MINNEAPOLIS — Day is breaking with a flurry of activity on the near south side of Minneapolis Wednesday as police process what they confirm is a fatal shooting scene.
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O'Hara told KARE 11's Audrey Russo that around 4:40 a.m. Shot Spotter technology alerted officers to at least four rounds fired near 17th Avenue South and 26th Street in the Phillips neighborhood. Squads responded to a residential alley and found two victims, a 20-year-old man who had been shot in the head and a man in his 30s suffering from a bullet wound in his neck.
Officers performed life-saving measures until paramedics arrived. O'Hara said the man who was shot in the head did not survive, while the second victim is being treated at the hospital but is expected to recover.
Chief O'Hara said the scene involves an encampment of unhoused people that includes a portion of the alley and a vacant lot on 17th Avenue South. He said early evidence indicates one of the men was shot in the actual encampment, while the other was shot in the alley.
Just hours before the shooting, Minneapolis police attended a community meeting at the nearby American Indian Center where residents expressed frustration at the levels of violence and drug activity in and surrounding the encampment.
"We heard from a whole lot of community members in the neighborhood here who have been fed up with a lot of the crime, and the violence and the drug use, open drug use associated with a lot of these encampments," O'Hara told reporters on the scene.
“There's a 20-year-old man that's dead this morning. Another man in his 30s has been injured by gunfire, and a whole community is impacted.” O’Hara added in a statement released later Wednesday morning, pointing out that kids were getting up and walking past a crime scene to the bus stop. “They have to deal with walking past this every day, seeing needles and everything else that goes on here. Now they're walking past crime scene tape. It's a serious, serious issue, and we're looking forward to working with everyone who possibly can do their part to help us prevent things like this. There's been way too much crime and violence this year, and way too much associated with homelessness.”
The chief said as soon as the crime scene is processed, officers will assist Minneapolis city employees in clearing the encampment from the neighborhood. He added that investigators have strong information as to the identity of the suspected shooter, but that person is not yet in custody.
This is a developing story. KARE 11 will have the latest updates as they unfold.