Little Earth Shootings/Police Response
On the first of May, the native community celebrated the kick off of American Indian Month in Minneapolis’ Little Earth community. Before a cheerful parade that ended at the American Indian Center, tribal and city leaders spoke on solidarity and progress.
A day later, shots ripped through the same community where the festivities had taken place.
[Sounds of WCCO news reports]
[1:02] “As I was walking i heard gunshots going off, I just ran.”
Officers responded to the Little Earth of United Tribes and found a chaotic scene with over 50 people. Six people were injured in the shooting, two very seriously. Their ages range from 14 to 46. All are expected to survive
Police say the shooting began over a fight.
Not long after the dust settled, police had three people in custody — 35-year-old Georgina Kellum, 21-year-old Rico King and a 14-year-old boy. King faces five counts of second-degree assault and one felony riot count. Kellum is charged with aiding an offender.
According to police, both King and the 14-year-old were the ones firing their weapons. Kellum allegedly hid the 14-year-old’s weapon after the shooting.
An arrest warrant has also been issued for another 21-year-old, Francisco Reyes, on assault and riot charges. He was allegedly seen clutching an assault-style weapon, but did not open fire.
It’s another tragic event in a community that began in 1970s as a place for natives to create a strong community, but that has also struggled with violence. It’s especially troubling considering there are over 500 children living in the community.
The day after the shooting, the Little Earth community released a statement, saying it is shaken by the shooting, but remains committed to the safety of its residents. Little Earth also thanked many city leaders and Minneapolis Police, specifically 3rd Precinct Inspector Mike Sullivan, for the response to the violence.
I spoke with Sullivan more about the event and how police are addressing this issue.
SULLIVAN: “The police department isn’t like going into a community and like in forcing, you know, um, we need to be on the same page as a community.”
Sullivan says a big part of police’s work is collaboration with the community.
SULLIVAN: “Part of that collaboration is, um, is trying to create relationships. So one of our main focuses is with beat officers. So we have two officers assigned to littler who are on the beat, both of whom are native officers.
Sullivan says Officer Churchill and Officer Thunder weren’t assigned to that spot — they want to be there.
SULLIVAN: “I can trust them to go handle, let’s say it looks like juveniles that are going to start a fight, you know, I can trust them to give him a call and they can go over there and they can handle it without, you know, arresting kids.”
Sullivan says another important tool that cannot be overlooked is security cameras, both from police and the ones already used within Little Earth.
SULLIVAN: “Another let’s say, um, tool that we use are some of the mobile cameras. So we have a trailer, a mobile trailer camera that we put in there, but we also understand that a little earth has an extensive surveillance system themselves, their own cameras and we work very closely with their security office, um, so that they can share information with us.”
Police were able to utilize surveillance video to identify the two alleged shooters.
SULLIVAN: “I’m all about supporting the community, supporting the leadership and letting them know where they’re, you know, um, we want to keep people safe there, we want people to feel safe there and we want to deter any violence, but we also want to create those trust based relationships.”