Minnesota is Bleeding (Yahshua Wept)

I’m not an “expert.”

But I am someone who once lived in Minnesota.

“Land of 10,000 lakes.”

“Minnesota Nice.”

And I am brokenhearted by what has occurred in a “seemingly” unlikely place.

Once upon a time, when someone mentioned Minnesota as a state, these were the reactions:

“Minnesota?”

“Where is it?”

“Don’t farmers live there?”

It is viewed by a lot of people as “rural,” “quaint,” “simple,” “naïve.”

And then things changed a little more.

Prince, all decked out in purple, got global attention for his musical expertise.

And then, the film, “Fargo,” (which is in North Dakota, not Minnesota) put the Scandinavian accent on caricature-ish blast in the late 1990s.

Quaint. Yes. Humorous.

We can laugh about simple farmers and Ole and Lena jokes.

We can talk about Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox; there are famous statues of them in Bemidji and Brainerd.  

And maybe there was laughter going on.

Until there wasn’t.

Until Minnesota was known for something else besides 10,000 lakes, Prince, and Scandinavia.

First, 2015…

Jamar Clark.

(From Wikipedia)…

On November 15, 2015, two police officers fatally shot Jamar Clark, a 24-year-old African-American man, in Minneapolis. The two shooters were Mark Ringgenberg and Dustin Schwarze. They were a part of the Minneapolis Police Department which subsequently placed the men on paid administrative leave. The night after Ringgenberg and Schwarze shot him, Clark died at the Hennepin County Medical Center after being taken off life support. His death resulted from one of the gunshot wounds the shooters inflicted on November 15.[1]

In response to the shooting, Black Lives Matter organized protests outside the Fourth Precinct police station that lasted for 18 days, as well as other protests and demonstrations in and around Minneapolis. Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman announced that cases concerning officer-involved shootings would no longer be put before grand juries, but instead his office would make the decision to file criminal charges. On March 30, 2016, Freeman announced that no charges would be filed against Ringgenberg and Schwarze. Freeman concluded that the officers acted in accordance with Minnesota Statutes authorizing deadly force and that the state would be unable to provide evidence that the officer's use of force was unlawful.

“Yahshua wept.”

John 11:35

 My husband and I were living in the Twin Cities then.

This was during an era of black people regularly being shot on camera. A lot of it was in response to Barack Obama being “The First Black President of The United States.”

Shooting people on camera, being pulled out of cars and shot in their homes, became a modern-day form of lynching.

Each night, the evening news mentioned the latest. There was the latest footage. The latest name. Sometimes male. Sometime female.

There are so many.

“Yahshua wept.”

John 11:35

And there was one child, Trayvon Martin, that was the first of this brutal kind.

He was a teenager, killed in Florida, wearing a hoodie, and buying some Skittles candy for himself.

“Yahshua wept.”

John 11:35

 I don’t have the heart to get into all of Trayvon’s tragedy right now. You can look online and read- or re-read- it all for yourself.

Nevertheless, this is part of why body cameras on police officers have become a much-discussed topic. It’s part of why we film everything now with our camera phones.

And that leads me to the big name that put Minnesota on the map, for bloody reasons.

Philando Castile.

July 6th, 2016. (I cannot believe that it’s almost 10 years ago).

(From Wikipedia)…

On July 6, 2016, Philando Castile, a 32-year-old African American man, was fatally shot during a traffic stop by police officer Jeronimo Yanez of the St. Anthony police department in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area.

About 9 p.m., Castile was driving with his girlfriend, Diamond Reynolds, and her four-year-old daughter when he was pulled over by Yanez and another officer in Falcon Heights, a suburb of Saint Paul, Minnesota. Castile, who was licensed to carry a firearm, told Yanez that he had a firearm. Yanez replied, "Don't reach for it then". Castile responded, "I'm, I, I was reaching for...", to which Yanez replied, "Don't pull it out". Castile replied, "I'm not pulling it out", and Reynolds said, "He's not..." Yanez again said, "Don't pull it out". The police officer then fired seven close-range shots at Castile, hitting him five times. Castile died of his wounds at 9:37 p.m. at Hennepin County Medical Center, about 20 minutes after being shot.

Again, my husband and I were living in the Twin Cities at the time.

Of course, local news coverage was insane. And even for the more metropolitan locale of Minneapolis and St. Paul, it still shook the state.

Yes, this was “the cities,” as locals often refer to it as.

But Minnesota? Not here.

Minnesota doesn’t act like this, right? The people here are different, right?

“Minnesota Nice,” right?

The victim was known as “Mr. Castille,” by the students, as he worked with school kids. I believe he closely supervised their lunch program, to make sure they had something to eat.

There has been some haziness about what I remember, witnessing this “local news.”

It was in July, just after “the Fourth of July.”

I seem to remember that he had his family, and they had groceries in the car.

What broke my heart the most was his little girl, who was in the vehicle when he was shot and killed.

In some of the footage released, I believe you can hear her tiny voice say…

“They shooted him.”

“Yahshua wept.”

John 11:35

Did I hear that correctly?

It’s so disturbing to think “that really happened.”

That all of it “really happened.”

Not the first time. Not the last.

Again, that was almost a decade ago. I ponder how his now adolescent daughter is doing.

How traumatized was/is she?

How much did she remember of that night when her daddy was killed?

“Daddy’s Girl.”

“Yahshua wept.”

John 11:35

 George Floyd.

(From Wikipedia)…

George Perry Floyd Jr. was an African American man who was murdered by a white police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota, during an arrest made after a store clerk suspected Floyd had used a counterfeit twenty-dollar bill, on May 25, 2020. One of four police officers who arrived on the scene, Derek Chauvin, knelt on Floyd's neck and back for over nine minutes, fatally asphyxiating him. After his murder, a series of protests against police brutality, especially toward Black people, quickly spread nationally and then globally. His dying words became a rallying slogan: "I can't breathe".

“I can’t breathe.”

“Yahshua wept.”

John 11:35

He was also heard crying for his mother.

Primal. Desperate. Heartbreaking.

At the time of this atrocity, my husband and I had just relocated to another state on The East Coast. This was during the early, frightening days of Covid. It felt harrowing enough.

We relocated in April. George was killed in May. Trauma, as we “sheltered in place,” wore masks, and were uncertain about what life looked like now.

When the news broke about George Floyd, we recognized where he was killed. Some of the violent protests were “in our old neighborhood.”

Not just our old home of Minnesota, but now our new home had lockdowns, protests, and curfews. A Pandemic was one thing, but this?

“Yahshua wept.”

John 11:35

 Renee Good.

This one is incredibly fresh. And painful.

And female.

(From Wikipedia)…

On January 7, 2026, Renée Nicole Macklin Good, a 37-year-old American woman, was fatally shot in Minneapolis, Minnesota, by United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent Jonathan Ross. Good was in her car, stopped sideways in the street when Ross walked around it and then walked back and around her vehicle. Other agents approached, and one ordered her to get out of the car while reaching through her open window. Good briefly reversed, then began moving forward and to the right, into the direction of traffic. At this point, Ross was standing at the front-left of the vehicle and fired three shots, killing her, as her vehicle passed him, turning away from him. The killing sparked national protests and multiple investigations.

“Yahshua wept.”

John 11:35

Renee was a woman, a mother of three children, and she was shot dead. Supposedly, right after she was shot, the officer cursed her with vulgarities.

Not surprising, unfortunately.

Renee, in that moment, was recorded as saying, I guess, her last words…

“I ain’t mad at ya.”

She was just trying to survive the situation and be safe.

She could not accomplish that.

“Yahshua wept.”

John 11:35

 My husband and I had not lived in Minnesota for years, at the announcement of Renee Good’s death.

2026 just started. The first month, with the hope of a new start, felt decimated.

And just as I could barely catch my breath at that tragedy…

Alex Pretti.

(From Wikipedia)…

On January 24, 2026, Alex Jeffrey Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care nurse for the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, was shot multiple times and killed by United States Border Patrol agents in Minneapolis, Minnesota. This incident occurred amidst the widespread protests against Operation Metro Surge following the killing of Renée Good on January 7 by a United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent.

Video recordings of the incident showed Pretti filming law enforcement agents with his phone and directing traffic. Pretti stood between an agent and a woman whom the agent had pushed to the ground, putting his arm around the woman.  He was subsequently pepper-sprayed and wrestled to the ground by several federal agents, with around six surrounding him when he was shot and killed. Bystander video verified and reviewed by Reuters, the BBC, The Wall Street Journal, and the Associated Press (AP) appears to show an agent removing a gun and moving away from Pretti roughly one second before another agent fires at him; AP reported that a voice can be heard saying "gun, gun" right before the first shot.

Pretti was legally licensed to carry a handgun. In reviewing video evidence, Reuters, the BBC, The New York Times, CNN, and The Guardian all concluded that he was holding a cell phone, not a gun, in the moments before being tackled. Agents appear to shoot at him at least ten times within five seconds, beginning while he was pinned to the ground and continuing after he collapsed and his body lay motionless.

 He was a white male. A VA ICU Nurse.

And he was forced into the “Prone Position.”

I did not know what that was.

“Prone.”

Its definition?

“lying on one's front with face downwards. ‘a prone position.’"

That’s how he was shot.

“Prone.”

“Yahshua wept.”

John 11:35

It’s only been a few days since this last “Minnesota news.”

I am in pain, shock, overwhelm. I’m crying.

This goes beyond politics, party lines, and opinions.

You may bristle at me citing John 11:35.

Depending upon your stance, you may argue that He would not cry about… any of this.

It is/”they” are “too wicked” to cry over.

Is this “the beginning of sorrows” (Matthew 24:4-8).

It feels like it to me.

“Yahshua wept.”

John 11:35

Why wouldn’t He weep over this?

I am not Chicken Little.

We cannot predict where wicked hearts can go.

“The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?

Jeremiah 17:9

Like I said, I am not “an expert.”

I’m a broken heart, a believer in The Most High, originally from Minnesota.

I need prayer about this. How about you?

Let’s pray.

ABBA-

We come to You now, in The Name of Our Savior, Yahshua Ha-Mashiach.

You know what is happening right now, especially in this country.

And in Minnesota.

You see all.

You understand every heart, motive, pain, and fear.

Help us; forgive us.

Heal us.

This is beyond what we can do to resolve this.

This is beyond politics. Beyond any state.

Silence the lies and the attacks of the enemy.

Release, instead, Your Divine Intervention to help us immediately and directly.

Forgive and restore us.

Heal the brokenness. Heal our land.

Comfort all who mourn.

Respond to our cries of pain, fear, hopelessness, injustice, and confusion.

Do what only You can do.

We need You.

Show up now, With Your Love, Your Face, Your Hand, and Your Angels.

Help us. We need You desperately.

Thank You.

In The Name of Yahshua we pray.

Amen.

Copyright © 2026 by Sheryle Cruse