Free Republic

Just over a day after a shooting claimed the lives of three first responders in Burnsville, the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension has confirmed the name of the man behind the deadly shooting. Shannon Gooden, 38, died after opening fire on those first responders. Burnsville police officers Matthew Ruge and Paul Elmstrand, along with paramedic Adam Finseth were killed Sunday morning while responding to a call for help. Burnsville Sgt. Adam Medlicott was also injured, but as of Monday afternoon, he is out of the hospital. Police say an armed man barricaded himself in a Burnsville home with seven...

Burnsville, Minnesota, police officers Matthew Ruge and Paul Elmstrand and firefighter/paramedic Adam Finseth were shot and killed while responding to a domestic call shortly before 2 a.m. Sunday. Breitbart News reported the shooting on Sunday, when it was known that three people — two officers and a medical first responder — were dead. A third officer was shot and wounded. 75 KSTP reported the identities of the deceased, noting that the subject of the domestic call was found dead in the house around 8 a.m. They noted that “none of the other family members inside the home were harmed, including...

An elementary school in the Twin Cities suburb of Burnsville is selling “school spirit hijabs” to students at school events and online. William Byrne Elementary introduced the new “school spirit hijabs” this academic year. Like the school’s T-shirts, the hijabs are marked with the school logo featuring its mascot, Buster the Bulldog. Unlike the T-shirts, which cost $10 each, the hijabs only cost $6 each. KARE reports that the idea originated with Maryan Ali, the elementary school’s “Somali cultural liaison,” who pitched it to a mother who volunteers as the spirit wear coordinator for the school’s Parent Teacher Organization (PTO)....

A flash mob of 20 to 30 suspected looters struck a Best Buy electronics store in Minnesota on Black Friday and managed to get away before police arrived, according to a report. The incident happened around 8 p.m. at a Best Buy location near the Burnsville Center shopping mall in Burnsville, a suburb south of Minneapolis....

Burnsville officials found 10 fish, some a foot long, in Keller Lake earlier this month while surveying the fish population as part of a water quality project. On Monday, a second trip yielded 18 more fish, some 18 inches long and estimated to weigh about 4 pounds. The proliferation of the bright orange fish, which don't naturally live in Minnesota waters, is a problem that's plagued communities around the metro as pet owners seeking a humane next chapter for their pets — which hail from east Asia and are a smaller cousin of the common carp — end up adding...

A Muslim woman has become the first to compete in the Miss Minnesota USA pageant while fully clothed. Halima Aden made the semifinals of the competition over the weekend while wearing a hijab. She also wore a full-body outfit called a burkini during the swimsuit competition. …

A Burnsville DFLer's campaign for the state House abruptly ended Sunday morning within hours of him posting on social media that ISIS "isn't necessarily evil" and is "made up of people doing what they think is best for their community." The Twitter posting Saturday by Dan Kimmel, coming as the world's emotions remain raw from Friday's terror attacks in Paris, brought swift rebuke from others on Twitter. House Minority Leader Paul Thissen, DFL-Minneapolis, called for Kimmel to give up his campaign. "I'm folding up the campaign tent," Kimmel told the Star Tribune. He later issued a written apology and called...