Burnsville native, KG and John discuss the tragic deaths of the Burnsville Police Officers and Paramedic. Our pal, Steve is on assignment.
All right, welcome to a special edition of the Kindness Chronicles, where we hope to inject the world with the dose of the Minnesota nice that it desperately needs now more than ever. I got KG in Winnipeg. Hello KG. Hello, Johnny. How are ya? I'm doing fine. Uh, we're having a little special edition of this show because, Kevin grew up in Burnsville, his parents still live in Burnsville, and we, uh, would like to spend a couple of minutes talking about the tragedy that took place over the weekend down in Burnsville, but let's start on a lighter note. you, uh, enjoyed probably a very Interesting, historic Minnesota Wild game yesterday. What was that like? Well, first of all, it was the perfect day for it because it was president's day and the wild had a great idea. The big promotion, special ticket prices, kids got these little Nordy dolls and, Oh, really? I mean, yeah, there were 19, 000 fans and I'm not joking. Half of them were junior high or younger. And so it was a different atmosphere. Then the most other wild games right off the start and to have that game unfold the way it did you're playing the team in Vancouver that has the most points in the National Hockey League and you know, while they're getting, you know, and not that it was any big surprise, Vancouver has been rolling this year. And it's 5 2 late in the second. It's kind of a bummer. There's no, you know, no real buzz in the building. The Wild get a couple of, uh, you know, Vancouver guys to the penalty box. They have a 5 on 3 late in the second period. And they already missed on a 5 on 3 back in the first period. You're thinking, well, if they get one here, at least it'll be interesting. And sure enough, Matt Zuccarello scores kind of a goofy goal at the end of the second period that banks off the skate of a Vancouver defenseman that goes in. So it's 5 3 after 2, and you're like, alright, well, it's competitive, it's high scoring. It's goal hockey. Well, and it's that two goal, the two goal lead, which we all know is what? We all know the two goal lead is the most dangerous lead in hockey. Absolutely. I don't think we all know, though, that Uh, any team, much less than a little while, they're going to score seven goals in the third period. And you know, throughout the course of the game, Vancouver's has a guy named JT Miller, who's just a stud. He gets a hat trick. Yup. And lo and behold, when the wild start this rally, it's the usual suspect. It's Zuccarello. It's Boldy. It's Eck. It's Kaprizov. They score seven goals in the third period. Now a couple are empty netters, but it ends up being Eck hat trick, Kaprizov hat trick, three players in the same game. with a hat trick, 17 total goals. And I'm not kidding you. If you didn't see the game, if you were busy doing something else on, on Monday, it was just rapid fire. Like they would score a goal. Adam Abrams, our PA announcer, be announcing the goal and they'd score another goal and the horn just kept going off and Vancouver kept taking penalties. It was, it was comical. And I've been doing this for 18 years. I've never seen anything like it. So X was the first one to get to the hat trick, right? Yeah. And there were a whole bunch of 40 hats thrown onto the ice, which always is intriguing to me that, you know, these young kids, they don't realize, uh, that mom and dad probably spent 50 bucks on that cap, and there it is on the ice. What do they do with all those hats for starters, do you know? I do, they collect them, and they give them away for charity. So they do have a bin, they get them cleaned, and they do give them away to charity, yes they do. Um, great question, because, you know, hat tricks don't happen that often. We probably get 5, 6, 7 hat tricks a year. Normally get three in one game and uh, I get that question a lot and so I had to do some digging But they actually do make sure that they get them cleaned up and give them away, which I think is a good idea So, let me ask you this when jt miller got the hat trick. Were there any hats tossed on the ice? Not many, but there were some Vancouver fans. There were some okay a smattering of six eight ten half, okay, so when I got his they were Boatloads of hats and whoever didn't throw their hat for a bunch threw their hats for cap Oh. So there, there were hats left over. There were some hats left over. You know, you got, you got 19,000 people and I suppose after seeing multiple hat tricks, they probably got guilted into throwing out there at the end. Sure. Just always intrigued by that whole thing, like I, I imagine. Eck gets his hat tricked. Dad says, oh, damn, I'll go buy you another hat comes back and there goes another hat.'cause Caprice off got his, but uh, yeah. What a, I'm not throwing mine. No, no. Like seriously, like if I'm in a game, I, I usually wear my favorite hat. I'm not throwing mine. So, you know, you wanna call me an old curmudgeon? Go ahead. But I'm not throwing my hat on the ice. Well, and I've got such a, an enormous head. There's only a handful of hats that actually fit my melon. So I'm not throw, if I find one that fits. I'm not getting rid of it. That's why I wear visors all the time because I'm not restricted. Well, and it's, and it's, it's the height of the melon that, that's really probably my biggest problem. My cranial situation is probably not fodder for, for good conversation. But, there's, there's a lot going on. By the way Today is Kevin Gorg's birthday. Happy birthday, KG. Thank you. You know, it's funny, John. When you're younger, birthdays are such a big deal. And the older I get, I appreciate them. I appreciate another trip around the sun, as some say. But I don't really make a big, like, you know what? I don't, like, get it out there, like, hey! It's my birthday, because you know what? I'm 57 now, and it's just Wow. It's even closer to 60. 50 wasn't that big a deal for me. But I can tell already that when I turn 60, it's going to be a thing and I don't want it to be a thing yet. Well, in two and a half years, you can withdraw from your retirement fund without penalty. I mean, that's how old you're getting. Oh my God. And now, like, no one's going to, no one's going to question you if you want the 55 and over deal at Perkins. That part is great. You know, there's a lot of benefits. A lot of benefits. You know, something like that. But, uh, the main reason I wanted to chat with you today a little bit is about the, uh, the incident that took place down in Burnsville. And, uh, we're gonna put as much as we can a, uh, a kind twist on this, but I think that, um, there, uh, I think it was, was it Sunday night? It was, yeah, Saturday night into Sunday morning, Saturday night into Sunday morning. Uh, two police officers, one by the name of Paul Elmstrand and Matthew Ruge, forgive me for mispronouncing it if I did. Ruge is exactly right. Twenty seven year old cops. I know. I mean, the age of our children. Not much older than our children. And then a, uh, forty, uh, forty year old firefighter, paramedic named Adam Finseth. And, uh, just what a shocking, terrible event to happen. Yeah, you and I both have a lot of mutual friends, uh, that are first responders, mostly police officers. In fact, I saw one of our very good mutual friends work in the wild game yesterday and, and, uh, master commander Tim Flynn and, and, uh, you know, it hits home. Um, these folks go to work every day knowing they might not come home. And I just don't think, I mean, they literally do that. I mean, it can't be understated. That's a fact. Um. You know, I gotta tell you, um, this is a heartbreaking story and it's heartbreaking from a lot of different angles. First and foremost, the families of these first responders who no longer will have dad or their husband, um, somebody's son, you know, somebody's brother, it's just, it's gut wrenching. Um, and I don't know what the solution is and I, I really do, I feel awful for the girlfriend and the seven children that were put through that horror and, uh, you know, I, I think I've already seen some, some pretty positive steam on social media to raise some money for, for both the, uh, the families of the first responders and the families, uh, and those kids, uh, it just, you know, domestic abuse is not something you see often, you know, we, we, I think John, you and I live in the same bubble, you know, in the suburbs where we don't see a lot of this, but it's out there and it has to be fixed. And I don't know, I'm not going to pretend I have a magic Elixir to fix it, but I guess if you see it that it's going on if you have warning signs, uh, and you're Around it. We need to do a better job of getting people helping I think it's it's easy to sit back and say well she should have done this and these kids should have done that But it's different than, you know, when you're in it, like when you're in that situation it's a whole hell of a lot different when somebody's threatening to take your life or your kid's life if you make that call. So people that are around it have to do a better job and I think families have to do a better job. Like, you know, my question was when this whole thing went down, um, and I'm not going to Talk about the suspect's name, but let's just say the suspect who's in his immediate family that knows he's got some issues and needs some help. Who are the people there that failed to say, listen, you know, this is not acceptable. We need to get you some help or we need to get you locked up. I don't know what it is, but it's just, there needs to be more done. it's very interesting because all of these incidents become fodder for, political debate and it's really sad that that's where people immediately go with this. And, you know, at some point we can talk about the fact that if, we actually Enforced the laws that we had, people that, that shouldn't have guns that have been in trouble because of guns. If the laws are enforced the way that they're supposed to be enforced, maybe those people are in long enough that they Realize that the punishment is real and they're not going to try it again. Mental illness is very real. The thing that I couldn't stop thinking about was a couple of weeks ago we had, Julia Yock from the Canvas Health Organization, and she was talking about the fact that they have these embedded, sociologists, that go out with the Columbia Heights Police Department, for example, and when There's a domestic call like this. these licensed, therapists will go out with the police and help diffuse the situation. And, you know, you never even think about the fact that, they're putting their lives in, in, in danger. You know, when you're a police officer, it's one thing. and the poor guy, the first responder that got killed, or the paramedic that got killed, he's out there trying to help one of these cops that gets shot, and then he gets shot. the bravery is beyond imagination, if you ask me. I couldn't do it. I don't know how. I mean, honestly, I'm so impressed with these men and women that go out there and do this on a regular basis. It's incredible. They are 100 percent heroes. I mean, I just am in awe of the courage that, you know, in that situation, as it escalated, and this was hours upon hours, it took, you know, almost the entire overnight, uh, time frame, uh, They knew that that guy had weapons and he was, they were there to try to protect and to save those seven kids. And they put their life on the line. Now, eventually they lost their life with, which is just awful. It makes me sick to even think about it. But I mean, that kind of courage, um, you know, and, and I think the narrative has to also change to like, I get it. You know, there were, there were some, some bad apples. Um, Right here locally in the Twin Cities in many. I get it. What we saw a couple years ago was wrong. I get it, but I'm telling you from my now 57 years of data being around this community in the Twin Cities that 95 to 98 percent of these men and women are unbelievable people and so don't let it. A small selection of that community, spoil your opinion of what is a collective, amazing group of human beings. And I'm lucky enough because of where I work to be around these folks. They're all over the Exxon Energy Center. Every single, uh, wild game, they're there to protect all the people that come to those games, to create a safe situation, coming in, leaving and join the games they're in, all the concerts, they're everywhere. They're there for us. And this is a stark reminder. of the fact that these folks literally put their lives on the line. Every single day they go to work. They know that that could be a part of the program and so this, this has to be a situation once again where we're reminded how special these people are. And you know everybody, the, the thing that irritates me the most is how on both sides people are using this as an opportunity to, to advance some political agenda. For example, the, One of the comments that I heard was, well, where does the parade, you know, where does the, demonstration, the demonstration start. In, in honor of these, these police officers and I will say this on a positive note I happened to just by chance I was down in Mankato yesterday visiting a, uh, an old 99 year old friend of mine who is, uh, in hospice care and on the way home I was driving up 169 And apparently the, uh, the first responder, they were going to be taking the first responder to Jordan, Minnesota, because I think that's where the funeral was going to take place. And on every overpass, there were, like I saw, Chaska cops, there were Shakopee cops and fire stati So, there was, in a, a, effectively a, a parade honoring, that particular first responder, there's also the people that are like, what is Governor Walz doing there, using it as an opportunity to, draw attention to himself, when two and a half years ago he was a defund the police guy. It's like, you know what, let's just not talk about that now. I think they're both legitimate, uh, you know, conversations, um, you know, the, obviously there are way too many guns, but the guns, unfortunately, it's not the, the number of guns. It's the bad people that got them and we gotta do something to, I think it just boils down to let's enforce the laws that we have on the books. And if you're a person that makes a bad choice with the gun, you gotta. You gotta be punished for it. I think that's the only answer, but we're not going to get into that. The other thing that I was really just impressed by was the number of people that made their way down to Burnsville to drop off flowers, to drop off, mementos of appreciation at the city hall or at the fire station, police station down there. Did you see those, those, uh, Police and, uh, and paramedic vehicles, the number of bouquets of flowers that were placed on the hoods of those cars. It was awesome. I did see it and I can tell you walking around the the building yesterday at the wild game And there's a lot of officers in that building and just seeing the people walking up and thanking them for what they do Oh, really? That's cool. I always think there's a ripple effect And I wish we didn't have to go through these situations, you know during the wild game yesterday we paid tribute to the fallen officers and paramedic and It was hard not to get choked up and Ryan Carter's up in the booth to kind of dovetail off me basically just going over the fact that we're devastated by the news and we're thinking of these folks and praying for their families and, you know, Ryan Carter has a point too. He's like, listen, my dad was a St. Paul cop for 30 years and back in the early 90s went through that horrible situation where officers were killed in the line of duty over his friends. Ryan had a completely different perspective on this. And, you know, there, there will be positives that come out of it. But I just, I hate it. I hate the fact that these kids are gone at such a young age. I mean, it is 40 and 27 just life cut short. It just doesn't need to be that way. And I just, I don't know what the solution is. I And it's not political for me at all. None of this is political. I just, I want less guns. I want less violence. I want less women, uh, being abused, less kids being abused. And I, again, it's funny because you talk to people and the thoughts and prayers, it gets old, right? Because we've, we've said it time and time again, the school shootings and thoughts and prayers, thoughts and prayers. It's all I have to give right now, and if there are some charitable things we can give to them, I'm all for it, and we'll try to pump that up for sure here on our podcast, but I don't know what the real solutions are, John. Yeah, the opportunity to support these families, I'm sure, will be very abundant over the next couple of weeks. I just think that the The outpouring of, love that you saw, I saw a lot of, parents with their little kids, and, the little kids saluting the police cars, and it's unfortunate that it takes a tragedy like this for people to really recognize how dangerous this job is and, it's a thankless job in many respects, um, but we just need to be more thankful for these people and, I love the fact that during the hockey game yesterday people were appreciating these police officers and, yeah, there's, uh, there's no easy answer to, uh, to that, no doubt. Well, no, we have to celebrate these Uh, these fallen heroes too. I think their names need to be, uh, put out there and celebrated as much as possible here in the coming months because yeah, let's name a school after them. You know what I mean? You know? Yeah. They, they're, they're really the, the ones that, that are the real heroes in our world, and I think that we're gonna get into a situation here where less and less people are gonna wanna do that job, and we're already there. Well, and that's the scary part. We are probably already there and, you know, days like we saw this weekend in Burnsville and narratives like we've seen for the last couple of years are crippling our police forces. And I, again, you and I both have friends. I've had this conversation with people that know far more than I'll ever know about it. They live it every day. And, uh, you know, I think it's awful easy to take them for granted. They've always been there and there's always been that. Negative connotation. Maybe you've been pulled over and got a ticket, you know, when you were a young kid, like I certainly was. Um, but man, I tell you, um, they're just so vital, uh, in our, in our world and so important and need to be celebrated. So, um, it's heartbreaking. Um, I, I think that there will be good that comes out of this. It's just, it's so, it's just so damn sad that we had to lose those lives and go through this. I wish there was a way they could have Diffuse the situation without all this loss of life. Well, one of the things that we're doing at Masonic Charities this year is for the first time when we're doing our, uh, scholarship, vetting for our scholarship, uh, applications that we're getting in, we are paying special attention to those individuals that, uh, suggest that they're going to, Pursue a career in a service field, meaning if you're going to be a person that wants to be a nurse or you're a person that wants to be a police officer, those two things specifically, or a teacher, we're turning a kind eye towards those applications because, you know, those are people that I saw yesterday when I was down at this nursing home down, uh, near Mankato, the, Care and concern that those nurses have for those people that are, in their, their, their last days, weeks of life. And just the, the, the dignity and the just love that they have for these people. And they do it constantly. I mean, this isn't just, you know, a one and done thing, it's like every day, that's what they choose to do for their living. And I'm telling you, there is a special place in heaven for people that choose to do that kind of work. I have a quick question. You know Burnsville a little bit, Spent a little time down there. Where, do you know where this was in Burnsville? I do. Um, so I, I was, uh, down in my, in my, uh, parents house on Sunday morning. I went down to, uh, to see them before I, uh, left town this week. And so I, um, was down there talking to them. It was a scheduled trip down there. I go down there once a week to help out with some stuff around the house. Anyway, I get done and I'm driving to, uh, to St. Paul cause the had a practice on Sunday, uh, at Tria Rink. And so I I knew it was around the Burnham wood golf course. So I took a, a route from my parents house, which is just off 35 W more towards 35 E. And so if you go by Burnham wood golf course and you're, you're heading towards St. Paul, so kind of Northeast, and then you get to County road 11, it's right off of County road 11, probably a mile or so from the Burnham wood golf course. It's probably two miles from where my parents live off of Roseville Parkway and 35 W. And It's a, it's a nice area. It's, it's always been an area where, um, uh, most of those kids would, would end up going to Burnsville High School. It's not far from the high school, probably a couple miles. And, um, it was all blocked off, so obviously I couldn't get real close, nor did I want to, but, uh, I could see all the vehicles lined up. And, yeah, the sad thing is, is this canon probably does happen as far as domestic disputes, you know, far too often. it breaks your heart and you, you just, um, and when it hits close to home, you have those conversations like, you know, this could happen anywhere. So it's just, it's, you know, I turned the Today Show on yesterday before I went to work, which was Monday morning, and it's one of the lead stories on the Today Show, and they're talking about your hometown. That, that's just, uh, It's unbelievable. Uh, I wasn't ready for that. Yeah. You know, and let's not forget, and you mentioned it earlier, that there are, uh, seven children who no longer have a dad. And maybe this dad wasn't the greatest guy, um, and obviously had his, uh, his issues, um, but did you hear the story that, like, he was asking the kids if they wanted to go with him? Like, do you want to die with me? I don't know if you heard that. He opt himself in front of those kids. Yeah. It's just, it's an evil And I, I did hear, um, second hand that, that from a reliable source that, uh, his girlfriend spoke and said, listen, he was evil. He was pure evil. But remember those kids knew nothing else as far as a dad goes, they only get one dad and that was their dad. And that love is unconditional. So there. They're having to live through that. I just, it's, I don't understand it. I read somewhere that, uh, you know, so three of the children were from a previous relationship and those kids, uh, the dad had custody those kids primarily because of the. Uh, economic situation that he was in. Like, he could, he apparently had a decent job. I don't know where he worked. But, you know, I think about, you know, what, what, how are those kids gonna live? I mean, what, who's gonna care for those kids? And, just the psychological, you know, 15 years old down to two. You know, I, it's just, it's just, there is nothing good about that story other than the fact that I think that, uh, you know, the best. The best in people comes out, the best in people come out? Comes out? Come out? Comes out. Comes out when? In the worst of times. In the worst of times. So. I think people will step up too. I, I think, um, you know, you look at, at the world we live in today and here's a critical Kind of a crossroads for this, for this group of kids, right? Seven kids and, um, and his girlfriend left to kind of pick up the pieces. You know, how, how we, as, as a community kind of rally around them, this, this was not their fault. They had nothing to do with this. This person that they were involved with is pure evil, but they still have a life that needs to be taken care of. You know, they probably need to be a little bit deprogrammed from what they've seen. Um, I mean, you know, I, I can't relate. Like, I, my dad had some bad habits and I've picked up on some of them. Like, I'm becoming, like we all do, our parents a little bit. But, remember, it's a lot easier when you're John Schweitz or Kevin Gorg than when you're in a different situation. And, um, I, I just, I, I do, I pray for those kids. I, um, I, I really, truly hope. Somehow some way they can get through this and live a quality life, but you know what? I mean, it sucks and again I don't want to take away from any of the Emotion involved with the families of those first responders. It's totally what they're dealing with too. It's just awful and They're their kids are gonna have all kinds of trauma because they don't have their dad and and their dad's gone at such a young age, I mean 40 and 27 my god, it's just It's just, um, it's a horrific situation. Indeed. Well, you, uh, enjoy the, uh, the good life up in Winnipeg. It's, uh, is the game tomorrow night? It's tonight. Oh, it's tonight. Yeah, so we've, it's, uh, it's the best type of, and again, the people here in Winnipeg are lovely. It's just not one of my favorite stops along the way. So you get in, you play the game, and you get out, and, uh, We'll be back home before we know it. You'll be, are you coming home tonight? Come home tonight, day off on Wednesday, and then we fly out on Thursday for a trip that takes us this weekend to Edmonton and Seattle, and then we're home for a while. Gonna go see some Kraken. Nice. Kraken will be there. Alright, well KG, thanks for taking the time for this special edition of the Kindness Chronicles, and let's keep all those people in our thoughts and prayers, and, uh Off we go. Off we go.