MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — A toddler, a teenage boy and a young woman are all recovering after being shot last night in north Minneapolis.
As police search for the gunman, the community held a prayer vigil early Wednesday afternoon at the scene of the shooting, located 2900 block of Lyndale Avenue North.
A witness named Tee Tee, who did not want her face shown, told WCCO what happened Tuesday shortly before 5:30 p.m. She said the shooting happened as she hung out with family and friends.
“Plain as day, I saw him walk up,” Tee Tee said. “I’m looking at him, but I don’t think nothing of it … and he just starting shooting, like pow, pow, pow.”
Tee Tee says she heard about eight gunshots.
“When I got to the porch, my first cousin came out and he was bleeding from the leg and that’s when I looked past him and I saw the pregnant one, my other cousin bleeding from her thigh, and I’m like, ‘where is the kids?’” Tee Tee said.
Tee Tee says it took a few seconds before they realized her 14-month-old cousin, MyKhalea Smith, was also hit.
“When they brought her out, she was bleeding from the chest,” Tee Tee said.
Tee Tee says Smith still has the bullet in her chest.
Her cousin, Trenay, who was shot in the thigh, is close to giving birth and recovering from her gunshot.
“He hit all innocent people. You hit a baby a pregnant girl and a teenager that works every day and don’t even gang bang,” Tee Tee said.
She’s talking about the third victim, Javar Smith.
”Javar is a good kid. I’ve known Javar for a few years now and he’s not in any gangs that I know of,” said Jamil Jackson, who runs a summer basketball league that focuses on life skills at Fairview Park, just a block away from the shootings.
Smith is in Jackson’s program.
“The kids all have to be part of the Life Skills CEO sessions before every game. They have to do two hours of community service a week and they all have to be respectful and responsible young men,” Jackson said.
Jackson works to stop the violence and push young men towards college and not the streets. He hopes police catch the person responsible so his guys could have a chance at a better life.
Witnesses say the gunman was wearing a hoodie and a fisherman’s hat.
They hope the fact that he shot innocent bystanders and a baby will motivate people to tell what they know.
If you have any information, please call Minneapolis police.
