Brooklyn Park Police Talk Safety with Businesses

Jail records show charges are now filed in the Brooklyn Park homicide case in which a woman was fatally shot. The shooting happened in broad daylight Wednesday afternoon in the parking lot of a shopping center in the 5800 block of Brookdale Drive.

Jail records show James Hill, 31, of Minneapolis is charged with murder. Two others, both of Minneapolis, are also in custody accused of helping the suspect avoid arrest. The victim, a 42 year old woman, was taken to an area hospital where she was pronounced dead.

Meeting with Business Owners

Brooklyn Park police met with community members on Thursday to talk about safety.

Business owners told CCX they were shocked and frightened after seeing the horrific incident. 

“Scary, I couldn’t even stay. I had to go home right after,” said Matalie Cisse.

Cisse owns M&T Beauty Supply. She saw the victim laying on the parking lot fighting for her life. 

Just a couple stores over at the restaurant MaMa Ti’s, staff were also shaken up.

“I told them to lock the main door,” said Jerome Butler, MaMa Ti’s co-owner. “Today we’re short staffed because of that.”

Police plan to have more eyes in the area, both in the form of uniformed officers and surveillance cameras.

“They want us actually walking up and down the mall, which we can do,” said Brooklyn Park Police Chief Craig Enevoldsen. “It’s a short term strategy, not a long term solution.”

Law enforcement will also install a trailer camera that goes up 30-40 feet to map the entire area. 

Brooklyn Park police add that business owners should take advantage of its free premise survey.

“What they’ll do is they’ll come out and just look at the facility itself, take a look at locks on doors, the lighting outside, see if there’s any places outside to hide when it’s dark, that kind of thing,” explained Enevoldsen. 

Police will then give recommendations of any changes. 

But community members are still unsettled about repeated loiterers. 

“This area gets a lot of activity but the shooting is unusual,” Butler told CCX. 

Authorities say it’s going to take a community and police partnership to see improvement in the area. 

Brooklyn Park