Minneapolis

Family identifies victim of alley shooting

Family members on Monday identified one of two men fatally shot in a car in a south Minneapolis alley Sunday night.

Devon L. Burt, 18, of Minneapolis, was killed n the alley between the 2600 blocks of Cedar and 18th Avenues S., said his grandfather and a cousin.

Police spokeswoman Cyndi Barrington said the public is "not at risk," even though no arrests have been made.

"This was not a random act," Barrington said.

Along with the two men who died, a woman and a teenage girl were wounded about 8:30 p.m. but are expected to survive, police said. Authorities have yet to release the names of anyone who was shot.

Burt's grandfather, Scott Sinclair, of Mechanicsville, Va., said, "I just talked to him yesterday. He was going to the State Fair, and [he] talked about the warm weather."

Sinclair said Burt grew up in Minneapolis and lived about a mile west of where he was shot.

Anyone with any information about the shootings is asked to call police at 612-692-8477.

Hubbard County

Charge: Bemidji fatal involved drunken driver

A woman from Bemidji said she had at least 18 drinks one night, then got behind the wheel of her sport-utility vehicle the next morning and crossed the centerline of a northern Minnesota highway over the weekend, hitting a motorcycle coming the other way and killing its passenger, authorities said Monday.

Victoria Whitefeather, 23, was charged in Hubbard County with criminal vehicular homicide and drunken driving.

Killed in the crash shortly after 9:50 a.m. Sunday on County Road 36 was Tracy Childs, 51, of Proctor, Minn., according to the Sheriff's Office. The motorcycle's operator, 47-year-old Robert Childs, was severely injured in the crash in the northern part of the county, the Sheriff's Office added.

Whitefeather was treated for minor injuries at Bemidji Hospital.

According to the criminal complaint, a preliminary breath test more than five hours after the crash measured her blood alcohol content at 0.08 percent, the legal minimum for drunken driving.

Stearns County

Crash into river kills St. John's grad

A car went off a bridge and into the Sauk River late at night near St. Cloud, fatally trapping a 23-year-old man who prepared for a medical career by helping ailing children in Central America, authorities and family said.

Killed shortly after 1:20 a.m. Sunday was Jeffrey D. Sass, of Clear Lake, Minn., according to the Stearns County Sheriff's Office.

Sass, who graduated from Becker High School in 2008 and St. John's University in 2012, studied in Guatemala for six months and spent the past year volunteering in Costa Rica with terminally ill children, according to his family.

"Through the volunteer work and responsibility, I hope to … find a community through faith that can help others see life through a better perspective," Sass was quoted as saying on the website of his faith-based sponsoring organization, FrancisCorps.

According to the Sheriff's Office:

Sass was eastbound on County Road 75 in Waite Park, when he struck a bridge guardrail and plunged into the river.

Sass was pronounced dead at the scene. There was no immediate word on why his car left the bridge.

Wright County

Fall from motorcycle leads to man's death

A 40-year-old man from Wright County was identified Monday as the passenger who fell from a motorcycle on Saturday night near the golf course where he worked and was fatally struck by a car that then drove off.

Eric J. Raisanen, of Annandale, Minn., died Saturday after being run over near the entrance to the Grey Stone Golf Club on Hwy. 71 north of Sauk Centre, according to the State Patrol.

The motorcyclist, Joseph J. Becker, 56, of Foreston, Minn., was not hurt in the incident.

As the motorcycle headed north on Hwy. 71 near 450th Street about 9:45 p.m., Raisanen fell off. A car heading in the same direction hit him and "did not stop at the scene," according to the patrol.

Debris from the car indicates that it is a Buick Regal with damage to its front bumper, the patrol added.

Anyone with information about the incident is asked to contact the State Patrol at 1-320-223-6666.

Raisanen was an assistant superintendent at Grey Stone, having joined the staff in early July, said club pro Jeff Johnson.

"Eric was a really nice guy, always willing to help out," said Johnson. "He brought a smile to everybody. He was always in a good mood."

Paul Walsh and News services