A 17-year-old boy was shot and killed when a gunman opened fire on a group of people standing outside a north Minneapolis convenience store on Monday afternoon, police said.
Responding officers tried to revive the teen, whose name wasn't released, before he was transported to a nearby hospital, where he later died, said Minneapolis Police Department spokesman John Elder. Another victim, a man, suffered serious gunshot injuries, but is expected to survive, Elder said.
The boy was the city's 59th homicide victim of the year — and the ninth who was 18 or under — according to a database maintained by the Star Tribune.
Elder said the two victims were standing with a group of people in the parking lot of the Super USA, at 3807 N. Fremont Av. when at least one suspect opened fire. A graphic video posted online captured the shooting's aftermath, showing a number of people milling around outside the store, some speaking frantically, while the boy lay face down on the pavement.
A witness, who declined to be identified, said that he was driving by when he had noticed a green truck pull up to the group and then heard bursts of gunfire — "big shells, like bup, bup, bup." The witness said he pulled into the parking lot and rushed over to the boy to offer aid, but stopped when a woman instructed him not to move the body.
No arrests had been announced as of Monday afternoon.
The incident continued a surge in bloodshed since the unrest after the May 25 killing of George Floyd and the riots that followed, with the city setting a 20-year high in homicides late last month. In the crime-heavy 1990s, the city regularly recorded more than 60 homicides per year — including an all-time high of 97 in 1995 — but as in other cities across the country the number of slayings slowly declined in the ensuing years.
But the city has seen a resurgence of violence this year, which experts attribute to a variety of factors ranging from warming temperatures and unrest over police brutality to the economic and psychological strain of the COVID-19 pandemic. At the same time, they point out that overall crime remains at generational lows across the country.
Also on Monday, authorities named three 2020 homicide victims who had remained unidentified for weeks after their slayings.
Leon Lambert, 41, was gunned down on July 31 in the 4000 block of N. Humboldt Avenue, and four days later Robert Taylor, also 41, was shot to death in the area of E. 19th Street and S. Elliot Avenue. Authorities also said that 20-year-old Clement Chea was the victim of an apparent carjacking-gone-wrong when he was shot to death in south Minneapolis on Aug. 18, apparently by a gunman who was later killed.
Authorities did not say why it took so long to identify the victims.
Libor Jany • 612-673-4064 Twitter: @StribJany
