St. Paul’s police chief on Thursday named a homicide investigator as Detective of the Year and a patrol officer who regularly recovers firearms as Officer of the Year.

Sgt. Jennifer O’Donnell, a St. Paul officer of more than 30 years who works in the homicide/robbery unit, was the primary investigator on 156 homicides, robberies and aggravated assaults last year and assisted on more, according to her commendation. She was the primary investigator in the fatal shooting of Nicholas Sletten, 42, in the North End in October.

Murder charges were filed in January. “This was a complex investigation that required ongoing intensive work,” said O’Donnell’s commendation, which described her and her colleagues as working “tirelessly” on the case.

Chief Axel Henry named Abdirahman Dahir as 2024 Officer of the Year. He grew up in St. Paul, became a Police Explorer at age 14, and later a parking enforcement officer before joining the department’s police academy in 2021.

A patrol officer, Dahir recovered 22 handguns and several thousand fentanyl pills during 18 stops last year, his commendation said, adding that last year “was not an anomaly.” Dahir recovered 30 handguns the year before.

Richard Bertholf, of the police Video Management Unit, was recognized as Professional Employee of the Year.

When Andre L. Mitchell, 26, was shot and killed while two children were in his backseat in November, Bertholf “immediately responded to multiple urgent requests to gather nearby video that may have captured the shooting,” his commendation said. He found videos that showed four people shooting at Mitchell and two suspect vehicles, and gathered information about suspects. Four people have been charged in Mitchell’s murder.

— Mara H. Gottfired

Lift Bridge river rescue cleared as false alarm

Several agencies responded to a water-rescue call in Stillwater on Thursday afternoon after the Stillwater Lift Bridge tender called authorities to report that a group of young women thought they had seen a young man go into the St. Croix River and not surface.

Law enforcement officers in boats searched the river using sonar scanners, and divers from the Washington County Fire Rescue Dive Team searched the bottom of the river, but no one was found, said Washington County Sheriff’s Office Sgt. Kevin Jadwinski.

The initial report, which came in around 4:40 p.m., said the young man was thought to have gone into the river from the undercarriage of the pedestrian bridge, just east of the bridge tender’s building, Jadwinski said.

“Boats with scanning technology searched the river for about two hours and did not see anything,” he said. “Divers were in the river searching the bottoms of the river for 30 to 40 minutes, and they didn’t find anything.”

In addition, crews from the Minnesota Department of Transportation scanned footage from cameras located at the top of the bridge and the bottom of the bridge “going back 30 minutes prior to the call coming in and never located anyone falling or jumping off the bridge,” Jadwinski said.

Law enforcement cleared the scene at 6:36 p.m., he said.

“We always take these types of calls seriously,” Jadwinski said. “We are going to throw all the resources that we have at it if it means saving someone’s life until we can deem that no one is on the water.”

— Mary Divine

State warns about bogus ticket texts

The Minnesota Department of Public Safety is warning Minnesotans to watch out for scam text messages that appear to be from the “Minnesota Department of Motor Vehicles” or “DPSMN.”

These fake messages claim the recipient needs to pay for outstanding traffic tickets and threaten consequences if they do not pay. Some Minnesotans have received several messages that became more and more demanding, according to the Department of Public Safety.

Public Safety will never communicate about traffic tickets or ask for payment through text message. If a Minnesota resident receives one of these texts, here is what the department recommends doing:

• Do not click on any links in the message, give personal information or send money.

• Mark the text as spam and delete it without responding.

If a recipient is concerned the message is real, they can reach out to the Driver and Vehicle Services division of DPS at drive.mn.gov with questions.

If people have already paid for these fake tickets, they can file a report with the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center at ic3.gov.

— Kathryn Kovalenko