56, of Rochester, diving a 2017 Subaru Outback.

A passenger with Lenz, Todd David Rowekamp, 56, of Rochester, was unhurt. Both vehicles were heading north toward Wabasha. The accident was about 8:20 a.m.

KELLOGG, Minn. — A Wisconsin driver was taken to the Wabasha hospital after a two-vehicle collision southwest of Kellogg on State Highway 42. The injuries to Amber Marie Provance, age 39, of Pepin, appeared non-life threatening, deputies said. The collision was on snow and ice about 6:40 a.m. Deputies said both Provance’s 2012 Subaru Forester and the other vehicle, a 2011 Ford F150 pickup, were headed toward Kellogg. The other driver, Bryton Thomas Miller, 29, of Kellogg, was unhurt.

OSSEO, Wis. — State troopers laid a strip of tire-deflating spikes to end a 120-mph chase on Interstate 94. In the car were cocaine, marijuana and a firearm, police said. Arrested were:

> Larome K. Clark, age 41, of Duluth, the driver, who was booked at the Trempealeau County jail tentatively  for fleeing, reckless endangerment, and possession of cocaine as a repeat offender.

> Taiwan Bernard Tellis, 29, of St. Paul, who was released with no immediate  charges.

Osseo police said a K-9 deputy sniffed narcotics during a traffic stop. This was about 2:30 a.m. The driver sped off, flinging items into the night from his car window as the pursuit ensued, police said. The chase ended 30 miles away on I-94 near Eau Claire.

A glamor shot from its youth.  The date and time have been set for the demolition — and the big splash — of the Back Hawk bridge across the Mississippi River into Wisconsin: December 18 at 9:30 a.m. The landmark cantilever truss bridge is 104 years old. The current car ferry will suspend service four days for debris to be cleared. The man navigation channel is already closed for the season.

Earlier: The Iowa bridge none dare cross

Earlier: Tourist ferryboat now Lansing bridge alternative

Earlie: Lansing bridge’s finale sooner than expected

Basketball (boys): Black River Falls Tigers 97, Tomahawk Hatchets 52

Basketball (boys): Whitehall Norse 60, Eau Claire Immanal Lancers 39

Basketball (boys): Altoona Railroaders 73, Arcadia Raiders 71

Basketball (girls): Fall Creek Crickets 43, Mondovi Buffaloes 40

WASHINGTON — The Trump Administration amped up its propaganda war to discredit Minnesota state government by rehashing old news about fraud in the Feeding Our Future pandemic rescue programs of 2021. Trump’s chief of the Small Business Administration, Kelly Loeffler, issued a news release that SBA recently discovered fraud in the Paycheck Protection and in Economic Injury Disaster Loan programs. The funds, Loeffler said, were in grants to individuals connected to Feeding Our Future pandemic fraud schemes. Already 87 individuals have been indicted for the frauds. So what’s new? It appears that that Trump’s SBA is four years late in its “discovery.” The Loeffler news release joined a Trump call to federal agencies to generate as much news as possible to disparage Minnesota state agencies as negligent in administering federal programs.

Earlier: An unhinged Trump in angry Minnesota attack

Loeffler. Administrator of Small Business Administration since February.  A Trump loyalist. Donated $4.9 million to Trump’s 2024 election campaign

Above our snow-bound travails at lower elevations. As seen from a plow-piled snowbank at the Walmart parking lot on Winona’s Far East End. Highs reached only the mid-20s Saturday. Nothing melted. Image: Kevin O’Reilly

WINONA, Minn. — A St. Paul driver whose blood-alcohol tested at 0.11% was arrested as driving while intoxicated. This was about 1:40 a.m. at the prominent Huff and Sarnia intersection. At 0.11%, Jack Michael Gabrych, age 24, was almost 1-1/2 times more impaired than the law allows. Gabrych had been driving with an obstructed license plate, the arresting officer said. The odor of alcohol from the car was obvious, the officer said. A passenger, Olivea Jean Ellefson, age 24, of Winona, was arrested on a warrant involving auto theft. A third person, Kasius Jehmier Starks, 23, of Winona, was also arrested. The charge: Getting in the  face of an officer repeatedky and distracting the officer.

Basketball (men): Northland Community 78, Rochester Community 72

Hockey (men): Concordia of Moorhead 4, Saint Mary’s 1

Hockey (women): Saint Mary’s 4, Concordia of Moorhead 3

STOCKTON, Minn. — A Winona snowmobiler was injured when he missed a curve on a trail along County Road 23 between Stockton and Minnesota City and crashed into an embankment. Tyler Mccal Schaffer, age 54, was treated on-scene. Alcohol was a factor, deputies said. The crash was after dark about 7:20 p.m.

WYATTVILLE, Minn.  — A Rochester driver suffered minor injury when his vehicle slid on icy Interstate 90 and crossed the median a couple miles from the Rushford exit. The vehicle ended up in the oncoming lanes. Benjamin David Ziomek, age 34, was taken 35 miles to a Rochester hospital. The accident was about 6:45 p.m. Ziomek was headed east toward Wisconsin in a 1999 Toyota Rav4.