MINNEAPOLIS — A Minneapolis police spokesperson said three people were shot early Saturday morning in downtown Minneapolis.
It happened around 1:30 a.m. on the 400 block of Hennepin Avenue. The MPD spokesperson said officers who were nearby heard gunshots, then found two men with gunshot wounds.
Police said a third man, who had been grazed by a bullet, was found on the LRT platform. He was arrested and booked into Hennepin County Adult Detention Center for Probable Cause 2nd Degree Assault.
Police said all three men's injuries are not life threatening.
It's the latest violence in what some have been saying is an especially high year for crime.
Recently, more than 40 downtown business owners sent a letter to the Mayor's office and Minneapolis City Council asking for their plan.
"You're getting harassed, or yelled at, or there's a fight in front of you," Tanya Spaulding, who serves as a representative for those businesses, told KARE 11 at the time.
A spokesperson for the mayor sent KARE 11 the following statement at the time:
“Over the last several months, Mayor Frey has worked with Chief Arradondo and taken decisive steps toward meaningful reforms and strengthening public safety throughout our city.
“The mayor and chief have enhanced accountability on critical incident scenes, put in place new policy measures to emphasize de-escalation, and overhauled the department’s use of force policy. At the same time, every Minneapolis resident and worker deserves to feel safe in our city. That’s why they’ve made the difficult but necessary decision to reallocate resources within the department, reassigning over 90 active officers to 911 response and investigative work.
“Both are committed to working with any and all partners willing to commit to doing the hard work of creating safer, healthier communities and moving our city forward.”
This week Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo spoke about the reassignment of officers during a presentation to the city council's budget committee.
He said the already short-staffed department has had to decommission some crime prevention units to ensure adequate staffing to respond to 911 calls and investigations. He warned if the department continues to see more attrition, more units will have to be "deactivated."
"It's really something I'd rather not do, but it's going to focus [the department] on being one dimensional and that is really going to be focusing on patrol and investigations," Arradondo told the committee.