5 shootings kill 5 people, injure 5 others across the city Wednesday

Minneapolis police are investigating five shootings that happened across the city from late Tuesday night and into Wednesday evening and left five people dead and another five injured.

The shootings occurred at the following locations.

25th Street and Bloomington Avenue, just before midnight on Tuesday.

Cedar Avenue and 17th Avenue at 1 p.m.

3300 block of Harriet Avenue at 2:25 p.m.

Girard Avenue North around 3:50 p.m.

15th Avenue South and Lake Street around 7:45 p.m.

In the first shooting near 25th Street and Bloomington Avenue, police say two men, two women and a teenage boy were found shot at the scene: Four were inside a vehicle, and another was on the sidewalk.

The 17-year-old boy, a 20-year-old woman and a 27-year-old man were pronounced dead at the scene, Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said. The remaining man and woman were taken to Hennepin County Medical Center with life-threatening injuries.

The second shooting happened just after 1 p.m. Wednesday near the intersection of Cedar and 17th avenues, three blocks from the previous night’s triple homicide. Officers responding to the scene found a man in his 30s who had been shot; he was pronounced dead at the scene.

While it’s unclear if the deceased man shot back, O’Hara said police did recover a gun from the scene.

One of the rounds fired at the Cedar and 17th avenues scene hit a nearby SUV and narrowly missed two young children — an infant and a toddler — who were sitting in the backseat, Chief O’Hara said.

Shortly before 2:30 p.m., police were called to the 3300 block of Harriet Avenue after receiving calls of gunfire and a man being loaded into a vehicle. Officers at the scene found gunfire had damaged vehicles and at least one home. Police say a man was dropped off at Abbott Northwestern Hospital for non-life-threatening gunshot injuries about 20 minutes after they were called to the scene. He has since been taken to Hennepin Healthcare.

Then, around 3:50 p.m., officers were called to the 2900 block of Girard Avenue North, where they found a man and a woman who were both injured. The man is said to have a potentially life-threatening gunshot wound, while the woman’s is considered non-life-threatening, according to police, who add they believe an outdoor altercation escalated to a shooting. They were both taken to North Memorial Hospital.

The third fatal shooting happened just before 8 p.m. on Lake Street and 15th Avenue. A man who police say was in his 50s was found with life-threatening injuries at the scene. He later died at an area hospital.

Police say at this time, they don’t believe the shootings were random, and they’re still working to see if the incidents are connected.

O’Hara said the proximity of the shootings and rumblings from the community that “something is going on” have led investigators to believe the incidents were targeted and potentially connected to gang activity.

“Often times what is the case in the community violence that we see, particularly when we think there may be a connection or some way associated with gang activity, that conflicts tend to be resolved in this manner,” O’Hara said. “And we’ve just seen an outrageous amount of violence in the past 13 hours.”

A resident of the area missed walking into the first fatal shooting scene by just a few minutes.

He told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS he usually walks his dog in the neighborhood at that time.

“My concerns about it is, well, first, it’s unsafe,” says Thomas Shyman, a neighbor. ”I kind of dread walking my dog after dark because of things like that, so I got real lucky there.”

“It’s a shame, man,” adds Kenneth Morgan, another neighbor. “It’s getting bad. Something’s got to be done. There was a spot where there weren’t any murders for a while — which was good until last night.”

A man named Joe, who didn’t want his last name used or his face on TV, says more police are urgently needed in the neighborhood.

“Let’s get them driving by,” he says. “Let’s get them riding their bikes. Let’s get them walking out here. Every day, all the time. Let’s get some more help.”

As of Thursday morning, no arrests had been made, but police say they are following several leads.

O’Hara encouraged anyone with knowledge of the people responsible for the shootings to come forward. You can email police by clicking HERE or call 612-673-5845. You can also contact CrimeStoppers at 1-800-222-8477 or by clicking HERE.

‘Progress is fragile’

Just two weeks ago, Minneapolis celebrated a major milestone in its quest to curb gun violence: Over a two-month span from Feb. 16 to April 17, the city did not record a single homicide.

O’Hara credited the success to focused enforcement in problem areas, targeting high-impact offenders and partnerships with community groups and federal prosecutors.

Back-to-back murders on April 18 and 19 ended the streak, and a deadly shooting Sunday night set the tone for this week.

“It shows that progress is fragile,” O’Hara said while addressing the latest homicides on Wednesday. “And though I’m confident that we have very good partnerships and sound strategies, that alone is not enough. And so, again, as I was making an appeal for community help, we need everyone to stand up and say, ‘This is not OK.'”

The shooting late Tuesday night occurred in an area that has seen slight upticks in gun violence.

While shots fired calls have decreased citywide over the last two years, data from the city’s crime dashboard show those numbers have steadily risen in the Midtown Phillips neighborhood.

The same is true for gunshot wound victim numbers. At this time in 2023, the Midtown Phillips neighborhood reported just two victims, compared to four this year. The data does not include the five individuals shot on Tuesday night.

https://kstp.com/kstp-news/top-news/shootings-3-blocks-apart-kill-4-injure-2-others-gang-connection-possible/

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5719401&forum_id=2#48897398)