Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2025.
Janna Marlene Grassel Wood was born June 1, 1988 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, daughter of Vern Frederick Grassel and Tracy K. D’Andrea.
Janna joined the Shakopee Police Department as the first Crime Prevention Specialist in 2013.
According to an article in the Minneapolis Star Tribune on Feb. 16, 2017, Dee DePass noted that Janna was just in the job for six months when Halloween came around. Shakopee Chief Jeff Tate walked into the police station and stopped, shocked. Janna was dressed head to toe in costume.
“I’m Janna Banana. Deal with it,” she noted. Tate recalled Janna “spent the whole day waking around the police department dressed as a banana. She was always just fun. You always felt good when you were around her.”
According to the article, Janna dug in, teaching stoic officers that it was OK to post photos on Facebook so the community could see them playing softball, taking kids shopping, feeding the hungry, and running marathons. The outreach made officers more relatable.
Janna, who graduated in criminal justice from the University of Wisconsin-River Falls, used social media and workshops to teach police and residents about background checks, internet safety, tax scams, anti-bullying campaigns and Shakopee’s Citizen Police Academy. For her efforts, she was named Minnesota’s Crime Prevention Specialist of the Year in 2014.
“Her excellent work was recognized far beyond Shakopee,” said Chief Tate. “She really did a lot to change how police across the state communicate with the public through social media. She left more of a legacy in four years than most people would do in decades.”
Janna loved movies, playing board games, and getting together with family and friends. “She did walks for animals, the Polar Plunge for Special Olympics, and events for the hungry,” said her mother.
When she was 28 years old, Janna was 13 weeks pregnant. She told her husband, Erick Robert Wood, that she really wanted to have a child. She had lost twins, Maven and Macie, who were stillborn at 18 weeks, and another child, Littlefoot, in another miscarriage that October, according to the article, “Police, Community Mourn” in the Shakopee Valley News by Pat Minelli. Janna had headaches, and an MRI revealed blood clots. On Feb. 5, 2017, Janna and her unborn baby, Zeus, died.
Every year, the Shakopee Police Department hosts a diaper drive in memory of Janna Marlene Grassel Wood. According to Janna’s mother, Tracy D’Andrea, “If everyone had a Janna, the world would be a kind, kind place to live.”