Michael Brasel death: St. Paul neighbors put hockey sticks on porch to honor slain coach

ST. PAUL, Minn. – The community salutes a beloved father, husband and coach from Minnesota lost his life just feet from his front door this weekend.

Hockey sticks sit on a porch in the St. Anthony Park area of ​​St. Paul for Michael Brasel.

Brasel’s wife says he was trying to stop someone from breaking into his car when he was shot multiple times.

Several families in the neighborhood have put up poles in Brasel’s honor.

“It really shows how many people he touched,” said Andrew McNattin, a friend who coached with Brasel for years in the Langford Park youth hockey league.

Neighbor and friend Alex Bollman has several sticks on his porch.

“Just a little salute to him as an important part of our community, that we will miss him and that he will not be forgotten,” Bollman said. “It’s a little bit of recognition that it’s a tight-knit community and that we’re all there for each other when we can be. It’s just frustrating that you can’t do more, but we want to make sure we pass on our love and thanks to the family.”

McNattin remembers Brasel first as a family man.

CAUSE: Friends are paying tribute to Michael Brasel, the beloved youth coach who was shot and killed

“He really, whatever he did, was his family,” McNattin said. “I was grateful for the time we got to spend together. I always looked forward to the next time. He was a wonderful father.”

As a coach, McNattin says Brasel was “wonderful” with the kids.

“He was the one who pulled them aside and really just got in the weeds with them and encouraged them and helped them along the way and made sure they knew they were going to be okay,” McNattin said.

No one is under arrest. Police are asking neighbors to check their security cameras to see if they caught anything.

An online fundraiser has raised more than $175,000 for Brasel’s family.