MINNEAPOLIS— Loring Park and Steven’s Square community members continue to mourn and remember 66-year-old Robert Skafte following a brutal and fatal attack Friday, Dec. 8.
The attack happened early Friday afternoon at Oak Grove Grocery, where police say Skafte died after being beaten and then impaled with a golf club. The suspect, 44-year-old Taylor Schulz, was taken into custody following a six-hour standoff at a nearby apartment building, 215 Oak Grove, where he barricaded himself following the crime. Second degree murder charges have been filed against Schulz following the murder of Skafte.
Oak Grove Grocery has served the Loring Park community for over a century and Skafte has been a friendly face to many at the store for decades. The Grocery Store owners took to their Facebook page to commemorate Skafte referring to him as the “heart and soul” of the community.
“We are devastated by the death of Robert Skafte, the heart and soul of the Oak Grove Grocery and the entire Loring Park Community,” Oak Grove Grocery wrote on their Facebook page Monday morning. “Robert was the definition of a good neighbor, a true friend, and the best teammate. He was the light of the neighborhood and our world will forever be a little less bright without him in it. Thank you for all the love and support during this unbelievably tragic time.”
The store stated that they will remain closed until further notice.
“This is a terrible loss and trauma for the Loring Park & Stevens Square Neighborhoods. One we are going to have a very hard time with,” Citizens For A Loring Park Community wrote on their Facebook on Saturday. “Professionally, Robert was a dancer. This past August at our NNO Event I can close my eyes & see his smiling face while he had a conversation with Sen Amy Klobuchar who remembered him dancing at one of her fundraisers. You couldn’t find a nicer more loving spirit than Robert.”
Loring Park neighbors quickly took to social media to share memorials of Skafte, a longtime resident of the neighborhood.
