Minneapolis Native community mourns victims of gunfire
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Dozens of Minneapolis Native residents and city officials gathered at Cedar Avenue Field Park Thursday morning to grieve six people killed in shootings over the previous two days.
Mourners gathered around fires and a drum circle and prayed for an end to the recent string of violence.
Longtime neighborhood resident Carrie Day Aspinwall led a prayer.
“I've been in this neighborhood, I've been in this park all my life,” Aspinwall said. “We took care of one another, and that's what we need to do today.”
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Minneapolis police are investigating three shootings that killed six and injured two. The first happened late Tuesday, near the corner of 25th Street and Bloomington Avenue. Three people died at the scene: a 17-year-old boy, a 20-year-old woman and a 27-year-old man. Minneapolis police announced early Friday that a fourth victim, a 28-year-old man, died from his injuries. Another person was seriously injured.
Two shootings in the neighborhood Wednesday left two more people dead: a man in his 30s and a man in his 50s.
Police believe none of the shootings were random, and said the first two appear to be connected. Police Chief Brian O’Hara said he believes the victims of the first two shootings were Native.
Vin Dionne is a leader of the Many Shields Society, a Minneapolis organization for Native men. He said the violence has rocked the tight-knit community.
“When we lose one young person before their time, that's devastating to us. That's devastating to our future, that creates a lot of trauma,” Dionne said.
Dionne said he was close with one of the men who was killed and had recently talked to him about joining Many Shields.
“We have to heal,” Dionne said. “We have to come together. We have to support one another.”
In a statement Wednesday, Red Lake Nation leaders said they are in touch with city officials and adding security patrols at the Mino Bimaadiziwin apartment building, near where one of the shootings took place. The statement said counselors from the Native American Community Clinic will also be available at the Red Lake Nation Embassy and the Mino Bimaadiziwin Wellness Clinic.
The community had been planning celebrations to kick off American Indian Month, including a parade, an Indian Health Board groundbreaking ceremony and a powwow. Those were canceled Thursday in light of the shootings.
O’Hara said extra police are on patrol in the neighborhood.
“We're doing everything that we can both to deploy all available law enforcement resources — federal, state and local — to address the investigation as well as to provide presence,” O’Hara said at Thursday’s community gathering.
Authorities on Thursday announced an arrest in the Tuesday night quadruple homicide.