Liz Sawyer
Reporter
Breaking news, crime and correctionsSawyer graduated from Syracuse University's Newhouse School of Public Communications with a degree in newspaper and online journalism. She worships her alma mater's college hoops team and thinks an orange is, in fact, a suitable mascot.
Latest from Liz Sawyer
Fact check: Did Tim Walz ‘let rioters burn down Minneapolis’?
Last fall, the Trump campaign tried to make an issue of the Minnesota governor’s response to 2020 riots in the Twin Cities. The debate is flaring anew this week as President Trump sends the National Guard into Minneapolis.
June 11, 2025
Judge Peter Cahill, who presided over Chauvin case, speaks about the trial watched by millions
In his first media interview since George Floyd’s killing, the now-retired judge reflects on his decision to broadcast the murder trial, why he donated his hate mail and how AC/DC helped him prepare.
May 24, 2025
5 takeaways from our interview with Peter Cahill, the judge who presided over Derek Chauvin’s trial
In his first media interview, the recently retired judge talked about heightened security measures, dramatic readings of his hate mail and unexpected moments in Minnesota’s most public trial in history.
May 24, 2025
George Floyd’s killing unified Americans in condemning injustice. The narrative is being rewritten.
Conservative commentators play up Floyd’s criminal history and present the officers as victims of politicized justice.
May 21, 2025
Fact checking right-wing media’s claims about George Floyd and Derek Chauvin
Conservative media outlets are rewriting the story; some of their claims are false or lacking context.
May 21, 2025
'This is an uprising': An oral history of the 6 days after George Floyd's murder
Protesters, police, Gov. Tim Walz and neighbors chronicle the upheaval that changed Minneapolis and spread across the world.
May 19, 2025
Minneapolis police to encrypt 911 radio traffic, barring public from monitoring emergency dispatches
In effort to adopt new state and federal guidelines, MPD will become Minnesota’s largest law enforcement agency to shutter scanner audio.
April 15, 2025
North Minneapolis records a decade low in shootings
Mayor and police chief hail double-digit reductions in violent crime on city’s North Side amid targeted enforcement campaign and federal prosecutions.
March 21, 2025
Fact checking right-wing media’s claims about George Floyd and Derek Chauvin
Conservative media outlets are rewriting the story; some of their claims are false or lacking context.
May 21, 2025
'This is an uprising': An oral history of the 6 days after George Floyd's murder
Protesters, police, Gov. Tim Walz and neighbors chronicle the upheaval that changed Minneapolis and spread across the world.
May 19, 2025
Minneapolis police to encrypt 911 radio traffic, barring public from monitoring emergency dispatches
In effort to adopt new state and federal guidelines, MPD will become Minnesota’s largest law enforcement agency to shutter scanner audio.
April 15, 2025
North Minneapolis records a decade low in shootings
Mayor and police chief hail double-digit reductions in violent crime on city’s North Side amid targeted enforcement campaign and federal prosecutions.
March 21, 2025