MINNEAPOLIS — Four children were injured in a shooting in Minneapolis over the weekend, with the city’s police chief calling the incident “brutal” and “outrageous.”
The children, ages 11 to 13, were riding in a stolen Kia early Sunday morning when they were shot with bullets from an automatic weapon fired from a dark-colored sedan following them, police said. No one had been arrested in the shooting as of Monday, a Minneapolis police spokesman told The Associated Press.
Three of the children were hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries, and a fourth suffered a gunshot wound to the head and was in critical but stable condition, Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said Sunday morning after the shooting. Police found about 30 shell casings at the scene, he said.
“Four children shot between the ages of 11 and 14 is outrageous and should be taken up by everyone,” O’Hara said. “The police department is doing everything they can to respond to this, but we can’t just keep responding after it’s happened. More needs to be done to deter this type of activity in the first place.”
A fifth child in the vehicle was unharmed and was initially detained after police discovered the children were driving a stolen car. The Minnesota Star Tribune reported. The 11-year-old was later released.
Police initially said they could not consider charges against the children, but later admitted they had misinterpreted state law, the newspaper reported. Children can be prosecuted in juvenile court. None of the children had been referred for trial in juvenile court as of Monday.
In a statement Monday, Hennepin County District Attorney Mary Moriarty urged Minneapolis police to refer more children to an intervention program designed for youth who commit car theft.
“Law enforcement has several options for referring youth ages 10 and older to our office,” Moriarty said.
According to Moriarty, none of the children shot in the stolen vehicle had been referred to the program.
O’Hara said his department has often seen youths steal cars before becoming involved in violent activities.
“There have been more aggravated assaults, more robberies, more hit-and-runs, more serious crimes, more often committed by the individuals involved in the theft of these cars,” O’Hara said. “One car chasing another car with full-automatic gunfire … it just shows really brazen, callous behavior.”
