Send them back to Somali where their behavior is normal
After another blitz of gunfire, chiefs call for action on Somali-American gangs
Twin Cities law enforcement leaders on Tuesday amplified calls to act on what investigators believe to be a pattern of violent retaliation among Somali-American gangs.
Overnight gunfire at an Eden Prairie gas station and a Bloomington neighborhood follow previous high-profile incidents outside Our Lady of Grace Catholic Church in Edina and Eden Prairie High School’s homecoming football game.
Related stories:
- Fear, frustration and calls for action: Edina leaders confront growing group violence
- Law enforcement sources say Eden Prairie homecoming shooting was related to Somali gang activity
- Shots fired at Edina basketball court prompts church to remove community hoops
Chiefs from Bloomington, Edina, Eden Prairie and the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office addressed the issue during a news conference Tuesday afternoon. You can watch the full video below.
Updates on overnight gunfire
In Bloomington, Police Chief Booker Hodges said police recovered more than 100 rounds following a hail of automatic gunfire on Harriet Avenue, leaving one person with minor injuries.
While there was only one reported casualty, Hodges emphasized that the sheer volume of gunfire endangered the whole neighborhood. He said a woman two blocks away from the scene awakened when a bullet shattered her second-floor bedroom window.
“In all of these shootings, we’ve not seen any sort of, like, bystander, you know, get hurt. But it feels like we’re getting closer to that,” Hodges said.
Eden Prairie Police Chief Matt Sackett said the shots fired incident Monday night outside a Speedway gas stationresulted in the detention of four people who were not directly involved. Investigators believe the gunfire was connected to Somali gang activity, but there was no evidence currently linking it to Friday night’s shooting at Eden Prairie High School.
A new type of gang
Law enforcement characterized this activity as occurring among suburban youths who don’t operate in ways a traditional gang would. Rather than sparring for territory when running drugs or money, these recent confrontations are fueled almost entirely by social media beefs.
Hodges called the offenders “the violent version of B-Rad” — referring to Jamie Kennedy’s character in “Malibu’s Most Wanted,” a privileged white teenager who adopts street gang trappings.
“Shakopee? We got gangsters in Shakopee? We got gangsters named after Burnsville?” Hodges said. “I grew up in northern Minneapolis, right? Sheriff (Dawanna Witt) grew up in south Minneapolis. We had the Bloods and the Crips, Latin Kings. And we got Shakopee, Burnsville, Hopkins? Come on.”
While Hodges derided their suburban backgrounds and motives, he acknowledged that an overall lack of contraband associated with these groups makes it hard to pin them down.
“But the other stuff they do, they are smart and they pay attention. Like, literally the first gang members that we know that go get permits to purchase and carry guns,” Hodges said.
Witt cited one instance in Minneapolis over the summer in which Violent Offender Task Force members found more than three dozen guns while stopping cars over a three-hour span; each gun was in possession of a permit-holder.
The sheriff said the phenomenon might be a “trickle-down effect” of a recent change in state law that dropped the minimum age to apply for a permit to carry from 21 to 18.
‘Defining the problem’
Sackett defended rhetoric publicly linking this activity to Somalis in particular: “We can’t attack a problem, we can’t fix a problem unless we’re truly defining the problem. And right now, currently, it is the Somali-American gang activity that we’re trying to deal with.”
And while Hodges also called out Somali youths, he urged people not to conflate the actions of a few with an entire demographic.
“We have to be smarter than just painting an entire group of people with this broad brush because, being Black, that happened to us growing up, and we can’t have that happen,” Hodges said. “But at the same time, this group we have to deal with because we want y’all to get old. We want y’all to be around here tomorrow.”
Earlier Tuesday, Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher — who was met with backlash when he spearheaded the conversation on Somali gang activity earlier this summer — held a news conference of his own calling for a regional task force on the issue.
Witt pushed back on his claims that no one in Hennepin County was specifically assigned to tackling Somali gangs.
“He just has a habit of talking about stuff he don’t know nothing about,” Witt said. “He never called me and asked that question. So just because he doesn’t know doesn’t mean it’s not happening.”
‘We are going to find you’
“You know that I know that you know that I know, that we know, who you are. So my suggestion is, you turn yourself in,” said Hodges. “Let’s stop playing these games with you running around out here and doing all this stuff. Turn yourself in.”
The chief Tuesday afternoon put what he calls “Somali American gangs” on notice.
Local leaders gathered for the briefing on the search for those who fired around 100 shots outside several homes early Tuesday morning, injuring one person, in a neighborhood near City Hall.
As of 4:30 p.m., investigators had yet to make an arrest, but the chief promised they would catch the shooters and hold them accountable for their actions.
“One hundred rounds in our community. You came to Bloomington. We are going to find you. We are going to lock you up,” he said, holding up an orange jail jumpsuit he promised would be the suspects’ next outfit.
Hodges also played surveillance video of the latest shooting, demonstrating just how many shots were fired.
“The suspects in this case and the victims are all members of our Somali-American community, and I say our Somali-American community because we’re all Americans at the end of the day,” Hodges said.
The chief said incidents like this are beginning as fights on social media that get carried into confrontations in real life.
Hodges said today’s Somali American gangs lack a single leader with a dedicated hierarchy, making it harder to find individual suspects.
“There was a defined leader, defined structure. Everybody knew who held what rank. These … gangs that is not the issue. We don’t know, right? It’s just kind of a hodgepodge,” he said.
Milburn added, “They’re not organized. They argue. They roll into social media, and then we’re all dealing with it on the streets, right?”
That’s just one reason the gathered law enforcement officers said trying to get at the root cause of the gang formation and behavior in an effort to prevent the violence isn’t as easy this time around.
“They’re coming from two-parent homes, living in apartment buildings with $3,500 a month rent, driving Beemers and Mercedes,” Hodges explained. “They’re not dealing with money. There’s no drugs in the house. They’re purchasing legal firearms … These kids are different.”
While the groups still identify by territory, law enforcement says these gangs are much more mobile.
“We know that there is no border. There’s no city or county borders … They’re very mobile. It’s complex,” said Witt.
Hodges agreed.
“People that are just flowing in between different communities and not our residents, which kind of makes it a little bit difficult for us to deal with.”
The illegal guns and social media use are two ways investigators say they are able to track this new type of activity and even solve some of these crimes.
“On Instagram, when you post ‘Shaco just shook up Bloomington,’ kind of easy,” said Hodges.
Hodges said holding the gang members accountable for their actions is about more than just punishment or public safety.
“They’re young, right? But we want them to live to be old. Right? You don’t want to die at 19, 20 because someone called you some stupid name on an electronic device. We want y’all to live to be old, man, and like really get to enjoy the fruits of this country,” Hodges said. “I love y’all. I want y’all to live, man. I want you to live so much. If we got to put you in jail to make it happen, we’ll do it.”
Witt added that jail time is also about deterring other kids from following this path of behavior.
“If people don’t see these young people, youth, young people being held accountable, it’s going to continue to grow,” she said.
The police chiefs and sheriff who gathered in Bloomington Tuesday all said one thing that would help is if the county attorney would prosecute cases when they make an arrest based on other evidence found during traffic stops.
When we asked the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office about this, a spokesperson told us, “Our communities are looking for solutions, and we’re focused on our role in promoting public safety. Our prosecutors communicate daily with law enforcement and will continue to do so. We’ll participate in any group that moves us toward sustainable public safety. The way we approach pros
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