Residents packed Edina City Hall to demand leaders confront a string of unsolved shootings tied to Somali youth and gangs, not soft talk and soccer programs.
A packed Monday night meeting at Edina City Hall turned into a public reckoning after a string of shootings rattled Minneapolis suburbs. Longtime locals told officials the city had soft-pedaled the problem and ducked plain talk about who was involved.
Edina sits a little more than 10 miles southeast of Minneapolis. Two shootings there left no one hurt, yet they left spent casings, abandoned phones, and a neighborhood on edge. Nearby Bloomington and Eden Prairie saw more gunfire, with injuries. Police still have not announced arrests in the Edina cases.
Daily Mail reporting described residents rejecting vague labels and pressing leaders to name the pattern they say is obvious.
Jared Scribner, who said he has lived in Edina for 25 years, rejected the city’s preferred phrasing. He said Mayor Jim Hovland’s “gun violence” wording was “grossly misleading” because it shifted blame away from the people pulling the triggers.
Scribner told the room the problem needed honest language.
"Semantics aside, we have a gang problem. There's clearly a... component from Somali youth as part of that, so call it what it is and deal with it."
He said the city’s answer after gunfire at Yancey Park was talk of a meeting with Somali community leaders and a new soccer program. “Really?” he asked. He added that he cares about solving the problem more than making people comfortable discussing it, and he called the shootings “consistent with a broader pattern of gang violence.”
School bus driver Dorinda Johnson described fear among the children she drives.
"I have kids on the bus ranging from kindergarten through eighth grade and, to be honest, a lot of them are really scared, and I don't blame them."
Mike Rohlfsen put the new normal in blunt terms: he does not go shopping at Lunds to get shot at, and he does not work out to get shot at. Kirk Aadalen said he was angry, frightened, and extremely frustrated with how the events were affecting the community.
On July 22, shots were fired at Yancey Park during a large gathering. No one was injured. Gunfire struck a nearby home.
On September 22, about two months later, shots rang out outside Our Lady of Grace Church during a community basketball game. Again, no one was hurt. Detectives believe the players were the intended targets.
Investigators recovered 55 spent cartridge casings in the northwest corner of the church area. They also found torn packaging for a new Glock 9mm extended magazine. Seven cellphones left on the court were collected for examination.
Edina police have said Somali teens and young adults “have been the targets of, or have had some level of responsibility for” the shootings. Police Chief Todd Milburn called the level of violence “shocking” at the Monday meeting. The cases remain unsolved.
The pressure on Edina did not arrive in isolation. Overnight Tuesday in nearby Bloomington, at least two people fired more than 100 shots. Bloomington Police Chief Booker Hodges linked that incident to Somali-American gang activity and described a different kind of offender.
"These kids are different. They're out here shooting each other based on social media beef."
Hodges said the gangs were “coming from two-parent homes, living in apartment buildings with $3,500 rent [and] driving luxury cars.” He also said he would strongly encourage others not to “paint groups of people with the actions of some folks.”
Last Friday night in Eden Prairie, a shooting during a homecoming high school football game left two people injured.
Not everyone at the meeting framed the crisis the same way. Bishop Harding Smith said the shootings were “not a Somali problem,” but rather a “youth problem.” Asad Dahir urged the community to “not tear each other apart” while “solving the problem.”
Hassanen Mohamed, executive director of the Minnesota Somali Community Center, stated there was a problem and went further on who was involved.
"We have seen the perpetration of this gun violence, and the perpetrators have been Somalis, and we have seen the victims being Somalis."
City materials under Edina’s “Response to Gun Violence” page have reflected the police characterization that Somali teens and young adults were targets or carried some level of responsibility. Daily Mail said it reached out to Edina police for further comment.
What residents kept returning to was simple. Multiple public shootings. Casings and phones left behind. More than 100 rounds in Bloomington. Two people hurt at an Eden Prairie football game. No announced arrests tying the Edina cases shut. A mayor’s “gun violence” label that one longtime resident called a dodge. A city response that, after Yancey Park, sounded to critics like meetings and soccer instead of enforcement first.
Parents, bus riders, and neighbors described a community where ordinary errands and youth sports no longer feel safe. Police chiefs called the violence shocking and, in Bloomington’s case, tied to gang feuds carried on social media. A Somali community leader said both perpetrators and victims have been Somali. Residents asked leaders to stop sanding the edges off that record.
Suburban families should not have to pack city hall to get plain language and real enforcement when gunfire reaches parks, church courts, and Friday night football.
