MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A Minnesota judge has imposed a gag order on attorneys in the trial of four former Minneapolis police officers charged in the death of George Floyd. Hennepin County Judge Peter Cahill issued his order Thursday, the day after the judge says two or more attorneys granted interviews or talked to the news media. The judge said in his order that continuing pretrial publicity in the case would increase the risk of tainting the potential jury pool and “will impair all parties' right to a fair trial.” Cahill previously had warned he likely would move the ex-officers' trials out [...]

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — When George Floyd said he couldn't breathe, two of the Minneapolis officers at the scene pointed out that he could still speak. Medical experts say that reaction is dangerously wrong, and that a person can still utter words, even if they can't inhale enough breath. They say waiting until a person can't breathe may be too late. Floyd, a Black man who was handcuffed, died May 25 after Derek Chauvin, a white police officer, pressed his knee into Floyd's neck for nearly eight minutes. Experts on police training and use of force say there is no known training [...]

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The Minneapolis officer who pressed his knee against George Floyd's neck before he died told him, “it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk” after Floyd pleaded for air more than 20 times. That's according to transcripts of body camera video recordings made public Wednesday. Floyd, a Black handcuffed man, said he couldn’t breathe multiple times in the moments before he died, and he told officers they were going to kill him. The documents were filed in court Wednesday as an attorney for officer Thomas Lane requested that the case against his client be dismissed. [...]

DALTON, Minn. (AP) — The National Weather Service reports a powerful tornado has damaged farms and injured at least two people in western Minnesota. The tornado struck at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday near Dalton. The weather service says three farmsteads were hit, and one of those farmhouses was flattened. Otter Tail County Sheriff Barry Fitzgibbons says two people were taken to a hospital. Their conditions were unknown. The tornado crossed Interstate 94 but no vehicles were affected. A National Weather Service staffer is at the scene checking the tornado aftermath, but the tornado is believed to be at least in the EF-3 [...]

A Minnesota woman convicted of killing a woman in Florida to assume her identity pleaded not guilty Tuesday back in her home state in her husband’s 2018 slaying. Lois Riess entered her plea in a virtual court hearing in Dodge County in the 2018 death of her husband David. Riess is already serving a life sentence for first-degree murder in Florida, where she was convicted last year of killing a woman who had a similar appearance and assuming her identity. Riess is being held in the Steele County jail in Owatonna after being extradited from Florida to face charges in her [...]

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Authorities in Minneapolis have released the name of a pregnant shooting victim who was pronounced dead after her baby was delivered. The Hennepin County Medical Examiner's Office on Tuesday identified the victim as 27-year-old Leneesha Columbus of Minneapolis. The medical examiner's office says Columbus died of a gunshot wound to her torso and her death was a homicide. Police say Columbus was in a vehicle when she was shot about 9 p.m. Sunday in south Minneapolis. Paramedics rushed the woman to Hennepin County Medical Center where the baby was delivered and placed in intensive care. The woman was [...]

OWATONNA, Minn. (AP) — A Minnesota woman who pleaded guilty to fatally shooting a woman in Florida so she could assume her identity has been returned to her home state to face trial on allegations that she killed her husband in 2018. Lois Riess is being held at the Steele County Detention Center in Owatonna on charges of first- and second-degree murder. She’s accused of fatally shooting David Riess at their home in Blooming Prairie in March 2018. Prosecutors say Riess drove to Florida afterward, befriended Pamela Hutchinson and fatally shot her at a Fort Myers Beach condo. She received a [...]