Hennepin County prosecutors this week will consider charges after Minneapolis police arrested a 21-year-old Richfield man who allegedly made terroristic threats against a Minneapolis synagogue.

Last month, staff at Temple Israel reported receiving several phone calls from an individual threatening to “shoot up” the synagogue. Police say that same man was observed outside Temple Israel on Thursday with a firearm. He reportedly fled the area before officers could arrest him.

Officers located and arrested the man, identified by police as Jaden LeBlanc, on Friday night. A gun was not recovered.

At a Saturday press conference, Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said there was no evidence the threat was motivated by antisemitism. But he expressed concern because of the timing and an increase in antisemitic statements, behavior and violence over the last year.

“Since the October 7 terrorist attacks, the worst terrorist attack on our Jewish community since the Holocaust, our police officers have been present where a whole lot of hateful rhetoric has been said against our residents, against members of our community, simply because they are Jewish,” O’Hara said.

O’Hara said there have been no specific threats against Jewish institutions in Minneapolis, but there have been threats against others around the country. He added that “out of an abundance of caution,” Minneapolis police had deployed extra patrols to synagogues and Jewish community centers for the Jewish holy days and the one-year anniversary of the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas. St. Paul police are doing the same.

O’Hara said the department instituted the plan after meeting with leaders at Temple Israel, a Jewish student organization at the University of Minnesota and other stakeholders.

“Sadly, this is one of many examples for Temple Israel and many Jewish organizations over this recent period of time where there have been threats,” said Rabbi Marcia Zimmerman, speaking at the press conference alongside Jacob Frey, the mayor of Minneapolis.

Frey is a congregant at Temple Israel and said he was observing Rosh Hashanah with his wife during last week’s threat. He said Jews in Minneapolis and elsewhere are “seeing the repercussions of a war that is taking place across the world” and cautioned people to stand against hateful rhetoric online.

“We all have an obligation here, not just to act with peace, but to encourage peace from our neighbors regardless of what happens around the world,” Frey said.

— MPR News

Remains of World War II solider are identified

The remains of a 27-year-old officer who fought in Burma during World War II as a member of the famed Merrill’s Marauders outfit have been identified and returned to family members in Minnesota after 80 years.

U.S. Army 1st Lt. Herman J. Sundstad was killed in action on June 5, 1944, during the Battle of Myitkyina, but his body was not immediately recoverable in the heat of battle, according to a news release Friday by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, which is tasked with recovering and identifying the nation’s war dead.

The agency positively identified Sundstad on June 24, but it did not release information until the family was fully briefed on the identification process.

Sundstad left behind a wife living in Santa Barbara, Calif., according to a photocopy of a July 27, 1944, newspaper clipping provided with the news release.

In one of a pair of World War II-era photos of Sundstad accompanying the news release, the young officer is shown with his wife and a young boy. Sundstad was originally from Perley, Minn., which lies near the state’s border with North Dakota.

Russell Hamler, who died in December at age 99, was the last living Marauder.

Merrill’s Marauders — officially the 5307th Composite Unit Provisional and commanded by Brig. Gen. Frank Merrill — were tasked with capturing the Japanese-held airfield at Myitkyina in northern Burma, which they did on May 17, 1944.

To reach the airfield, the unit made a 1,000-mile trek over the Himalayan foothills, through jungles and enemy resistance. Disease, exhaustion, malnutrition and the enemy winnowed them down from roughly 3,000 men to barely 200 by the time they seized the airfield.

Sundstad was killed in the subsequent battle to capture the town of Myitkyina.

“Historical records of Sundstad’s assigned unit were lost, but he was believed to be a member of 3rd Battalion,” the DPAA news release states.

“At the time of his loss, 3rd Battalion was engaging an overwhelming enemy force near the village of Namkwi. The exact circumstances of his death were not recorded, and his remains were not accounted for during or after the war.”

In the fall of 1944, personnel with the American Graves Registration Service recovered a set of unknown remains, which were designated X-75, in the vicinity of Myitkyina, the news release states.

Investigators were unable to identify X-75, and eventually those remains and others from that area were buried in graves of the unknown at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu.

In 2021, DPAA disinterred X-75 and undertook scientific analysis at the forensic lab at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam. Sundstad was identified through dental and anthropological analysis, circumstantial evidence and DNA testing, the news release states.

— Stars and Stripes

Trial begins today in Kingsbury slaying

A jury will not hear statements from a friend who said Madeline Kingsbury told her weeks before her death that if something bad happened to her, it would be caused by her ex-boyfriend, Adam Fravel, the judge in the case has ruled.

Fravel was Kingsbury’s boyfriend and the father of her two children. He is accused of killing the Winona woman. A change of venue was ordered in June, and Fravel’s jury trial is scheduled to begin Monday in Mankato.

Fravel and his legal team objected to the introduction of relationship and hearsay evidence shared by friends and family members of Kingsbury during pretrial appearances at trial.

Winona County District Judge Nancy Buytendorp accepted some of the defense team’s arguments.

Buytendorp ruled that Kingsbury’s friend Lauren Dubois will not be allowed to testify about what Kingsbury told her in March 2023 at Mayo Clinic. Dubois told investigators that Kingsbury told her if something happened to her or her children, “It was Adam.”

“Although this statement by the alleged victim was voluntarily made, it lacks sufficient detail and context, which undermines its circumstantial guarantees of trustworthiness. Furthermore, these is a significant risk that the jury may interpret the statement as a definitive indication of the defendant’s actions,” Buytendorp wrote in court documents.

Dubois’ testimony about Kingsbury asking Dubois about how she left her own abusive relationship will also not be allowed.

Testimony from Kingsbury’s father’s wife, Catherine, about Kingsbury telling her that Kingsbury’s daughter had seen too much will also not be allowed during the trial. Testimony from witnesses about Fravel having access to Kingsbury’s phone also will not reach the jury.

Buytendorp ruled witness testimony regarding statements from Kingsbury related to abuse must be specific and detailed.

— Winona Daily News

Western wildfires kill 1, destroy buildings

Multiple fires that broke out last weekend in western North Dakota have killed one person, burned tens of thousands of acres and destroyed several buildings, with one firefighter describing a blaze as “Armageddon.”

Emergency crews, farmers, ranchers and others continued to battle fires on Sunday, Oct. 6, that began late Friday and early Saturday. A fire about one-quarter mile east of Ray killed 26-year-old Johannes Nicolaas Van Eeden, 26, of South Africa, the Williams County Sheriff’s Office said on Sunday.

A second person was taken to a hospital for critical injuries, a news release said.

Strong winds, with gusts sometimes reaching 75 mph, and dry conditions exacerbated the fires. Authorities continue to assess the damage.

The North Dakota Department of Emergency Services has called the wildfires “historic.”

“I talked to another firefighter that was coming in when I did the all-call,” Arnegard Rural Fire Department Chief Rick Schreiber told The Forum. “They said when they got close to Arnegard, they said it looked like Armageddon.”

State agencies and emergency responders from across the west side of the state struggled to control the fires on Saturday, Emergency Services said. Several fires, including one in the Bear Den near Mandaree, were 0% contained as of 3:30 p.m. Sunday, Emergency Services said.

That fire has destroyed 25,000 acres, two homes and multiple outbuildings, according to the Emergency Services news release.

“This may go down in history as one of the worst combined fire situations in North Dakota history,” North Dakota Adjutant Gen. Mitch Johnson said in a statement. “Yesterday we were on defense, but today we’re on offense.”

— Forum News Service