Duluth man arrested after disturbance at transit center restroom, police say

A disturbance in the restroom at Duluth’s main transit hub ended with police detaining a 21-year-old Duluth man a block or so away, underscoring how quickly problems inside the Duluth Transportation Center can spill into downtown streets.

Duluth police said officers responded to the report at the transit center and saw Santino Malcolm Kane-Troy Stringer when they arrived. Police said Stringer saw the officers and ran on foot, prompting a chase that ended with his detention nearby. The arrest was handled as an attempted robbery case, turning what began as a disturbance call into a more serious public-safety incident at one of the city’s busiest civic spaces.

The location matters. The Duluth Transportation Center at 228 W. Michigan St. is the Duluth Transit Authority’s main hub, a place built to move people through downtown Duluth every day. The facility includes bathrooms, benches, water fountains, secure bike storage and Skywalk connections, and the Duluth Police Department has a substation there. The DTA says the center was designed to handle about 700 bus trips and 12,000 passengers a day, and another DTA document says it serves more than 3 million customers a year. It also connects riders to Jefferson Lines and Indian Trails intercity buses.

That scale makes any disturbance harder to dismiss as isolated. A restroom call inside the transit center is not just a routine police stop; it lands in a space where bus riders, commuters, workers and visitors expect basic order before they head into or out of downtown. The fact that officers were already able to respond quickly, and that the suspect was detained only a short distance away, suggests the scene was contained before it could spread farther through the transit hub.

Duluth city leaders have already framed downtown safety as central to the area’s future. In a March 20, 2024 statement on downtown and Skywalk safety, Mayor Roger Reinert said, “A clean and safe downtown is the canvas on which a thriving downtown is created.” Police Chief Mike Ceynowa said the department had prioritized proactive safety efforts downtown and in the Skywalk system. Those concerns sit directly alongside the DTA’s mission to provide transit that is “safe, convenient, efficient, and affordable.”

For riders moving through the Duluth Transportation Center each day, the arrest is a reminder that the city’s busiest transfer point is also where public safety pressures are most visible. The building is meant to function as a gateway for downtown mobility, and its safety record will continue to shape how secure people feel using it.