Rep. Dominguez robbed at home

In a frightening "reality check," the well-known North Sider had a gun stuck in his face outside his house.

By TERRY COLLINS, Star Tribune

Last update: June 11, 2008 - 10:19 PM

A "shock to the system." That's how Rep. Willie Dominguez described what it felt like to be robbed outside his north Minneapolis home Wednesday night.

He said two young men in black hooded sweatshirts robbed him of $40 and spare change in his driveway on the 700 block of Upton Avenue N., shortly after he returned home from the State Capitol about 5 p.m.

He wasn't injured.

"They took a gun to my face, right in front of my own home," said Dominguez, a lifelong and well-known North Sider. "I was scared to death. I've lived in this house since 1984, and nothing like this has ever happened to me before."

After calming his shaken wife, Dominguez called the police and gave a description of the robbers. He went out with officers during a quick search of the neighborhood. Police arrested one man on an unrelated warrant charge nearby, he said.

Officers were still canvassing the area Wednesday night.

Dominguez, DFL-Minneapolis, wasn't the first public servant to be confronted outside his home in the past year. In November, Hennepin County Commissioner Mike Opat was carjacked and beaten to the ground by two men outside his Robbinsdale home. He suffered minor injuries. His Jeep was later recovered.

Dominguez, 52, who has spent half of his life working in community service, won the District 58B seat in 2006.

He succeeded Keith Ellison, who won a seat in the U.S. House. The district covers parts of north Minneapolis and downtown.

Dominguez plans to run for reelection despite having lost the DFL endorsement this spring to former Assistant Attorney General Bobby Joe Champion.

Dominguez, a member of the Legislature's Public Safety Finance Committee, said that as the robbers fled, one of them stopped, turned around and delivered this message:

"It's tough times out here, man."

"I wanted to say, 'If that's the case, let me help you,'" Dominguez said. "But with that gun in front of me, I thought I better shut up."

Dominguez said the frightening episode has put him on guard.

"This is no way to live," he said. "It was quite a reality check."

Terry Collins • 612-673-1790