Welcome back to The Flyover, your daily digest of important, overlooked, and/or interesting Minnesota news stories.
What We Know About Demario Reid's Motorcycle Crash
Yesterday, Georgia Fort reported that Demario Reid—brother of Jamar Clark, the unarmed 24-year-old Black man shot and killed by Minneapolis police in 2015—is in the hospital with potentially life-threatening injuries after a July 6 collision involving a police officer.
July 6... that's over a week ago. So why are we just hearing about it now? Here's Fort:
Tiffany, Demario's sister, says he was listed at HCMC as John Doe for nearly a week despite police knowing his identity. The family had no idea he was in a crash or in the hospital until five days after the accident, when DeMario regained consciousness, remembering a relative's number and informing them himself.
Now that's unusual, isn't it?
MPD told reporters last week that a then-unidentified motorcyclist ran into the police car, but after viewing dash cam footage (which has not yet been made public), Reid's family contradicts that claim. Fort also reports that while police initially said Reid was suspected of being under the influence at the time of the crash, Hennepin County Medical Center staff told the family that his toxicology results were clean.
The family is accusing MPD of accused of withholding case details, including the officer's name, attorney Paul Bosman tells Fort. His mother and siblings are demanding "the release of all footage, the name of the officer, the release of his belongings, and explanation why the family wasn’t notified by authorities after the crash." At this time, Fort reports that his condition is stable.
Wanna Buy a Douglas County Stone Fortress?
Perhaps certain recent world events have you thinking about stockpiling munitions and canned goods, acquiring some chicken and cattle, and forming some sort of commune with your closest friends and loved ones? If so, let us point you to a recent story from Jimmy Lovrien at the Duluth News Tribune; Lovrien got the scoop on a fortress-like 8,000-square-foot triplex in Douglas County built "with the threat of nuclear war in mind."
The house at 5312 S. Stone Road in Oakland Township, Wisconsin, is made of stone and built into a hillside. "It’s unclear where the roof, covered in lawn grass, ends and the yard begins," Lovrein writes. It also has backup water and heat sources, an underground tank doubles as a bunker, and at one time the house could produce its own power—perhaps you could figure that out?
“We were conscious of the atomic business,” Jerry Van Horn, 92, of Superior, told the News Tribune. Van Horn bought the property in the late 1970s and built the home with his son, Jeffrey, and brother, James. In 2019, they sold it to current owners Dave and Jon Allen, who tell the paper they are not preppers, thank you very much.
Fortress living doesn't come cheap—the sellers are asking just shy of $1 million after purchasing it for $330,000—but hey, desperate times, etc. Find the full listing and lots of photos via Edina Realty.
Minneapolis Punk Scene: Thriving!
Now sure, if you read Racket, you already know that—last week alone, we published profiles of Anita Velveeta, local punk and "big sister" to the trans music community, and UndercurrentMPLS, the Twin Cities' longtime DIY documentarian.
Still, it's nice to see Minneapolis get the Bandcamp Scene Report treatment with a great feature today from Giulia Bianchi. In The New Faces & Voices in the Minneapolis Punk Scene, Bianchi highlights artists from Venus de Mars & All the Pretty Horses to Surly Grrly, "one of the scene’s most exciting queercore protest punk bands." If you're looking for a cheat sheet to what's cool in Minneapolis punk right now, this is it. And yes, if you'd like to learn more, we've profiled some of the artists included here (Gully Boys, Scrunchies) at length, while others (like Buio Omega) have appeared in Racket roundups including this year's Poised to Pop list.
RIP Shannon Doherty, Mallrats Star
Actress Shannen Doherty died this weekend after a nine-year battle with breast cancer, which metastasized to her brain last year. While she was probably best-known for roles on Beverly Hills, 90210 and Charmed, here in Minnesota, we know Doherty best as Rene Mosier, babely ex-girlfriend of Jason Lee's Brodie from Mallrats. The movie was, as you've almost certainly tripped over yourself explaining to an out-of-town friend at some point, filmed right here at the Eden Prairie Mall.
You may also recall that not too long ago, Doherty blamed the earlier death of her career on the locally filmed flick. In a conversation with director Kevin Smith on her podcast, she reflected: "[Mallrats] died, so did my film career. That was it... People literally thought that I was carrying the movie so therefore it was a box office failure it was completely on me.” Smith did not disagree!
But we won't hold it against her—RIP Rene. You can read Smith's lovely farewell to her below.
