MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — A 17-year-old girl is recovering after someone fired shots into the home where she was staying, hitting her in the ankle.
The teenager suffered her bullet wound during the first of two drive-by shootings on one block early Saturday morning. The shootings took place in a neighborhood still hurting from gun violence.
Queen Williams, who lives on the block where the shooting occurred, said she could hear the teen screaming.
“I remember running up from the basement…and the only thing that runs through your mind is:’Did a bullet go through my house? Did a bullet go through the ceiling?’ Then I have to check on the babies upstairs,” Williams said.
Williams also witnessed the aftermath of what she calls a senseless shooting.
“I heard her cry getting into the ambulance,” Williams said.
She also heard the second round of gunfire at 5 a.m. Those shots were aimed at a different house on her block.
For many who live in the North Minneapolis community, Saturday’s double drive-by shootings bring back memories of what happened last summer just three blocks away: A stray bullet hit and killed 3-year-old Terrell Mayes, Jr.
Mad Dads national president V.J. Smith talked with the families and neighbors affected by Saturday’s shooting. He was trying to figure out who would do this and why.
Investigators don’t know if the two shootings early Saturday morning are related. What neighbors do know is that the shootings are too close to where children play, eat and sleep.
“We’re going to start spending a little more time in the basement. Why? Because it is starting to heat up. The summer is coming, and it brings its issues,” Williams said.
Issues Williams and Smith hope they can get the community involved to help solve.
“People know who got the guns, people know who is shooting. I don’t know what it’s going to take, but we are going to keep fighting, keep being out here in the community and making a difference,” Smith said.
According to relatives, The 17-year-old victim is going to be fine. Smith says he’s thankful no one was seriously injured.
He hopes this shooting sparks people to come forward and help police find the gunman connected to Saturday’s shootings and the shooting that claimed the 3-year-old’s life.
