North Minneapolis sees 30% jump in shootings: What it looks like first-hand
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If any Minneapolis police officer knows the city's north side, it would be Lt. Michael Friestleben, who has spent the better part of his 26-year career patrolling its streets and played there as a boy.
A lot has changed since Friestleben played in the McKinley neighborhood four decades ago, when young men and boys who got into arguments occasionally came to blows. But these days, such conflict is likely to turn violent.
With so many guns available, too many young men — some involved with street gangs — are willing to use them to settle their disputes, he said.
"With these splinter, more violent gangs, they're just quicker to pull the trigger," Friestleben said. "It doesn't matter where they're at. They have no clue as where the gunfire is going, who's getting hit."
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Gang violence is one factor that has contributed to a nearly 30 percent increase in shootings in north Minneapolis over the same time period last year. Since January, the area has seen 113 shootings, compared to 87 in the same period last year.
As the department increased its patrols of hot spots, officers have collected more than 320 guns from crime scenes and traffic stops in the area this year, a big portion of the 491 guns collected citywide.
For Friestleben, reports of crimes involving guns are all too frequent. Anyone who rides with him on a patrol of north Minneapolis will see that first hand, as I did Tuesday when he turned his car toward the Heritage Park neighborhood just outside of downtown, off Olson Memorial Highway.
A 911 caller reported that a 15-year-old black male wearing a blue shirt and black pants took a gun out of a red backpack and pointed it at her brother. Dispatchers told officers that he was seen going eastbound on foot toward the Heritage Park apartments.
When we pulled up at a Heritage Park intersection, several officers surrounded a black teen who was wearing a blue T-shirt and dark blue sweatpants. A red backpack sat on the trunk of a squad car. But the officers didn't find a gun and let the young man go.
Friestleben then received a call on his cell phone from V.J. Smith, president of MAD DADS, an anti-violence advocacy group. Smith had just spoken with a woman whose home has been shot at multiple times and wanted to talk to someone from the Police Department.
We returned to the McKinley neighborhood where Yolanda Pierce is standing in front of her house. Brightly colored signs were posted on the house and a tree in the front yard, some of which read "Don't Shoot." As gospel music blared from an SUV from across the street, Pierce showed Friestleben where several bullets had struck her home.
"There's one embedded just above the blue sign," she said, pointing to where a bullet hit the house.
Earlier that morning, Pierce said, her house was struck by gunfire for the third time in two weeks. Last weekend, she said, one of those bullets went through the house and struck her pregnant 21-year-old daughter in the back. Pierce said her daughter is now out of the hospital and doing fine. She told Friestleben she doesn't know who fired the shots, but said her house is being targeted because of her daughter's boyfriend.
"This is because of her kids' father. This is all because of him. This has nothing to do with our home," she said. "This is what he's doing out in the streets. He doesn't even live here."
Pierce, who has lived in the house for 11 years, said she's not going to let somebody else push her out of her home.
Longtime anti-violence advocate K.G. Wilson said he's never seen a situation where a family has posted signs on their house asking not to get shot at.
"We cannot have another Nizzel Banks [George] or another Terrell Mayes and that's what this reminds me of," Wilson said, recalling two young boys killed in recent years.
Nizzel was five and Terrell was three when they were hit by bullets fired into their homes. Last year, a teenager pleaded guilty to second-degree intentional murder in Nizzel's death. Terrell's killing remains unsolved.
Friestleben said he'll see that more officers drive by the house and get a portable police camera placed nearby.
"And I gave her my own cell — my personal cell number here," he said. "So she can call me or I'll check in with her later tonight and I'll probably check in tomorrow a couple times."
Friestleben said the incident shows how police and community members can work together to stop gun violence. He said sometimes people are afraid to go to police with information, but feel more comfortable talking with activists like Smith or Wilson.
"We have to work together," Friestleben said. "It can't be just the police way. That doesn't necessarily work. It can't be just the community way because they don't understand sometimes what the rules are or how we operate. But we need to start connecting more. We have to. We have to because we do serve this community."
