by Evan Stambaugh
Four people were shot in Minneapolis late Saturday evening, one of whom remains in critical condition.
Police responded to calls of shots fired at the intersection of Main St. and 6th Ave. SE near the Stone Arch Bridge around 11:00 p.m. on June 25. A large crowd of people had gathered at the intersection to allegedly watch “street racers” do burnouts with their vehicles.
The shots are said to have been fired from a white Dodger Charger following an unspecified “argument.” Investigators found rifle and pistol caliber rounds at the scene, but no arrests have yet been made.
At the scene officers found four individuals — of unknown relation to one another — with apparent gunshot wounds. As they tended to the victims and called for ambulances, “multiple fights” broke out among the crowd.
One officer told Alpha News that the Minneapolis Police Department implemented a new overtime policy on May 22. Officers now cannot work six days in a row without one day off in between and at least eight hours separating each shift.
Along with an already understaffed department, that meant the number of available officers was “super short” at the time of the incident.
“There was a little bit of frustration we ran into this weekend, to put it mildly,” he said.
“The problem we ran into this weekend is obviously we had the Pride festival going on, we had a huge influx of people,” he continued. “We have so few cops left and now we’re limited on the number of hours we can work. You’ve got a lot of cops who normally would’ve signed up for these shifts to help out.”
The officer explained that “everything was just super short,” saying the weekend shooting highlighted some of the issues with the new policy.
“It’s heartbreaking,” he said. “It just seems like there’s no place in the city now that’s untouched by all of this.”
According to witnesses, per c, three black males “exchange[d] a weapon at 6th and Main after the shots were fired. One was in a bright pink hoodie. One was in gray, one in a long sleeve blue shirt. One ran toward 35W east on Main.”
The four victims included 17- and 18-year-old females, a 19-year-old male, and a male in his 30s. The teenage victims were each transported to the hospital with non-life-threatening gunshot wounds, but the other victim, Tyler King, was transported to the hospital with a potentially life-threatening gunshot wound to the head.
Crime Watch confirmed that King was an innocent bystander, not a member of the large gathering, meaning he was an “unintended target.”
“He was present at the site, possibly sightseeing with others, on the way to a wedding at another location,” Crime Watch reported.
King’s friends and family have created a GoFundMe page to raise $75,000 for his medical and living expenses. King is married with two children.
“Since the shooting, Tyler has suffered a stroke, a brain bleed and swelling,” the fundraiser description says. “He is currently sedated and being monitored round-the-clock by a nationally recognized medical team dedicated to emergency trauma care. The way Tyler’s body responds in the next 24-48 hours will be critical in determining his long term prognosis.”
“Since he is still in critical condition, we have yet to fully understand what the financial impact all of this will mean for him, his wife and two children, Bennett and Knox. In addition to the extensive medical bills this will incur, Tyler and Abby will be remaining in Minnesota to be close with family for a while, with Tyler unable to work. Like many of us, his family relies on steady income,” the description adds.
Two teenagers were killed by stray bullets in separate incidents last summer while watching street “takeover” events.
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Evan Stambaugh is a freelance writer who had previously been a sports blogger. He has a BA in theology and an MA in philosophy.
Photo “Minneapolis Police Department” by Tony Webster. CC BY 2.0.
