Roseville bank robber quickly collared

A 30-year-old gunman wearing an armored vest was arrested just 12 minutes and 600 feet after allegedly robbing a Roseville bank.

The holdup of the North American Bank near Hwy. 36 and Hamline Avenue N. occurred at 11 a.m. Tuesday, when the Crystal man — his appearance concealed by sunglasses, a jacket hood and partial mask — pointed a semi-automatic pistol at the teller and then fled on foot with an undisclosed amount of cash, according to police.

Nearby officers who were called said they saw a man slamming the trunk of a car parked illegally near a residential intersection south of the bank.

The suspect got behind the wheel just before an officer arrived and trained his gun on him. Police dash-cam video shows the man, his bullet-resistant vest still on, stepping out with his arms raised as a second officer arrives to help with the arrest.

PAUL WALSH

Cottage Grove pastor killed crossing street

An 85-year-old retired pastor and church founder was hit by an sport-utility vehicle and killed as he walked back to his Cottage Grove home from the mailbox across the street, police said Wednesday. The Rev. Benjamin F. Tims Sr. was struck shortly after 2 p.m. Tuesday along 70th Street near Good View Avenue S.

Police Deputy Director Pete Koerner said the SUV driver, a 52-year-old woman from Cottage Grove, remained at the scene and cooperated with investigators. Koerner said that preliminary information suggests that the driver was not speeding, was not impaired, nor was she distracted by her cellphone.

Tims, an Assemblies of God minister, founded Light the Way Church in Cottage Grove in 1994, said the Rev. John Magee, who is senior pastor at the church and also Tims' son-in-law of 28 years.

Paul Walsh

Man who beat his elderly dog pleads guilty

Rudolph W. Poppe pleaded guilty Wednesday to hitting his elderly dog over the head with a sledgehammer last summer in the driveway of his home in Savage. He also pleaded guilty to resisting officers' attempts to arrest him after neighbors called 911. The dog, Millie, had to be euthanized because of its ­injuries.

Poppe, 71, pleaded guilty to one count of felony animal cruelty and one gross-misdemeanor count of obstructing the legal process. A second count of animal cruelty and a misdemeanor disorderly conduct charge will be dismissed. Defense attorney Richard Swanson told the court that the plea agreement contained no agreement on the sentencing, but a pre-sentence report compiled by the probation department said the presumptive sentence is a stayed prison term of a year and a day.

Pat Pheifer

Second man charged in Shakopee killing

A second person was charged Wednesday in Scott County District Court in connection with the Oct. 22 shooting death of Aaron Moran, 32, at his Shakopee home.

Brooks E. Kurr of Annandale faces one count of aiding and abetting second-degree murder. Anthony J. Cox, 21, the alleged gunman who told police that he and Kurr were friends, was charged Tuesday with two counts of second-degree murder.

Kurr, 36, was a driver for a limo service in Shakopee and believed that Moran, a dispatcher at Affordable Town Car Service, was keeping limo runs from him, according to the criminal complaint. He knew the victim was keeping a log that detailed when he was late for work and when he didn't answer his phone, and he blamed Moran when he was fired after a drug test showed methamphetamine use, the complaint said.

Kurr dropped Cox off near Moran's home in the 800 block of S. Prairie Street the evening of Oct. 22, the document said. Witnesses told police that Cox came in through the unlocked front door with a gun in his hand, demanded money and shot Moran four times. Investigators and arrested Cox Saturday about two blocks from Moran's residence. The complaint said Cox was carrying a backpack he had stolen from Moran's home.

Kurr was arrested Sunday in the parking lot of a Bloomington Wal-Mart.

Pat Pheifer