"Full-court press" by Minneapolis police will "set the tone for the summer," chief says
A recent shooting is raising a lot of questions about safety in the Twin Cities.
Police said gunfire broke out at Boom Island Park in Minneapolis late Sunday night.
Stageina Whiting, 23, was killed. Five others were hurt and had to be rushed to the hospital.
That mass shooting — along with another shooting outside Mariucci Arena after a high school graduation — is now sparking worry about what might come this summer.
Crime typically spikes this time of year, but Police Chief Brian O'Hara says recent events are still concerning. It's why the department is bringing back Operation Safe Summer, a partnership between local, state and federal law enforcement leaders.
"This is a focused enforcement operation that includes multiple law enforcement agencies, federal, state, county and local, and it is geared to be targeted at the people and the places that are disproportionately responsible for the violence in this city," O'Hara said.
"This is a weeklong full-court press of this to try and set the tone for the summer and provide a sense of safety, a sense of presence for people," he added.
The operation runs through bar close on Saturday night.
"We go to where the hot spots are, where the crimes are occurring, in effort to keep our communities safe," Hennepin County Sheriff Dawanna Witt said.
This is the program's fourth summer in a row. Last year, the effort yielded 45 confiscated guns, 98 arrests and 2,300 grams of seized narcotics, O'Hara said. Authorities have already taken nine guns off the street this year.
"For each illegal gun taken off the street, who knows how many lives have been saved," O'Hara said.
Officials said Operation Safe Summer is part of an overall strategy to maintain a downward trend in crime in Minneapolis.
"Crime is significantly down in most every major category, in most every neighborhood throughout the city and we need to keep that trajectory going," Mayor Jacob Frey said. "While we are making progress, we also know that that progress can be fragile."
O'Hara said increased staffing levels are also helping to keep crime down. The department has more officers than it did a year ago and is about to welcome its largest recruit class since the '90s, he said.
