ESPN’s Kevin Weekes gives analysis of NHL games, but on Thursday he turned his attention to an assault in downtown St. Paul that involved a man being repeatedly whipped.
Weekes, who was in town for the Wild’s season finale at Xcel Energy Center, recorded the assault with his cellphone from his 16th-floor hotel room at the InterContinental Riverfront.
“Well, we’ve got a situation here in Minnesota,” Weekes says in a 2-minute video he posted on the social media app X, formerly Twitter, just after 1:30 p.m. “Breaking News Not Hockey,” reads the post, which has been viewed more than 1.3 million times as of Friday night.
In the video, one man is seen striking the other man several times with the whip along the edge of the Kellogg Mall Park at Kellogg Boulevard and Wabasha Street. The victim tries to dodge the whips while screaming for help.
After he is whipped a third time, Weekes remarks how no one is helping.
“I’m up in the room. I’m on the 16th floor,” he says. “There’s not much I can do. That guy in the white shirt … that’s not nunchucks, that’s a whip! Damn!”
The video shows the man with the whip grabbing his bike before returning and continuing the assault.
“He’s coming back!” Weekes says. “Damn! This is crazy!”
After the final “lash,” as Weekes describes it, the man with the whip rides away on his bike. Weekes then asks, “What happened to Minnesota Nice? Wow!”
The video ends with the victim slumped over while sitting on the edge of a concrete planter. “Oh man,” Weekes says, as he zooms in on him.
St. Paul police spokeswoman Alyssa Arcand said Friday that officers were sent to the area just before 1:30 p.m. on a report of two men fighting, with the 911 caller reporting that one man was being whipped. The suspect was gone when officers arrived and the victim was uncooperative, Arcand said.
Police are aware of Weekes’ video and are “sharing the description of the suspect with our officers,” Arcand said.
“While this was a shocking and unusual incident for St. Paul, this was an isolated incident that we are actively investigating,” she said. “We encourage anyone with information about this incident to contact us at 651-291-1111.”
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