Minnesota Governor Tim Walz is urging Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to restore a $700,000 federal grant that supported Minnesota’s violence prevention efforts. The Targeted Violence and Prevention grant was abruptly cancelled in July, cutting key positions within Behavioral Threat Assessment And Management team at the state’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA).

Walz went on to say that with recent tragedies, like the assassination of Minnesota Speaker of the House Melissa Hortman and her family, and the fatal shooting at Minneapolis’s Annunciation Catholic School, he wanted to highlight the devastating cost of failing to act.