A teen died in a fatal shooting late Sunday night in north Minneapolis, and police are investigating the death as a possible homicide by another teen.
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said in a media briefing following the shooting on the 2900 block of Russell Avenue North that the initial 911 caller said the teen had shot himself. When police arrived, the teen was deceased at the scene from a single gunshot wound. Available dispatch audio from first responders at the time stated that the teen had been shot in the head.
However, police received additional information suggesting that the deceased teen was shot by another male juvenile during a birthday gathering in the home’s basement. Although the second male was taken into custody, the chief stopped short of calling him a suspect or calling the shooting a homicide until further information about the circumstances could be discovered. At the time of this report, no new information had been released by police.
The death followed two other recent fatal shootings: one early Saturday morning in Dinkytown, near the University of Minnesota campus that killed one person and injured two others, including a U of M student; and the other early Thursday morning when a worker in south Minneapolis confronted a prowler in his workplace parking lot. No arrests in either of those fatal shootings have been announced by police.
The Minneapolis police crime dashboard lists 54 homicides so far this year; that number does not include Sunday’s shooting of the teen in north Minneapolis. During the same period last year, Minneapolis had 66 homicides. While down from last year, the city’s homicide number is still far outpacing pre-Covid lockdowns and pre-George Floyd riot numbers, when in 2019 the city had 37 homicides through the same period.
Alpha News will continue to follow updates in the recent shootings.
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.
