MINNEAPOLIS — Having just finished his shift at work, 21-year-old Will Vogel was hungry. So just before midnight Sunday, he bought a slice of pizza at Frank and Andrea's in Dinktytown.
Before he could reach his car, Vogel says he was surrounded by a group of teens.
"Started picking at my food and calling me names. So I just told them I was going back to my car," he said. "I was outnumbered by far. I didn’t say anything. I didn’t call them any names."
But then the harassment turned into assault.
"They started hitting me. My shoulder — dislocated. I was defenseless," Vogel said. "They surrounded me. Punching me. Kicking me. I was on the ground."
Vogel got up, made it to his car, and pulled a tire iron out of the trunk.
"The closest thing I could find. I was like, 'Get away from me right now. Get away from me,'" he recalled. "As soon as I grabbed out a piece of metal, they raised their firearms — at my face. Arm’s length away and started firing. As I ran away to a house that was closest to me."
On surveillance video captured at a neighboring house on 5th Street Southeast, at least 11 gunshots can be heard. Vogel said police informed him the shell casings came from at least three different caliber firearms.
Somehow, Vogel was not hit by the bullets.
"Maybe I just got lucky," Vogel said "There was a 3- to 4-second period between when the gun was pulled to before it was fired — and I was able to tell them 'Stop. Think about it.' I tried to talk some sense but I couldn't even get a word out."
To top it off, Vogel said at least two teens were filming the gunfire with their cell phones, egging on and encouraging their friends to shoot.
Several young women who will graduate this weekend from the U of M live at the house Vogel ran to for refuge. Without knowing the circumstances behind the gunfire, they at first didn't know if it was safe to let Vogel in. He showed them he was injured and unarmed.
"Well yeah it's scary for sure," said Josie Peterson, who says he has nearly grown numb to the campus safety alerts she and her friends have received during her four years at the U.
"I think the saddest part is what happened last night isn't necessarily a surprising thing. And that's the scariest part of it," Peterson said.
And that sentiment regarding violence in Dinkytown is something that's sticking with Vogel.
"It almost seemed like it's a normal thing to those girls. Which is scary to me – because I've never seen anything like that in my life," he said.
No one has been arrested. In response to the incident, police moved a portable light to the block where the gunfire took place to act as a deterrent.
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