Minneapolis homicide detectives searched Monday for a man they say fatally shot a taxi driver who had confronted two men breaking into his cab, officials said.
The victim was shot about 4:30 p.m. 1000 block of 22nd Street E.
The surrounding community has been rattled by violence in recent days, including the slaying of a man last week that sent an area hospital into lockdown and a double shooting at nearby Peavey Park.
On Monday, police responded to the scene after receiving multiple 911 calls about shots fired in the area. When they arrived, they found the victim unconscious and without a pulse. They resuscitated him before he was taken to a nearby hospital with "grave injuries," according to MPD spokesman John Elder.
The man, whose age and identity weren't released, died some time later at HCMC, Elder said.
A preliminary police investigation determined that the victim had come upon the two men as they tried to break into his taxi and chased after them as they fled on foot. As the suspects fled, one of them allegedly turned back and shot at the victim, striking him once.
It was the city's 36th homicide of 2020 — twice as many as it had at this time last year, according to Police Department records. That tally doesn't include the death of a man, whose charred body was found in the wreckage of a South Side pawnshop that burned nearly two months ago in the riots that followed George Floyd's death.
No arrests had been made as of Monday evening in the fatal shooting of the taxi driver.
Ryan Faircloth and Libor Jany
