In an effort to undermine the highly positive vibe among Democrats
surrounding Tim Walz�s unveiling as Kamala Harris�s running mate, Team
Trump is trying to depict the jovial Minnesota governor as a grim leftist
whom progressives pushed into the veep nomination at the expense of
moderates like Josh Shapiro (who would have been, of course, depicted by
Republicans as a communist had he been chosen). But the former football
coach, avid hunter and school teacher from a distinctly rural background
is hard to typecast as a faithful disciple of Karl Marx. So the GOP is
deploying an old playbook item that Trump campaign co-chair Chris
LaCivita knows well from his deep involvement in the �Swiftboating� of
John Kerry in 2004: an attack on Walz�s military record, one of his
strongest credentials in rebutting the idea he is some sort of anti-
American zealot.

LaCivita is front and center in the attack on Walz, unsurprisingly, as
Politico Playbook reports:

�The two biggest sins in the military are claiming credit for
decorations you don�t have or claiming combat action that you did not
participate in � And this much is certain: He�s guilty of at least one of
them,� LaCivita told our colleagues Jared Mitovich, Meridith McGraw and
Connor O�Brien yesterday. �Nothing regarding his lies has been weaponized
in a political sense. That�s about to change.�

The hit man in this attack was, appropriately enough, Walz�s counterpart,
J.D. Vance, who much like Walz enlisted right after high school (Vance in
the Marines, Walz in the Army National Guard). As the New York Times
reports, Vance came in very hot on the accusations to which LaCivita
alluded:

Speaking at the police department in Shelby Township, Mich., on
Wednesday morning, Mr. Vance said Mr. Walz had effectively deserted his
fellow soldiers to avoid serving in Iraq because he retired from the
National Guard in May 2005, several months before his artillery unit
received orders to deploy there �

Mr. Vance also seized on a remark by Mr. Walz in a video clip that
the Harris campaign had promoted on social media on Tuesday, in which the
governor told a crowd about support for gun control, saying that �we can
make sure those weapons of war, that I carried in war, are only carried
in war.�

Mr. Walz never served in combat, however, which prompted Mr. Vance to
accuse him of �stolen valor.�

�I�d be ashamed if I was him and I lied about my military service
like he did,� Mr. Vance said.

Will this effort work as it did (to some extent) against John Kerry?
Probably not.

First of all, the facts underlying the LaCivita-Vance line of attack
don�t appear to justify all the angry passion. No one is disputing that
Walz served honorably in the Guard for 24 years. The first charge, and
perhaps the most serious, is that Walz retired at the end of those 24
years (as he was fully eligible to do) in order to avoid deployment to
Iraq. Two former Guard colleagues, apparently infuriated by Walz�s
opposition to the Iraq War, first raised this charge as part of an
earlier political attack on Walz when he ran for governor in 2018. But
other colleagues documented that Walz had been talking for quite some
time about retiring in order to run for Congress (which is precisely what
he did) and that he had no way of knowing about the subsequent deployment
when he retired. There�s really no more evidence of Walz�s alleged
cowardice than an assertion by two dudes who clearly didn�t like his
politics.

The second charge, which Vance dressed up with the lurid term of �stolen
valor,� really just refers to a single ambiguous reference Walz made to
carrying a gun �in war,� though others have pointed to a claim in a 2006
Walz press release that he served in �Operation Enduring Freedom� (the
official name of the Afghanistan deployment). Whatever viewers of that
press release thought, the claim is actually true since Walz and his unit
were deployed to Europe in a support capacity for that war.

Though Vance didn�t mention it, his conservative allies have also charged
that Walz inflated his rank in descriptions of his service. This attack
line is probably the flimsiest: Everyone concedes Walz achieved the rank
of command sergeant major in the Guard, the highest rank attainable by an
enlisted service member. But he didn�t complete some coursework required
to retire at that rank. So are a few references on campaign websites to
Walz as a �retired command sergeant major� some sort of �lie?� I don�t
think so; he was retired, and he did achieve that rank.

All in all, the attacks on Walz�s military record come across as pretty
weak tea. Even the most serious � the claim that he dodged serving in
Iraq � requires an asterisk: J.D. Vance�s running mate, Donald Trump, has
endlessly described that war as a disastrous mistake. By the time he
retired from the Guard, Walz shared that view. Should he have stuck
around to see if he could be deployed there?

But, facts aside, there are two big-picture reasons the attempted
Swiftboating of Tim Walz won�t work. First, we�re in a different era of
American experiences with war. 2.9 million young men were drafted into
the U.S. military during the Vietnam War; John Kerry�s service there
resonated with a lot of voters. In the post-conscription era, people like
Walz and Vance (a public-affairs officer deployed to Iraq) who chose to
put on the uniform are the exception rather than the rule. More typical
is Donald Trump, who was ahead of his time in finding a way to avoid
military service (via his father�s influence, some claim).

And the second reason this won�t be a replay of 2004 is that the Kerry
campaign largely ignored the �Swift Boat Veterans for Truth� attacks on
his war record, after setting them up for success by overemphasizing that
record at the Democratic National Convention (the candidate famously
began his acceptance speech by saluting and saying, �I�m John Kerry and
I�m reporting for duty�). Walz hasn�t made his Guard service his
principal credential for election as vice-president. And the Harris-Walz
campaign sure as hell isn�t falling silent and letting the smears stand.

A St. Paul man has been formally charged in connection to the shooting outside a downtown Minneapolis nightclub that killed two people and wounded several others.

Jawan Contrail Carroll, 24, is accused of two counts of intentional 2nd-degree murder for fatally shooting Charlie Johnson, 21, of Golden Valley, and Christopher Jones, 24, of Brooklyn Park. Prosecutors allege Carroll is a member of the north Minneapolis “Tre Tres” street gang.

Carroll also faces seven counts of attempted 2nd-degree murder for allegedly shooting and injuring the other victims. He is set to make his first appearance in court on May 27 at 1:30 p.m.

According to the criminal complaint, on Saturday, May 22 just before 2:00 a.m., police responded to reports of numerous gunshots outside the Monarch nightclub, 322 N. 1st Ave. When they arrived, officers found several people with apparent gunshot wounds and Christopher Jones lying dead on the sidewalk near the club’s entrance.

PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Suspect Arrested After Downtown Minneapolis Shooting Kills 2, Injures 8

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Seven additional victims were identified by police as having suffered gunshot injuries in front of the club. A half of a block away, on N. 1st Ave., an errant bullet from the shootout between Jones and Carroll fatally struck Charlie Johnson in the back as he was running away, the documents say.

A female witness, who was an additional victim of the gunfire, told police that she was a block south of Monarch when she heard gunfire coming from what sounded like two firearms. She was shot in the back and was treated at the hospital for a minor wound.

In surveillance video obtained by police, they noted that dozens of people around Monarch began to flee in a panic or duck for cover around 2:00 a.m. and that Carroll was standing, firing his gun at Jones.

Further investigation of the surveillance video found that Carroll and two other people had a verbal exchange with Jones and several others in his group at 1:57 a.m. About two minutes after the verbal confrontation, Jones was punched in the head by a member of Carroll’s group, the complaint says. Carroll then pulled out a gun and began shooting at Jones.

RELATED: Dispatch audio of officers, EMS responding to a chaotic scene downtown

Jones attempted to flee, but was obstructed by people in front of the nightclub. At about 1:59 a.m., Jones stopped running, turned back to face Carroll and—with a gun in his right hand—began firing at Carroll.

The two men continued shooting at one another, with Carroll aiming north down the sidewalk at Jones and Jones firing back southbound at Carroll. Throughout the commotion of gunfire, a crowd of people were still present. Two seconds before 1:59 a.m., Jones dropped to the sidewalk, where he was later found dead, with Carroll and several others seen running from the area. Near Jones' body, police found a 9mm semi-automatic handgun and a dozen spent 9mm casings.

A witness who was with Charlie Johnson at the time said they were walking in an alley directly north of the nightclub and they eventually stepped out to walk east on a sidewalk along 1st Ave. when the shooting started. Johnson began running north down the sidewalk when he was shot in the back. He eventually died of his injuries on the corner of 1st Ave. and 3rd St.

Autopsies performed by the medical examiner on each of the male victims found that Jones died from multiple gunshot wounds including two to the chest and that Johnson died from a single gunshot wound to the upper back that travelled into his chest.

PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Bystander Killed in Minneapolis Shooting Was Set to Graduate College Hours Later

A forensic examination found that the projectiles recovered from the bodies of both Jones and Johnson were from a .40 caliber firearm, the complaint states.

Following review of video and physical evidence, witness statements and accounting for the timing, direction and trajectory of Carroll’s gunfire, officers determined that Carroll’s shooting was the cause of Johnson and Jones’ deaths, and the non-lethal wounds the seven additional victims suffered.

A few hours after the shooting, investigators learned that Carroll and one of his associates lived in separate rooms at the Comfort Inn in Bloomington. Officers conducted a search of those rooms and found a pair of distinct purple shoes Carroll was wearing during the shooting that were seen in the surveillance video, the complaint says. After officers left the Comfort Inn, one of the associates contacted police to ask about the search of his room. That associate also admitted to them that he was in downtown Minneapolis when the shootings happened and that he had been the one who punched Jones.

An additional witness, who officers knew was connected with Carroll and the other associates, was interviewed by police. He was able to identify Carroll and the two other associates from still images taken from surveillance footage during the shooting.

When the shooting occurred, authorities say Carroll had pending felony cases including 2nd-degree assault and fleeing a police officer in a motor vehicle. If convicted, Carroll faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.

https://www.mncrime.com/latest/man-facing-9-charges-after-double-fatal-downtown-minneapolis-shootout