To place an obituary, please include the information from the obituary checklist below in an email to obits@pioneerpress.com. There is no option to place them through our website. Feel free to contact our obituary desk at 651-228-5263 with any questions.
General Information:
Your full name,
Address (City, State, Zip Code),
Phone number,
And an alternate phone number (if any)
Obituary Specification:
Name of Deceased,
Obituary Text,
A photo in a JPEG or PDF file is preferable, TIF and other files are accepted, we will contact you if there are any issues with the photo.
Ad Run dates
There is a discount for running more than one day, but this must be scheduled on the first run date to apply.
If a photo is used, it must be used for both days for the discount to apply, contact us for more information.
Policies:
Verification of Death:
In order to publish obituaries a name and phone number of funeral home/cremation society is required. We must contact the funeral home/cremation society handling the arrangements during their business hours to verify the death. If the body of the deceased has been donated to the University of Minnesota Anatomy Bequest Program, or a similar program, their phone number is required for verification.
Please allow enough time to contact them especially during their limited weekend hours.
A death certificate is also acceptable for this purpose but only one of these two options are necessary.
Guestbook and Outside Websites:
We are not allowed to reference other media sources with a guestbook or an obituary placed elsewhere when placing an obituary in print and online. We may place a website for a funeral home or a family email for contact instead; contact us with any questions regarding this matter.
Obituary Process:
Once your submission is completed, we will fax or email a proof for review prior to publication in the newspaper. This proof includes price and days the notice is scheduled to appear.
Please review the proof carefully. We must be notified of errors or changes before the notice appears in the Pioneer Press based on each day’s deadlines.
After publication, we will not be responsible for errors that may occur after final proofing.
Online:
Changes to an online obituary can be handled through the obituary desk. Call us with further questions.
Payment Procedure:
Pre-payment is required for all obituary notices prior to publication by the deadline specified below in our deadline schedule. Please call 651-228-5263 with your payment information after you have received the proof and approved its contents.
Credit Card: Payment accepted by phone only due to PCI (Payment Card Industry) regulations
EFT: Check by phone. Please provide your routing number and account number.
Cash: Accepted at our FRONT COUNTER Monday – Friday from 8:00AM – 3:30PM
Rates:
The minimum charge is $162 for the first 10 lines.
Every line after the first 10 is $12.20.
If the ad is under 10 lines it will be charged the minimum rate of $162.
On a second run date, the lines are $8.20 per line, starting w/ the first line.
For example: if first run date was 20 lines the cost would be $164.
Each photo published is $125 per day.
For example: 2 photos in the paper on 2 days would be 4 photo charges at $500.
Deadlines:
Please follow deadline times to ensure your obituary is published on the day requested.
Hours
Deadline (no exceptions)
Ad
Photos
MEMORIAM (NON-OBITUARY) REQUEST
Unlike an obituary, Memoriam submissions are remembrances of a loved one who has passed. The rates for a memoriam differ from obituaries.
Please call or email us for more memoriam information
Please call 651-228-5280 for more information.
HOURS: Monday – Friday 8:00AM – 5:00PM (CLOSED WEEKENDS and HOLIDAYS)
Please submit your memoriam ad to memoriams@pioneerpress.com or call 651-228-5280.
A three-time convicted felon has been arrested and charged in the August killing of a Minneapolis man in St. Paul’s Frogtown neighborhood.
A witness told police that Kireice Plez-Sachet Williams, 24, shot Levon T. Washington, 26, about 4:15 a.m. Aug. 16 after an argument about “which side they were on,” according to a Tuesday criminal complaint charging Williams with second-degree intentional murder.
Williams, of New Brighton, was scheduled to make a first appearance on the charge Tuesday in Ramsey County District Court.
Five weeks before the shooting, Williams was released from the Hennepin County jail after posting $100,000 bond in two cases stemming from December non-fatal shootings in Minneapolis. Both cases remain pending in court.
Williams’ criminal history includes convictions in two cases: aiding and abetting first-degree aggravated robbery and threats of violence, both in Ramsey County in 2018. He was convicted of being a felon in possession of a firearm in Hennepin County in 2021.
According to Tuesday’s complaint, St. Paul police were sent to the 300 block of Edmund Avenue, east of Western Avenue, on a report of a man who’d been shot. Officers found Washington lying on the ground with a gunshot wound to his neck and an exit wound in his back.
Washington didn’t have a pulse. Officers sealed the wounds and performed CPR until medics arrived and transported him to Regions Hospital, where he was later pronounced dead.
Witness statements
Officers found a spent 9 mm casing near where they found Washington.
A close friend of Washington identified the shooter as Williams, and gave officers a photo of him. She told police she saw Williams fire a single shot at Washington before fleeing.
A second woman also identified the shooter as Williams. She said he came over and did a large amount of cocaine in front of everyone. She said he was talking to someone on the phone before he shot Washington and ran.
A third woman said Washington and the shooter argued about “which side they were on” and Washington told him, “I don’t know you,” the woman told police, according to the complaint. The shooter then said, “I’ll shoot you right now,” pulled out a firearm and shot him.
Investigators found a cellphone number associated with Williams. Location data showed the phone was near his New Brighton apartment about a half-hour before the shooting and then at the area of the shooting.
Location data showed Williams called his wife after the shooting, then went to his brother’s house in Woodbury.
Further investigation and surveillance video showed that Williams and his wife went to the Walmart in New Richmond, Wis., the afternoon of the killing. Williams picked out a Straight Talk Wireless prepaid phone, and his wife paid for it.
“Williams was supposed to meet with his probation officer after the shooting occurred, but he called her with excuses as to why he could not appear at the scheduled time,” the complaint states.
Past trouble
Williams was charged April 18 with first-degree aggravated robbery and aiding an offender to avoid arrest in connection with a Dec. 5 incident in south Minneapolis. According to the complaint in that case, Williams was “coaching” his juvenile brother through texts on how to rob a man of his car. Williams’ brother allegedly shot the man several times, critically wounding him.
Five days later, Williams was charged with second-degree assault and drive-by shooting for allegedly shooting a 17-year-old boy from the back seat of a black Chevy Tahoe outside a Minneapolis police station in north Minneapolis about 12:40 p.m. on Dec. 29. The boy was shot in the chest and “officers on scene heard shots and witnessed bullets coming through the police department windows,” the complaint says.
Williams was arrested in both cases on June 9 and released from jail on bond the next day.