MINNEAPOLIS, MN - The home state of Democratic vice-presidential candidate Tim Walz continues to steady crime, this time seeing four children under the age of 15 shot while riding inside a stolen car Sunday morning, KARE-11 reports.
Minneapolis police chief Brian O’Hara told reporters the department received multiple ShotSpotter activations shortly after 1:00 a.m. Sunday morning. The ShotSpotter activations came from two separate locations a few blocks apart.
Simultaneously, 911 operators received a 911 call from a separate location reporting a vehicle with multiple people inside all suffering from gunshot wounds. Four of the five occupants, all minors, sustained gunshot wounds, two males and two females.
The four injured children were transported to Hennepin County Medical Center, while the fifth was taken into custody since the car had been reported stolen.
According to preliminary information, the five were driving a stolen Kia in the city when a dark-colored vehicle started to follow them, with the occupants firing automatic weapons, O’Hara said. Authorities said approximately 30 shell cases were recovered from the scene and believe that even more shots had been fired.
The injured minors ranged in age from 11 to 14. Three of the minors had non-life-threatening injuries, two males and a female. The fourth, a female, suffered a gunshot wound to the head and was listed in critical but stable condition Sunday morning.
“This is a tremendous problem we’ve been having over the last two years that I’ve been here,” O’Hara said. “Juveniles joyriding in stolen cars and then becoming involved in more and more serious crime.”
O’Hara told KARE-11 that theft of Kia’s and Hyundai’s is down this summer overall, noting that the two vehicles accounted for less than half of all vehicles stolen in the city. He did note, however, that there has been somewhat of an increase in Kia and Hyundai thefts in August.
“What’s most notable over the course of the year is while there are fewer of these cars being stolen, the activity that these juveniles are involved with has become more and more brazen,” Chief O’Hara said.
He said there were more robberies, aggravated assaults, hit-and-runs, and serious crimes “more frequently” committed by people involved with the theft of these vehicles.
O’Hara called the trend “very concerning.”
Of the five inside the car, two had been arrested earlier in August inside a stolen car, O’Hara said.
“We are failing to deter this behavior, and with that being said, we are failing these kids as well,” he said.
Apparently, efforts to “reimagine policing” in Minneapolis haven’t worked as advertised during the defund the police movement in the wake of George Floyd’s death.
Three years ago, Pethuel LeFlore started a youth violence intervention program as part of the Oasis of Love Crisis Intervention Center. LeFlore is the executive director at the Intervention Center.
She noted she and her team work with children between the ages of nine to 19 to “circumvent violence and intervene where trauma, violence, and unhealthy behaviors have taken place.”
“We really are trying to provide and promote healthy outlets in a place where they can be heard and seen,” LeFlore said. She said the center has a curriculum designed to “end kids' relationship with violence,” and that kids need an outlet to “talk about their trauma, talk about their fears, and the mistreatment they receive.”
“They’ve become desensitized to crime, to not having enough, to suffering. If we can bring them back to a place of reality and humanity and say ‘we hear you, we see you, we accept you, and we want to still support and help you’ then we open the door to children who are ashamed and embarrassed to share that they need help and support,” she said.
The program offers outlets for kids to relieve their threats through various programs such as “mindful management, cosmetology, and learning how to DJ. There is also a mentorship program with business owners, counseling services, transportation support, and provide workshop and leadership opportunities.
“They’re our future. We have to begin to pour into them together,” LeFlore said.
Meanwhile, the cycle of violence that is injuring and killing our young people in major cities continues unabated.
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