Minneapolis Police Chief frustrated by latest homicide in city Tuesday night

Four murders have been committed in Minneapolis since Friday with the latest happening Tuesday night.

Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara says officers were called to a report of shots fired on East 19th Street, between Nicollet and First Avenues, just south of downtown Minneapolis. That's where police found a man in his 20s suffering from gunshot wounds.

He was pronounced dead on the scene.

"We are up at this point, year-to-date compared to last year," O'Hara says of murders in the city.

He adds that it's frustrating because they are down investigators in the MPD.

"It's an intense need for manpower to investigate these very quickly," says the chief.

The crimes are also focused in the same areas according to O'Hara.

"So, we're trying to do everything that we can to try and prevent some of these things from occurring," O'Hara explained. "But it is, it is frustrating just knowing that, you know, you can't be everywhere at once."

Police are already investigating a weekend shooting that left one man dead and another injured.

It happened late Saturday night on the 2900 block of Grand Avenue in South Minneapolis. Police found 27-year old Kadar Jabril suffering from gunshot wounds. He died at the scene. A second man, said to be in his 20s, also was shot but is expected to survive.

Police say the two men were part of a group walking on the sidewalk when the shots were fired, but they are not clear on what led to the shooting.

Police say the possible suspects may have been seen running from the scene but no arrests yet.

The first weekend shooting happened Friday night near Park Avenue and Lake Street. Police say they arrived to find a man outside who had been shot. He was taken to Hennepin County Medical Center where he died.

Two other people were injured.  Police say they think there was some kind of a verbal altercation that eventually erupted in gunfire.

Through September 2, which would not include the two latest shootings, 45 murders have been committed in the city compared with 42 in 2023. Those numbers are still below the pandemic years of 2020-2022.