Alcohol, Tobacco and Firecracker?: ‘Explosion’ in St. Paul leads to rounding up anyone with a backpack

At about 7 p.m. tonight a loud bang set everyone milling about at Washington and Sixth on edge. There were immediate “uh-ohs” and panic-stricken faces. A few people ran. The loud boom sounded like, well, a firecracker. Over the radio of the police officer next to me came the frantic announcement: “Explosion at Washington and Sixth!” Except that it wasn’t. Because that was the corner where the officer and I were standing.

The explosion came from 7th Street Place, when something that witnesses say resembled a firecracker came from the roof of the Palace Theater. Immediately, the Minnesota State Patrol in riot regalia were on the scene. “Form a line!” one yelled. “Block the street here!” The line they formed only separated the onlookers from the other onlookers. They had to regroup more than once.

Witnesses at the scene said that something that looked and sounded like an M-80 landed on the ground in front of the theater. Twenty-year-old Kyle Plathe, who lives in the building, said a kid who also lives there has thrown firecrackers off the roof at least five times. “He’s a weirdo,” he says. “I guess he likes attention.” When Plathe told this story, one cop replied, after pushing Plathe and other onlookers farther back from the scene, “Well, he picked the wrong week to do it again.”

Despite his eyewitness account and his experience in the building, the St. Paul police, Minnesota State Patrol, ATF and Secret Service didn’t pursue the issue with Plathe and instead were on the scene rounding up what looked like anyone with a backpack. When a kid wandered around the corner toward Bruegger’s Bagels, a St. Paul officer yelled to a State Patrol officer: “There! ID and hold him! ID and hold!”

Seconds later, when two people came down the street before officers secured it, one of them identified by  Plathe as his friend and a freelance photographer, they, too, became part of the backpack round-up. “There!” the officer yelled pointing at them. “ID and hold!” Then the cop changed his mind. He frantically tapped on his wrists, his eyes widening, telling the patrol officer to cuff them now.

They were in cuffs immediately, the girl still grasping her ID in her hands, now behind her back. The man identified as John said, “I get tear-gassed last night, and now this? What is going on?” Plathe said his friend got hit with tear gas documenting the dust up in front of Mickey’s Diner Tuesday night.

As the “holding” happened, a cop in riot gear videotaped everyone who had been pushed to the end of the street. Inside the police barrier, cops rushed to look for signs of the “explosive” as the ATF brought in bomb-sniffing dogs.

A few seconds after the pair was cuffed, a young man got plucked from the crowd. Plathe said the guy is about 18 and just moved here from out of state to go to McNally Smith College of Music in downtown St. Paul. The newcomer got cuffed, too, and was told to sit on a bench.

Minutes ticked by. Cops scrambled, appearing confused. Almost an hour passed. Some officers started to look bored, staring past the onlookers they barricaded from the street with their Trek bikes. A few police officers went into a nearby restaurant and brought out Styrofoam cups.They used them to mark the area where Plathe said the explosion occurred and the firecracker-like device landed. The wind blew. The Styrofoam cups danced away. One officer picked them back up, placing them upright along the brick street. They continued to escape.

Finally, after more than an hour of confusion and discussion amongst one another, one St. Paul police officer finally asked Plathe: “You live here, right? Can you come over here and answer a few questions?”

Plathe didn’t resist. “Um, yeah … I told you guys it was a probably the kid throwing a firecracker a long time ago.”

Meanwhile, the three people remained handcuffed, and more Styrofoam cups danced away on the bricks.