Blake McCoy on Twitter

McCoy's caption to this photo: "Rescue crews have loaded the child's body into truck and are removing him from Lilydale Park."

-- Original post from afternoon of May 22; updates at bottom --

One 4th grade student at St. Louis Park's Peter Hobart Elementary School is dead, one remains missing, and two others were taken to the hospital following a mudslide earlier today at Cherokee Park in St. Paul.

According to the Pioneer Press, students were reportedly at the park for a field trip when "a big pile of sand" gave way underneath their feet, leaving one student buried and another half-buried. The park received heavy rain this week.

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Borgstrom (left) and Coach jumped to their deaths early this morning.

-- Original post from afternoon of May 14; update at bottom --

Around 6:30 pm. last Friday, 16-year-old Erika Borgstrom texted her mother with a simple message: "I LOVE YOU." Her mother thought she was making a trip to a music store in River Falls. But Erika didn't come home, and her mother's subsequent attempts to call her indicated her phone was turned off. Over the weekend, Erika was reported missing.

It turned out Erika and her 18-year-old boyfriend, Dakotah Coach, had left Wisconsin for Minnesota together, as later on Friday evening, a surveillance camera spotted them at a Walmart in Woodbury. They weren't heard from again until today, when officials announced the couple jumped to their death from the Stone Arch Bridge.

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Harteau suggested the officer driving the SUV wasn't at fault for the fatal accident.

During a news conference this afternoon, Minneapolis Police Department Chief Janeé Harteau said the police SUV involved in a fatal accident with a motorcycle last Friday afternoon was traveling 16 to 17 miles per hour as it entered the intersection of West 26th Street and Blaisdell Avenue.

THE BACKSTORY:
-- Terrence Franklin shot multiple times by MPD, but it's unclear whether he fired a shot himself
-- MPD, witnesses differ on accounts of motorcycle accident that killed Ivan Romero [PHOTOS]

Harteau said the MPD determined the SUV's speed using GPS data and equipment installed inside the squad.

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Police say Franklin grabbed an MP5 that was around an officer's neck, but what happened after that remains shrouded in mystery.

According to the Hennepin County medical examiner, 22-year-old burglary suspect Terrence Franklin was fatally shot multiple times by Minneapolis police on Friday afternoon. But police acknowledge it's unclear whether he was responsible for firing the shots that injured two Minneapolis officers.

THE BACKSTORY: MPD shootings: Cops shot with own gun, biker had green light when fatally hit by squad car

In a separate unflattering development for the MPD, it's now being reported that the accident that claimed the life of 24-year-old Ivan Romero happened more than a half-hour after Franklin was killed. Romero's motorcycle collided with a police SUV at the intersection of West 26th Street and Blaisdell Avenue, and the MPD's account of what happened in the moments leading up to the accident differs from what some witnesses said they saw. Romero reportedly had a green light and was proceeding through the intersection when he collided with the SUV. Police say the SUV had its sirens and lights activated at the time.

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Jocelin Torrejon (left) and Ivan Romero

"His girlfriend was on the back of the bike -- the person that he loves the most in his life," a friend of Ivan's told WCCO. "He's not going to be reckless with that."

:::: UPDATE :::: Terrence Franklin shot multiple times by MPD, but it's unclear whether he fired a shot himself

Last night, an MPD news release provided officers' account of the tragic Friday afternoon accident that killed 24-year-old Minneapolis resident Ivan Romero and left his girlfriend, Jocelin Torrejon, injured.

THE BACKSTORY: MPD shootings: Cops shot with own gun, biker had green light when fatally hit by squad car

But the MPD's account differs from what witnesses have said about the chain of events that led to a squad car and Romero's motorcycle colliding while police rushed to apprehend 22-year-old burglary suspect Terrence Franklin, who was later involved in an altercation with two cops who were shot with their own guns inside a home at 2717 Bryant Avenue South. Franklin was ultimately shot and killed himself.

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Terrance Franklin broke into this house, and when officers arrived he was able to wrestle a submachine gun away from one of them, according to KSTP.

New information emerging about the mayhem that went down yesterday afternoon in the Lyn-Lake area isn't exactly flattering for the Minneapolis Police Department.

:::: UPDATES ::::
-- MPD, witnesses differ on accounts of motorcycle accident that killed Ivan Romero [PHOTOS]
-- Terrence Franklin shot multiple times by MPD, but it's unclear whether he fired a shot himself

According to reports, a foot chase that began when a resident reported a suspected burglar in the neighborhood ended with two cops getting shot by a police-issued gun and the death of the suspect. Along the way, a motorcyclist who was riding with his girlfriend was killed in an accident with a police squad car that was running a red light.

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-- Update at bottom --

During a police chase in the Lyn-Lake area this afternoon (see our full story about all the mayhem here), a motorcyclist was struck by a police squad near West 26th Street and Blaisdell Avenue (the exact circumstances aren't immediately clear -- see update below). After the accident, the biker lay dead in the street as officers engaged in a shootout with the suspect they were chasing a few blocks away. The suspect was killed and two officers were injured (both are expected to live).

:::: UPDATES ::::
-- MPD shootings: Cops shot with own gun, biker had green light when fatally hit by squad car
-- MPD, witnesses differ on accounts of motorcycle accident that killed Ivan Romero [PHOTOS]
-- Terrence Franklin shot multiple times by MPD, but it's unclear whether he fired a shot himself

A couple photos of the motorcyclist lying dead are making the rounds on social media. You can see them below the jump.


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Elena Bayerl

Earbuds are great, but having them in your head while out and about carries a sometimes underappreciated risk -- they block out the sounds of everything happening around you, and some of them are important to hear.

SEE ALSO: Singalong on downtown Mpls bus raises question: Who needs earbuds? [VIDEO]

Elena Bayerl, a 19-year-old Isanti-area resident, learned that lesson the hard way yesterday when she was hit by a train she couldn't hear because she had earbuds in.

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Video of the crash shows Lipka's plane stalling in midair before it falls out of the sky and crashes.

Jeremy Lipka, a 37-year-old native of Pine Island, Minnesota, was one of seven people killed in a plane crash outside Bagram Air Field in Afghanistan on Monday.

SEE ALSO: Downtown Minneapolis invaded by Black Hawk helicopters [PHOTOS]

Lipka was a civilian contractor who flew cargo planes in Iraq and Afghanistan. The plane he was piloting on Monday crashed shortly after takeoff, killing everyone on board.

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Stanley Wilkinson (left), and his granddaughter, Paige (right).

On Monday, Stanley Wilkinson, pastor at Rochester's Seventh-Day Adventist Church, learned he won't have to serve time behind bars for shooting and almost killing his 16-year-old granddaughter, Paige, last December.

SEE ALSO: Gun safety instructor accidentally fired handgun inside Stillwater school just before class began

Instead, Wilkinson, 61, was sentenced to 100 hours of community service after pleading guilty to a misdemeanor charge of intentional discharge of a firearm that endangers safety.

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