Two people were killed and three others injured, including two teenage girls, in a shooting near the intersection of Hennepin and Fifth streets in downtown Minneapolis early Saturday morning.
It was the second week in a row that a murder had occurred near the intersection. Last Saturday, a 16-year-old girl was killed when a hit-and-run car plowed into a crowd after a late-night fight.
“Downtown Minneapolis is not going to recover unless we have safe streets and clean roads.”
Regarding the recent murders, Minneapolis Police Deputy Chief Katie Blackwell said: He told KMSP-TV“Five families' lives were changed forever last night and our hearts go out to them. It's extremely tragic.”
“These altercations can quickly escalate into violence,” Blackwell told the station, adding:
Investigators told KMSP there's no apparent connection between the incidents, but it has at least one local business owner worried.
“If it happened two weeks in a row, why not three?” Daniel Stensgaard, owner of Daniel's Custom Clothing, an upscale store overlooking the intersection, asked the station.
“It just didn't feel right,” Stensgaard told KMSP about the town, adding that he plans to relocate his store within the next 45 days.
“It's sad to read about 14-, 16- and 17-year-olds who are committing crimes,” he told the station. [on] Hennepin Avenue has had a bit of a bad reputation before, but never like this…Downtown Minneapolis is not going to recover until we have safe streets and clean streets.”
In regards to the recent homicide, KMSP said police recovered a gun at the scene of the shooting and arrested one person on riot charges.
In the previous homicide on Sept. 14, officers responded to a report of a hit-and-run crash around 12:23 a.m. on Hennepin Avenue North at 5th Street, where a female suspect was driving the wrong way up Hennepin Avenue and then down 5th Avenue into a crowd of people, police said.
Six people were taken to Hennepin Healthcare, including a 16-year-old girl who later died. Another victim suffered serious, non-life-threatening injuries, and several others suffered minor injuries.
Stensgaard said: WCCO Television Regarding the first incident, city leaders “should come here at 11 o'clock at night, walk around and see the police shortages and what's going on,” he told the station.
You can read the video report here About both murders.
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