Five killed in Minneapolis shootings; one believed ‘targeted,’ another retaliatory

Three people were killed in what police called a “targeted” and possibly gang-related shooting late Tuesday in south Minneapolis.

It was followed by a broad-daylight killing on Wednesday in the same part of the city, possibly in retaliation. That shooting in turn was followed by another homicide shortly before 8 p.m., near Lake Street.

ShotSpotter activations drew officers to an alley near the intersection of Bloomington Avenue S. and E. 25th Street in the Midtown Phillips neighborhood just before midnight. Police arrived to find five victims, said Police Chief Brian O’Hara.

Three of the victims — a teenager, a man and a woman — were pronounced dead at the scene. Two others, a man and a woman, were taken to a hospital with injuries. The man, O’Hara said, was in “grave” condition.

“This shooting has a high probability that it was targeted and potentially gang related,” O’Hara said at the scene overnight, adding that about an hour later, several rounds were fired five blocks south. Police did not find any victims, but did find evidence of gunfire, O’Hara said. Shortly after, someone was dropped off at Abbott Northwestern Hospital with gunshot wounds.

It was not immediately clear if the second shooting was related to the first, but it “potentially is,” he said.

Late Wednesday, Minneapolis police Sgt. Garrett Parten confirmed that an adult male was shot shortly before 8 p.m. on the 3000 block of 15th Avenue S. and taken to the hospital, where he died. No further details were available.

O’Hara was scheduled to speak at a 1:30 p.m. Wednesday news briefing regarding Tuesday night’s shootings, but it was postponed after police were called around 1 p.m. to another fatal shooting Wednesday afternoon in the 2100 block of Cedar Avenue S., three blocks away from the briefing.

More than a dozen police cars were parked on nearby streets while officers were seen investigating while a body lay in the street.

O’Hara told reporters that a man in his 30s was shot to death Wednesday afternoon and pronounced dead at the scene. A bullet entered a nearby SUV and narrowly missed an infant and toddler strapped in child seats, he noted. According to Mayor Jacob Frey, “We’re hearing from community members that [from] what happened last night, we could be seeing today as a retaliation.”

It was a somber and tense scene in the surrounding area. Residents, many of whom are Indigenous, were consoling each other as they stood outside the scene on Cedar Avenue. Some were crying, while others were just getting off the light rail and were wondering what had happened. Behind the police tape, the street was littered with small markers for where bullet shells were found.

One woman said she heard five to six gunshots. A resident of a nearby apartment complex who declined to give her name said she saw her cousin giving CPR to the man who was killed before the majority of police cars arrived.

O’Hara and Frey noted that investigators are working on leads to locate the shooting suspects.

“I have directed our chief of police to utilize every single available resource to make sure, again, that the perpetrators of these crimes are held responsible,” Frey said.

The Red Lake Band of Chippewa disclosed that Wednesday’s shooting occurred outside the Mino Bimaadiziwin apartment building/Red Lake Nation Embassy.

A statement from the band’s headquarters said police have ensured they “will have a heavy presence in and around” the apartments and the embassy “for the foreseeable future.”

The statement added that the band will beef up its security around the property as well.

The women who were hit by gunfire Tuesday were 20-year-old twins, their aunt told the Star Tribune.

Merelle White did not survive, while sister Maleice is “sedated and responding,” said Danielle May, who was on her way to the hospital.

May said the twins were graduates of Coon Rapids High School and were in the process of relocating from Bemidji to the Twin Cities and “were supposed to move into their apartment this week.”

Lydia Rodriguez of Minneapolis told the Minnesota Star Tribune that her 17-year-old son, Joseph Douglas Goodwin, was among those who were killed.

“I tracked his location using his phone, and I ended up at the crime,” said Rodriguez, who as of Wednesday afternoon had yet to hear from police about the shooting.

Goodwin was with his 27-year-old friend when the gunfire broke out. He also was killed, she said. Police have said a man of that age was among those killed Tuesday night, but they have not released his name.

Rodriguez said her son was a junior at Augsburg Fairview Academy in Minneapolis, “and everything was going good with him.”

O’Hara said during a media briefing late Tuesday that “tonight our city is grieving after a relative period of peace. This is an absolutely senseless tragedy. These victims were targeted.”

He said family members of the victims arrived on scene as officers were attempting to save their lives.

One of the deceased victims was found on a sidewalk; others were inside a vehicle in an alley, O’Hara said.

“Now more than ever, we need our community to stand up and not accept this level of violence. It is proven that if people are able to come forward with information as soon as possible, that will help us to provide some sense of justice for these victims and these family members.”

The killings come amid a recent spate of homicides — totaling six in just under two weeks — after Minneapolis went 62 days without a homicide, starting Feb. 15 and ending the night of April 18, when a man was shot near the intersection of 5th Avenue S. and 9th Avenue S. in downtown Minneapolis. He died five days later.

The most recent year that came close to such a killing drought was 2017, when there were 45 days without a homicide between January and March.

There have been 16 homicides in the city this year, according to a Star Tribune database. That compares to 19 at this time last year in the city.