MINNEAPOLIS — In a fiery press conference Monday night, Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O'Hara accused Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty of being untruthful in a press release her office sent out in response to the four children ages 11 to 14 who were shot while driving a stolen car.
"In fact, two of the kids involved in this incident are in the County Attorney's office's YGVI program. So for her to say anything else is simply not true," O'Hara said.
Moriarty's press release stated that "None of the children aged 11 to 13 who were shot while riding in a stolen car over the weekend had been referred to our office by law enforcement for youth auto theft early intervention."
The press release goes on to tout the effectiveness of that intervention program. But it doesn't mention — as pointed out by O'Hara — that two of those kids were already in one of the county attorney's other diversion programs — "Youth Group Violence Intervention" or YGVI.
In addition, according to Minneapolis Police, earlier this month they referred two of those kids — ages 11 and 12 — to Moriarty's office for charges in a prior felony case.
"The County Attorney's office could have taken at least two of these kids off the street 10 days ago prior to this happening," O'Hara said. "But for whatever reason, they didn't."
"I think it's really important that we focus on the young people," said Deputy County Attorney Sarah Davis.
Davis gave an interview in response to O'Hara, but said, by law, she can't answer specific questions about cases involving juveniles.
When asked directly about O'Hara's allegations, Davis responded:
"And I think we really need to move beyond sort of, um, any sort of finger pointing or blame."
Davis said in most cases, the office no longer charges kids under 13 because judges usually deem them incompetent to stand trial. In August 2026, the state is raising the minimum age for juvenile court from 10 to 13.
"And so what ends up really needing to happen is you have to intervene with a social service intervention, which makes a lot more sense because that's more family-centered and provides the whole family context in that intervention with the young person," Davis said.
Davis said if the Hennepin County Attorney's office receives a case for a child they don't want to change, they can initiate the diversion programs.
Regarding the kids who were shot in the stolen car, Chief O'Hara says their parents begged police to arrest them because they can't control the kids and they're afraid they will be killed.
"The kids weren't charged, they weren't diverted and despite pleas from their parents begging for help, begging for them to be detained, they were let back out into the street into the same environment to commit more crimes which they did over the weekend," O'Hara said.
But Davis said putting children that young through the court system ultimately delays getting them services to help them.
"So everything that we're doing is we're trying to hold ourselves and our partners accountable to doing more effective quicker interventions that we know that the evidence shows will improve outcomes and it is working," Davis said.