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Getting a handle on the problem
In January 2007, Minnesota Lawyer magazine interviewed Willmar Police Chief Jim Kulset about his decade-long efforts to combat gangs and drug trafficking in his rural Minnesota community of about 19,000 residents.
At that time, Kulset sat on the Minnesota Gang and Drug Oversight Council, an advisory group that had been established by the legislature in 1997 to oversee the state’s new Gang Strike Force. Ten years later, Kulset was at the Capitol in St. Paul once again to request more state funding to help local law enforcement agencies get a handle on the rapid rise of gang activity in rural Minnesota.

It hadn’t always been this way. Back in the early 1990s, Kulset had been working as a detective sergeant in Willmar and had just started noticing some gang-related graffiti popping up around town. Probably just kids. Nothing serious.
But then, it was.
“Our eyes didn’t really get opened until the mid-90s when we had a couple of fairly organized gangs that quite frankly started shooting at each other,” Kulset was quoted.
In the warm weather months of 1997, Kulset estimated there were eight drive-by shootings in Willmar. No one was killed, but by then it was crystal clear that these were not just kids with spray paint. These were big time rival gang members from Chicago’s Latin Kings and West Siders who had spread into smaller regional centers like Willmar to expand their narcotics drug trade.
In response, Willmar established its own Gang Enforcement Team (GET) in October of 1997. Originally composed of three trained officers, the team’s job was to track, identify, document and apprehend criminal gang members. They received their training through classes and seminars put on by the Minnesota Gang Strike Force, as well as other organizations like the Midwest Gang Investigators Association (an organization representing 12 states throughout the Midwest) and the Quad State Gang Task Force, which served the states of Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota.
The Gang Pointer File
Another initiative of the Minnesota Gang Strike Force was to develop a statewide computer system that could track gangs and the number of “confirmed gang members” in the state. They called this database the “Gang Pointer File” and assigned the task of creating it to the state’s crime lab – the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA).
To be entered into the “Gang Pointer File,” a person must have been found guilty of a felony or gross misdemeanor and be at least fourteen years of age. They also had to meet at least three of the following ten-point criteria to be included as a “confirmed gang member” in the database.
Admits gang membership or association.
Is observed to associate on a regular basis with known gang members.
Has tattoos indicating gang membership.
Wears gang symbols to identify with a specific gang.
Is in a photograph with known gang members and/or using gang-related hand signs.
Name is on a gang document, hit list, or gang-related graffiti.
Is identified as a gang member by a reliable source.
Was arrested in the company of identified gang members or associates.
Corresponds with known gang members or writes and/or receives correspondence about gang activities.
Writes about gang (graffiti) on walls, books and paper.
So now, armed with training, criteria, and a plan, Willmar’s new Gang Enforcement Team was on the job. Slowly, they began to identify the gangs and gang members in the Willmar community and input them into the statewide database.
Angel returns to Willmar
When 16-year-old Angel Hernandez returned to Willmar with his family in the summer of 1996, all hell was about to break loose. Things had never been easy for Angel or his brother, but they hadn’t ever been in any real trouble. That all started to change after their parents were both arrested on drug related charges on July 23, 1996.
Angel was now a sophomore in high school and his younger brother, Luis, was a freshman. They lived in a small duplex in downtown Willmar, next to a used auto dealership on Benson Avenue. Their alcoholic father had escalated into a full-blown heroin addict by this time, and when police raided their home on that summer night in July 1996, their 38-year-old mother (who spoke no English) tried to stash her husband’s drugs in her bra to protect her family.
It didn’t work. Instead, both parents were arrested and sent to jail.
Angel and Luis were sent to live with their aunt, who lived about a mile away in northwest Willmar. Their mom posted bail within a week, but instead of returning home, she and her two boys remained living with her sister on Campbell Avenue.
A St. Paul attorney by the name of Manuel Guerrero offered to defend the couple. Guerrero focused on criminal law and his clients were primarily Latinos and Latino immigrants in rural communities across Southern Minnesota. He often took on unpopular cases and represented those who could not understand the language and had nowhere else to turn.
Angel’s mother was granted a stay of imposition with credit for time served, and assigned work service in lieu of additional jail time. But for Angel’s father, things seemed to go from bad to worse. He was arrested again on December 18, 1996 when police raided his house for a second time, just one week before Christmas. This time he was brought up on four counts of possessing and selling narcotics. He was sentenced to 33 months in prison and would eventually be deported back to Mexico. His mother filed divorce papers and never spoke to him again.
Becoming a member of the Latin Kings
Perhaps it’s no surprise then that two teenage Mexican immigrants—who had a mother who spoke no English and an incarcerated father with a history of drugs and domestic abuse—turned to friends and gang life for companionship and support.
At first Angel was picked up for minor offenses like playing loud music, driving with a revoked license and possession of marijuana. But then, on June 26, 1998, just a month after Angel graduated from Willmar Senior High School, things got real.
According to the complaint filed in district court, two Willmar Police officers (who were also members of the Gang Enforcement Team) were looking for an individual who had run away from the Willmar detox center. As they drove past the Hernandez residence around 12:30 AM, they saw a van with brake lights in the driveway. They pulled in behind the vehicle and saw 18-year-old Angel “standing at the left front of the van.” They saw his younger 16-year-old brother, Luis, getting out of the sliding door of the van, and a third person (later identified as J.T.) took off running.
The officers ran the license plate on the van and contacted the owner, a 27-year-old woman who lived about a block away. They learned the vehicle had been taken from her property without her permission. They searched the van and saw two uncased, loaded, sawed-off shotguns on the floor behind the driver’s seat. They also noticed both of the vehicle’s dome lights had been disconnected so they wouldn’t turn on when the doors were opened.
According to the complaint, the officers obtained permission from Angel’s mother to search their residence. When they questioned Angel’s younger brother, he told them Angel and J.T. had come to the house with the van, and that J.T. was sitting in the seat directly behind the driver’s seat. Luis said that J.T. ran away because there was a warrant out on him. When they asked Luis about the shotguns in the van, he said he’d seen them but didn’t know they were stolen. He also said that Angel had driven the van to the Hernandez residence.
That same night, these officers went to the residence where J.T. was living and found him hiding under a mattress in an upstairs bedroom with two more loaded, sawed-off shotguns. J.T.—who was less than a month away from his 18th birthday—was taken to the Prairie Lakes Juvenile Detention Center.
So what happened to Angel and Luis?
According to Angel, when the police showed up at his aunt’s house that night, he ran away. The next day, he went with his mom to Minneapolis to drop off one of her friends at the airport, leaving 16-year-old Luis home alone. That’s when police arrived with a search warrant.
The officers knocked on the door to announce themselves, then just as Luis went to open the door, they shot it open (or used some kind of explosive device) to forcibly enter the residence. Luis was injured when shrapnel flew into his eyes. He was taken to Prairie Lakes Juvenile Detention Center where he remained in custody with gauze over his eyes for about a week. His charges were eventually dropped and it would be a month before he could finally see again.
When Angel and his mother learned about Luis, Angel drove her to the police station so they could find out what happened. That’s when 18-year-old Angel was arrested, booked into jail, and charged with “Receiving Stolen Property, Firearms.”
Angel was now facing his first felony with a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, a fine of not more than $100,000, or both. He was also charged with a second count of “Crimes Committed for the Benefit of a Gang,” which carried another maximum sentence of 23 years in prison.
Bail was set at $60,000 and he was sent to the Kandiyohi County Jail where he would remain for nearly four months until his sentencing on October 20, 1998. At sentencing, Judge Donald M. Spilseth granted Angel a stay of imposition on his sentence of 10 years probation and 75 days in jail. The second charge of “Crimes Committed for the Benefit of a Gang” was dismissed.
So how did this all shake out? Did he steal the guns? Did he steal the van? Where were they going with the stolen van and loaded shotguns? Were they planning a drive-by shooting?
We’ll unpack all that and more next time.
When is Chapter 4 coming out. Can't wait!!! Mom
OK.... you've me hooked😉