WINONA, Minn. – Winona Post reporter Chris Rogers said he couldn’t find evidence online to support a police claim that stabbing suspect Lamel Vance Lillard had the kind of record that officers assumed in calling a SWAT team into the Maplewood neighbor Tuesday. A search of criminal court records in Minnesota and Wisconsin did not show any previous history of Lillard being charged with resisting arrest or any other violent crime, Rogers said. All Rogers found, he said, was a 2019 traffic violation. He noted, however, that public court records searches are not always comprehensive. Apparently the records hadn’t recorded a brief police chase May 12 near Prairie Island in which Lillard was arrested. Nor was there a search of Illinois court records, where Lillard had lived at one point. Rogers said he requested an interview with Winona police Wednesday on questions about how officers received information that Lillard had mentioned guns and vowing not to go back back to jail. When the department didn’t respond, the Winona Post submitted a public information request for documents.
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