1 dead, 11 injured in Uptown shooting
MINNEAPOLIS >> A shooting in a popular Minneapolis nightlife area early Sunday left one man dead and 11 people wounded in a chaotic scene that sent people ducking into restaurants and other businesses for cover.
The shooting broke out shortly after midnight in the city’s trendy Uptown neighborhood, a nightlife hub with bars, restaurants and retail, including Apple and Fjallraven stores.
Police first said 10 people had been shot with “various severity levels of injuries,” but revised the total upward in a tweet posted just after 3 a.m. The man died at the hospital, not at the scene, they said. None of the other injuries were considered life-threatening.
Police said they believe there was more than one shooter, described only as “individuals on foot.” No one was in custody, and police have not said what may have prompted the shooting. All of the injured were adults.
Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo said during a news conference Sunday that it was “tragic and senseless violence” and called the recent uptick in violent crime a public health crisis. He said that “we absolutely do have several leads” on suspects and are getting assistance from the FBI and state agencies.
In video posted to Facebook that showed the immediate aftermath, screams could be heard as small crowds of people gathered, with some crouched over people lying on the pavement before police officers on bicycles showed up to attend to them.
Fred Hwang, a manager at Hoban Korean BBQ, said he was working the front door when he heard shots from the sidewalk a couple of storefronts down. Hwang described hearing “a lot of shots” and said it appeared to be groups of people shooting at each other.
“People were trying to rush inside the restaurant for safety,” he said. “It was a very scary experience . ... We have bullet holes inside our restaurant like on the walls and stuff. All of our front glass was broken and shattered. Then, just like people being in here panicking and running around, breaking this or that, it was very chaotic.”
Across the street from where the shooting began, in a storefront shared by the Uptown Theater and a shoe store, a police officer later Sunday surveyed a shattered window and door and a bullet hole could be seen in the storefront.
The Uptown area is about 3 miles west of the Minneapolis commercial area and neighborhood hit by rioting in the wake of George Floyd’s May 25 death after being arrested by Minneapolis police.