At 12:30 a.m. on a Tuesday, with temperatures well below freezing, most of the people navigating the icy sidewalks of Mankato’s downtown entertainment district were moving quickly.

Even though it was cold enough to see their breath on this December night, many of the 20-somethings bouncing from bar to bar were without coats. Some, often with hands stuffed deep into their pants pockets as they shuffled along, were in short-sleeved shirts.

Three women in one group were stumbling as they walked, holding on to the shoulders of two men propped between them. They had no problem getting past a bar bouncer and into one bar even though two of the women seemed unable to find their identification cards without help from their friends. They spoke with slurred words as the bouncer slid their driver’s licenses through an electronic gizmo before allowing them inside.

Once inside the bar, they joined others who were there to drink, many of them throughout the night.

This was during a quiet, cold night downtown. It’s not uncommon on a warmer Thursday, Friday or Saturday to see young adults stumbling to Jackson Square Park after midnight, finding a place under a tree and forcing themselves to vomit. Often, they return to one of the nearby bars.

It’s a late-night atmosphere that prompted city officials to demand bars change the way they do business, ending drink specials the city says encourage binge drinking.

It’s also the place where Amanda Jax spent her last night drinking and celebrating her 21st birthday Oct. 30.

A police investigation showed Jax had downed enough liquor to crank her blood-alcohol concentration up to a deadly .46 percent, before taking her last breath in a friend’s apartment.

Witnesses told police Jax passed out at Sidelines Bar and Grill, one of several downtown bars that has received city sanctions for violating liquor license rules. In about two hours of drinking, she’d consumed a shot of whiskey, a shot of rum, at least a couple of beers and a portion of a pitcher of Long Island ice tea, police reports said. She had started drinking a multiple-shot vodka and schnapps drink before slumping over on a bar stool, police reported.

Three weeks after Jax died, 22-year-old Rissa Amen-Reif was hit by a car and killed while in the middle of a dark road on the north edge of Mankato. Investigators have not released all the details of the Nov. 18 incident but have said alcohol was a factor and the 17-year-old boy who was driving the car that hit her showed no signs of intoxication after the crash.

Amen-Reif and a friend had wandered to the secluded area after attending a Minnesota State University sorority event at the Morson-Ario VFW on Riverfront Drive, which is more than a mile away. Investigators were told the women thought they were walking toward downtown, which was in the opposite direction.

Just last weekend, North Mankato police indicated the death of 22-year-old Tony Lee Miller likely was alcohol related. The body of Miller, a paraplegic, was discovered in his apartment Jan. 13. He was a graduate of South Central College.

Students’ view

The tragic deaths of the MSU students were common knowledge to three MSU seniors smoking outside Blue Bricks on this December night. Derek Cumm, Matt Anderson and Nate Olson were enjoying a few drinks with friends after wrapping up another semester of finals.

They were candid about their perceptions of college students and other young adults who drink. They don’t believe statistics showing 21 percent of MSU students consume alcohol more than one day each week, 13 percent of students drink only once each week, 30 percent drink less than once a week and 36 percent of students don’t drink at all.