Char Kane doesn't remember exactly what time of night it was when she heard the shots, a sound she said isn't uncommon in her south Minneapolis neighborhood.
She must have dozed off after she heard them, she figures, because the next thing she knew a police officer was knocking at her door at 4 a.m. Saturday. Police checked her identification and told her there was a dead man in her back yard.
"Nothing brings it closer to home than your back yard," said Kane, a former block leader who works for the Southside Pride newspaper and lives with her family in the 3500 block of 14th Avenue S. "It was an all-night affair. After something like that happens, you don't immediately go back to bed."
The shooting victim was identified as Jeremee Jon Kraskey, 32, of Walker, Minn. He died from multiple gunshot wounds, according to a release Saturday from the Hennepin County medical examiner's office.
No one has been arrested. Police have urged anyone with information about his death to call 612-692-TIPS.
Martha Lessard said she was in shock after hearing about Kraskey's death. She said he and his two elementary-age children were tenants in the upper level of the Lessards' duplex a few years ago in south Minneapolis before he moved to Walker to live with his grandmother.
Kraskey was a machinist and a hard worker who helped Lessard's husband with heavy chores and mowing the lawn or raking leaves.
"He was like a son to us," said Martha Lessard, 71. "He was a good dad. He made sure his kids studied. He wanted the best for them."
