Six injured in five Minneapolis shootings

Tony Webster

Minneapolis cops were busy Sunday night and Monday morning.

​Two men are in life-threatening condition and four others were injured after a spate of Minneapolis shootings leading into Memorial Day.

Two of the shootings happened south of downtown, on Nicollet Avenue South, on Sunday night. Two others took place in the Warehouse District along 1st Avenue North. The location of the fifth is a mystery: The victim showed up on his own at HCMC.

Here's what happened.

The first of the five incidents took place at about 9:28 p.m. Sunday, when a mugger shot his victim in the hand at the corner of 24th Street and Nicollet Avenue South, a corner shared by a McDonald's, the City of Lakes Waldorf School, a Seventh Day Adventist Church, and a pizza joint.

​About two hours later, a 26-year-old man in a car outside Gangchen Bar and Restaurant at Groveland and Nicollet Avenue South was shot in the head. He was driven to a gas station at 22nd Street and Lyndale Avenue South, rushed to HCMC by ambulance, and is now listed in extremely critical condition.

At 2:15 a.m. Monday, a 21-year-old man and a 19-year-old man are were shot at 1st Avenue North and 3rd Street North in the Warehouse District, within earshot of the Ugly Mug. The 21-year-old took a bullet in the head. He's in critical condition at HCMC. The younger man was shot in the abdomen and appears likely to survive.

A few minutes later, a 23-year-old man was shot in the head in the parking lot at 5th Street and 1st Avenue North, which sits caddy corner to the Target Center, across the street from the Loon, and shares its northeast side with the light rail tracks.

Still later Monday morning, an unidentified man walked into the HCMC emergency room with a gunshot wound to the leg, but left before anyone could treat him.

Police Chief Tim Dolan insisted to the Strib that the shootings, all within a three-hour time frame, were not an indication that downtown Minneapolis, and especially the Warehouse District, were were war zones.

"The average person going to the average bar is not going to run into that situation," he said. "It was not a good night, obviously."

Obviously.