The Minneapolis Police Department is investigating after an Army veteran succumbed to injuries sustained during an attempted auto theft in Minneapolis on Friday outside Rick’s Coffee Bar on the 5400 block of 43rd Avenue South.
Information was limited at the time due to Minneapolis police radio encryption, but the coffee bar, run by nonprofit Every Third Saturday (ETS), whose proceeds benefit veterans, posted on Monday that Amos Ferrier was severely injured during a robbery and lost his life.
A statement from Rick’s Coffee Bar said:
“It is with profound sadness that we have lost our Internship Director, Amos Ferrier. Amos was severely injured during a robbery and lost his life. We don’t have co-workers at ETS, we have family members. Amos was our brother. He was decorated for bravery due to actions he took while serving as an army medic in Afghanistan and was credited with saving multiple lives. During his time at ETS, he impacted all of our lives with his humor, infectious laugh, and abundance of knowledge. Amos was the kind of person you always wanted to see and have a chat with. He will leave a hole in both his biological family and his ETS family that can never be filled. May God take him by the hand and guide him through the gates of heaven. Information regarding arrangements will be released as appropriate. His family asks for privacy at this time.”
Monday evening, the Minneapolis Police Department released the following details in a statement:
“On May 15, 2026, at approximately 1:35 p.m., Third Precinct officers responded to what was initially reported as a personal injury accident in the 5400 block of 43rd Avenue South.
Officers arrived and provided immediate medical aid for a 38-year-old man who was unconscious in the street after being thrown from a vehicle. The injured man was transported by ambulance to Hennepin Healthcare with life-threatening injuries.
Preliminary information indicates that the man confronted two individuals who were attempting to steal his vehicle. The suspects abandoned the attempted theft and ran to the vehicle they had arrived in.
As the suspects attempted to flee, the victim was either struck by the suspects’ vehicle or jumped onto the hood. The suspects continued driving evasively causing the victim to be thrown from the hood of the vehicle and sustain a serious head injury. The suspects fled the area.
On Sunday, May 17, 2026, the Minneapolis Police Department was notified that the victim had died from injuries sustained in the incident. MPD homicide investigators are working to determine the full sequence of events that led to the incident. There have been no arrests.”
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said in the statement, “This is a tragic event that has devastated a family and shocked the community. The reckless disregard for the value of human life shown in this case is horrifying, and those responsible should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
Alpha News has been reporting on the increase in auto thefts in Minneapolis that began spiking in January and hasn’t let up since. The Minneapolis police crime dashboard shows 2,258 auto thefts so far this year, through May 17, compared to 1,830 during the same period in 2025, an increase of just under 25% from last year.
Earlier this month, a Minnesota state trooper was seriously injured when a 19-year-old suspect, free under the auspices of a Hennepin County “diversion program” for an auto theft he committed last year, T-boned the trooper’s squad while fleeing police in another stolen vehicle in south Minneapolis.
Crime Watch Minneapolis has been tracking auto thefts in the city nearly daily for several months. Many days have seen upwards of two dozen auto thefts in a day, in addition to correlated property damage reports of broken vehicle windows and thefts from vehicles.
Minneapolis Police Department officials have offered a shifting iteration of reasons for the spike in auto thefts this year, which started with blaming the weather, then ICE’s Operation Metro Surge, and most recently the “technology” of key programming devices. Last year, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison settled a lawsuit with Hyundai and Kia, which blamed them for their vehicles being too easy to steal.
Alpha News will continue to follow developments in the death investigation involving Amos Ferrier.
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Minnesota Crime Watch & Information publishes news, info and commentary about crime, public safety and livability issues in Minneapolis, the Twin Cities and Greater Minnesota.
Crime Watch MN
Minnesota Crime Watch & Information publishes news, info and commentary about crime, public safety and livability issues in Minneapolis, the Twin Cities and Greater Minnesota.
