Texas man accused of shooting

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A Texas man who says he is affiliated with the Boogaloo Bois anti-government movement and is suspected of opening fire on a Minneapolis police station during a protest in May is facing riot charges, a federal prosecutor announced Friday.

Video shot on the night of May 28 shows a person later identified as Ivan Harrison Hunter firing 13 rounds from a semiautomatic assault-style rifle on the Third Precinct police station while people believed to be looters were inside.

U.S. Attorney Erica MacDonald said Friday that she has charged the 26-year-old Hunter, of Boerne, Texas, with traveling across state lines to participate in a riot.

According to a criminal complaint, Hunter traveled from Texas to Minneapolis in late May to join in protests over George Floyd’s death. Floyd, who was Black, died on Memorial Day after a white Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee on his neck for nearly eight minutes.

The incident sparked protests against police racism and brutality across the country.

According to the complaint, Hunter claims to be a member of the Boogaloo Bois, a loosely-connected anti-government group, and he made statements on social media describing what he did in Minneapolis.

Dozens charged in drug operation

DULUTH (AP) — More than three dozen people have been charged in St. Louis County in connection with a Chicago-based drug trafficking ring that operated throughout Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa, authorities said.

Duluth police said Thursday that this week’s coordinated drug bust led to 35 arrests in Minnesota — from Rochester in the southern part of the state to the Iron Range in the north. An additional five men in state prisons were also charged, and more arrests are possible.

Police said they seized roughly 1,207 grams of meth and 527 grams of heroin and fentanyl.They estimated that the operation sold more than $1 million of opioids, meth and cocaine so far this year, the Star Tribune reported.

According to a criminal complaint for the alleged leader of the local organization, the trafficking group was tied to a Chicago-based gang and the members “conspired to make their mixtures of heroin and fentanyl stronger, to make it more appealing to their consumer base, and make it stronger than what their competition is selling.”

St. Louis County Attorney Mark Rubin said all cases are being prosecuted in the state court at this time, though federal charges are possible.