Killing of Deona Marie Knajdek

Seven Points is an indoor shopping mall opened on February 15, 1984, at the southeast corner of Hennepin Avenue and West Lake Street, the main intersection of the Uptown district of Minneapolis, Minnesota. The building was previously known as Calhoun Square until October 2020.

Uptown is a commercial district in southwestern Minneapolis in the U.S. state of Minnesota, that is centered at the intersection of Hennepin Avenue and West Lake Street. It has traditionally spanned the corners of four neighborhoods, Lowry Hill East, East Bde Maka Ska, South Uptown and East Isles neighborhoods, which are all within the Calhoun Isles community. Historically, the boundaries of Uptown are Bde Maka Ska (formerly Lake Calhoun) to the west, Dupont Avenue to the east, 31st Street to the south, and 28th Street to the north; though these borders often vary. Uptown is a popular destination for retail, nightlife, and cultural events, and the district was famously written about by recording artist Prince.

The Uptown Theatre is one of the oldest surviving theaters in the Twin Cities area. It was in active use from 1916 to 2020. The theater is planning to reopen on May 5th, 2023 as a music and event venue.

Civil unrest began in the Uptown district of the U.S. city of Minneapolis on June 3, 2021, as a reaction to news reports that law enforcement officers had killed a wanted suspect during an arrest. The law enforcement killing occurred atop a parking ramp near West Lake Street and Girard Avenue. Police fired several rounds, killing the person at the scene. In an initial statement about the encounter, the U.S. Marshals Service alleged that a person failed to comply with arresting officers and produced a gun. Crowds gathered on West Lake Street near the parking ramp soon afterwards as few details were known about the incident or the deceased person, who was later identified as Winston Boogie Smith, a 32-year-old black American man.An initial period of civil disorder occurred over four nights along a three-block stretch of West Lake Street. Several business were vandalized during the overnight hours of June 3 and 4, resulting in several arrests. Protests were held over subsequent days with demonstrators periodically occupying a street intersection near where Smith was killed. There was no known video evidence of the police encounter with Smith, and an attorney for the passenger in Smith's car and protesters disputed the law enforcement account of events. The night of June 13, a protester, Deona Marie Knajdek, was killed when a vehicle rammed into a demonstration in the street. Over the next several days, demonstrators attempted to reoccupy a portion of the street and erected makeshift barricades that were removed by Minneapolis police officers. Minnesota Governor Tim Walz activated the state's National Guard on standby orders for possible deployment to Minneapolis.Nightly demonstrations were held through mid July and unrest continued for several more weeks, which disrupted local business activity and led to cancelation of street festivals.

Law enforcement authorities fatally shot Winston Boogie Smith Jr., a 32-year-old black American man, in the Uptown area of Minneapolis at 2:08 p.m. CDT on June 3, 2021. Smith was being pursued by a U.S. Marshals Service task force that apprehends wanted fugitives. The arrest operation had the participation of undercover agents from several local police agencies in Minnesota. The officers did not use body cameras or dashcams when apprehending Smith, and there is no known video evidence of the June 3 shooting. Controversy over the lack of law enforcement footage of the arrest operation led to local police agencies ceasing aid to the Marshals Service's fugitive task force, and to changes to body and dash camera policies by the Marshals and other federal law enforcement agencies.Several protests were held in reaction to Smith's killing, beginning on June 3, and the Uptown area experienced civil disorder over the subsequent weeks. Deona Marie Knajdek was killed and three others were injured on June 13 after a man rammed his vehicle into a group of demonstrators who had blockaded a street. In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, law enforcement authorities said publicly that Smith failed to comply with arresting officers and had brandished a gun. An attorney for the passenger in the vehicle with Smith contradicted the law enforcement description of events. The passenger had not seen a gun on Smith or in the vehicle.An investigation of law enforcement conduct by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) after the shooting said that Smith had brandished a firearm at officers who attempted to arrest him. Authorities said they found a loaded 380 handgun with matching spent shell casings in the vehicle Smith occupied, and that ballistic evidence and DNA samples supported their claim that Smith had fired the weapon during the June 3 encounter. The report also revealed that the passenger had ducked for cover after pleading with Smith to surrender and that she did not visually witness the exchange of gunfire.In September 2021, the BCA sent the case to the Crow Wing County attorney's office to determine if the officers who shot Smith should face criminal charges. In a report released on October 11, 2021, Donald Ryan, the attorney for Crow Wing County, said that the officers’ actions were justified under Minnesota Statutes and that no criminal charges should be filed against them.

Walker Library is a public library in the East Isles neighborhood of Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. It is on Hennepin Avenue one block north of Lake Street, adjoining the Midtown Greenway. Walker and the 14 other libraries of Minneapolis Public Library were merged into the combined urban/suburban Hennepin County Library in 2008.

Magers & Quinn (M&Q) is a bookstore located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in the United States. It is the largest independent bookseller in the city.

Sons of Norway (Norwegian: Sønner av Norge), founded in 1895 as the Independent Order of the Sons of Norway, is a fraternal organization principally representing people of Norwegian heritage in the United States and Canada. The organization includes in its mission the promotion and preservation of the heritage and culture of Norway and other Nordic countries and to provide life insurance and other financial products to its members. The organization is classified as a non-profit 501(c)(8) fraternal beneficiary society. Currently, the Sons of Norway has nearly 400 lodges in the United States, Canada, and Norway. With over 57,000 members, the Sons of Norway is the largest Norwegian organization outside of Norway.

West High School (1908–1982) was a public high school in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Edward Stebbins designed the school building. Built in 1908 on what had recently been farmland, the school had a student capacity of 1,600 by 1917. Minneapolis Public Schools closed Central, West and Marshall-University high schools in 1982.

The Minneapolis Arena was an indoor ice rink in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA, that hosted the various Minneapolis Millers teams from 1925 until 1963 and the Minneapolis Bruins of the Central Hockey League from 1963 until 1965. It held 5,500 people and was located at 2900 Dupont Avenue South in the Uptown district of Minneapolis. The University of Minnesota's Golden Gophers ice hockey team used the arena as one of its primary home rinks from 1925 until 1950. The annual shows of the Shipstads and Johnson Ice Follies were held at the venue from 1936 until 1966. Lyle Wright was an events promoter and one of the presidents of the arena, and was later inducted into the United States Hockey Hall of Fame.

The Buzza Company Building in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States, is a building listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2012. The building was originally built in 1907 for the Self-Threading Needle Company. It was built by the Brayton Engineering Company at a cost of $55,000. In 1923 the Buzza Company, a maker of greeting cards, acquired the building. George Buzza remarked, "No sooner had we acquired our new building than we promptly outgrew it." The company built a $200,000 addition along Colfax Avenue, designed by local architects Magney & Tusler. They later built another addition, a five-story structure with a tower saying "BUZZA", at a cost of $150,000. The building was used as Buzza's greeting card design studio from 1923 through 1942, at which point declining sales forced the liquidation of the firm. It was then used by Minneapolis-Honeywell Regulator Company for World War II production.

East Bde Maka Ska is a neighborhood within the Calhoun-Isles community in the U.S. city of Minneapolis. It was formerly known as East Calhoun prior to August 2021. The neighborhood is located south of the East Isles neighborhood and its northern portion along with parts of the East Isles, Lowry Hill East, and South Uptown neighborhoods forms the city's Uptown district. East Bde Maka Ska is bordered on the north by Lake Street, on the east by Hennepin Avenue, on the south by West 36th Street and on the west by Bde Maka Ska.