Brooklyn Park Police Make Plea To Keep Youth Gatherings Under Control
Brooklyn Park police are continuing to investigate two shots-fired incidents that took place over Memorial Day weekend. Both incidents stemmed from large gatherings of youth.
“It’s been challenging to try and predict where these things are going to happen,” said Brooklyn Park Police Department Inspector Elliot Faust. “It’s impossible to predict, essentially. We don’t have a crystal ball to know where people are going to go, what people are going to do … it’s really a difficult problem to solve.”
A large group of youth met at Norwood Park on Friday, May 24.
Police were dispatched to the park around 10 p.m., after callers reported hearing gunshots.
Arriving officers found spent shell casings, as well as bullet holes in a park pavilion and two nearby homes.
Faust said a police officer had been patrolling at the park about an hour before to the incident.
“That park’s been on our radar for extra patrol,” he said. “We were present out there, and it felt like the minute that we left, then all the sudden, it became the spot to go. So that’s really frustrating for us.”
Gunshots were fired at Norwood Park after a large youth gathering over Memorial Day weekend.
Shots Fired at Gas Station
Another incident occurred the following evening, Saturday, May 25.
A large group of youth were in the parking lot at Woodland Elementary, near 95th Avenue and Noble Parkway.
According to Faust, a 911 caller reported the gathering.
Police arrived to the school around 11:30 p.m. and began to disperse the group.
Some of the youth crossed the street and went to the Kwik Trip across the street.
Surveillance footage shows that a suspect fired gunshots from a vehicle in the Kwik Trip parking lot, then fled the scene.
Officers stopped a vehicle related to the incident. One suspect was arrested and a firearm was recovered.
No one was injured during the shootings.
Faust is asking for the public’s help keeping these large gatherings under patrol.
“When you see large gatherings after hours, or even gatherings that just feel like they might not be going in a positive direction, call us so we can get up there and work on that,” he said.
“Large gatherings this time of year, they don’t seem to end well,” Faust added.
See also: Brooklyn Park Police Again Work to Break Up Large Disturbances at City Parks
