A Bemidji man is charged with criminal vehicular homicide after prosecutors say he was drunk when his pickup truck slammed into the back of a horse-drawn buggy late Saturday. 27-year old Christopher Baumann was arrested half-a-mile away from the collision in northwestern Minnesota, which killed 23-year old Elsie Yoder of Clearbrook. Her brother, who was driving the buggy, was injured — and the horse had to be euthanized.
While homicides are up across the nation, Minnesota’s rate in 2016 dropped 25-percent. FBI data show homicides rose eight percent across the country last year.
Wildlife numbers seem to be increasing across northeastern Minnesota. The DNR reports a 25-percent jump in wolf population in the past year which could correspond to a growing population of deer. Gray wolves were nearly extinct before federal protections went into effect in the 1970s.