Police: Downtown Mpls. shootings that hurt 6 were related

Updated: 5 p.m. | Posted: 6:07 a.m.

Police say the two shootings that left six people injured in downtown Minneapolis early Monday morning were related.

The victims are all expected to survive and one person is in custody, police say.

Authorities said they believe the shootings were gang related. Officers recovered two guns involved in the incidents. The Hennepin County Attorney's Office has until the end of Tuesday to file charges.

"These groups of people weren't in any businesses, they were just downtown on a street corner," Minneapolis Police Chief Janee Harteau said at a press conference Monday afternoon.

"This isn't about downtown," she said. "This is about groups of people who have guns and are ready to use them. It's about a moment in time."

It all started early in the morning near 5th Street and Hennepin Avenue when two groups of people started fighting and livestreamed online, Harteau said.

The first shooting occurred near the 1st Precinct police station on Fourth Street around 1:15 a.m. Two men sustained non-life threatening wounds, and a gun was recovered in a nearby parking lot.

Harteau said the department has plenty of video footage of some of the violence.

The second shooting occurred about 15 minutes later near Hennepin Avenue and Fourth Street. Police found four victims there, three men and a juvenile male.

Three of the victims suffered non-life-threatening injuries while the fourth was shot in the chest and is in stable condition. One suspect was arrested after a foot chase.

Five of the six wounded in the shootings are well-known to police and have been named in more than 100 police reports for offenses including assault and weapons charges, Harteau added.

"The suspects disregarded the hundreds if not thousands of cameras we have downtown, the dozens and dozens of officers, uniformed officers, plain-clothed officers we have downtown," she said. "The fact that a precinct was right across the street was totally disregarded."

Harteau didn't name the gangs represented by the suspects and victims of the shootings.

However, court documents show that police investigators have focused enforcement on feuding gangs that are based in north Minneapolis. Police say those gangs often taunt or threaten each other through videos posted on social media sites like Facebook and YouTube.

Mayor Betsy Hodges called gun violence in any part of the city unacceptable and restated her budget proposal to raise the authorized strength of the force by 15 more officers next year.

However, Hodges acknowledged it will take more than a larger police force to stop the violence. The city plans to use federal grant dollars to support community-based programs designed to directly intervene in the lives of violent offenders, she added.

The latest crime statistics show shootings in downtown Minneapolis are down compared to last year at this time.

However, perceptions formed by some after incidents like the most recent shootings present a challenge, said Steve Cramer, president and CEO of the Downtown Council.

"We have to drive home the reality of what the data and the everyday experience of most people who come and live and work and play downtown have without sugarcoating the serious problem we do have," he said.

The section of downtown known as the warehouse district has been the scene of late night shootings many times before. Last month, two men and a woman were wounded by gunfire.

Last year, police officers were nearly caught up in a gun battle near a light rail station.

Several years ago, the city of Minneapolis cracked down on nightclubs that were the scene of violent altercations. In 2012, the owners of the club Envy agreed to give up their liquor license following violent incidents linked to club patrons.

Another nearby club gave up its liquor license and became an arcade.

In 2014, a bar where a Minnesota Vikings player was wounded in the leg also closed its doors under scrutiny from the city.

Harteau , though, said surveillance video shows that the suspects and the victims of the most recent shooting were not patrons at any of the downtown entertainment businesses.

It's often the case that people who commit violent assaults are not bar and restaurant patrons, said Joanne Kaufman, spokesperson for the Warehouse District Business Association.

"They are pretty consistently people who are coming into the neighborhood to either prey on our customers, our employees, our residents, our patrons," she said.