MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) – Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty and Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara are clashing once again over how to handle youth crime after a weekend shooting in Minneapolis left four children injured inside a stolen car.
What we know
Around 1 a.m. on Sunday near the intersection of West Broadway and Girard Avenue, four minors were injured, one critically, after automatic gunfire struck a stolen Kia while the children were inside.
A total of five children, three boys and two girls, between the ages of 11 and 13 years old, were in the stolen Kia during the shooting.
Four were hospitalized after the shooting, while police said the fifth child, an 11-year-old boy, was detained and brought home to his parents. A police spokesperson told FOX 9 the 11-year-old couldn’t be charged, citing state law.
O’Hara also added on Sunday that two of the minors had been arrested less than two weeks ago inside another stolen vehicle.
Hennepin County Attorney issues statement
On Monday, the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office released a statement saying, “The shooting of four children in a car over the weekend is tragic and unacceptable. We must act with urgency to implement effective solutions to gun violence and ensure that no one in our community is victimized in this way.”
The statement went on to say that collaboration was needed to “intervene effectively with youth who are engaging in auto theft-related behaviors” while saying MPD Chief O’Hara, “inaccurately stated that children under 14 cannot be referred for prosecution.”
According to the attorney’s office, law enforcement has the ability to refer offenders to the Youth Auto Theft Early Intervention Initiative.
However, MPD has not referred any youth to the initiative in the second quarter of 2024, and has only made four referrals in the third quarter to date, the statement said.
“None of the children aged 11 to 13 who were shot while riding in a stolen car over the weekend had been referred to our office by law enforcement for youth auto theft early intervention,” the statement says. The office claims that of the youth served by the early intervention initiative, 81% have had no new cases submitted.
“Through this Initiative, we have created a new pathway for referral and intervention when police do not have sufficient evidence to submit a case for charging,” the statement says. “This is critically important given the low clearance rate of 1.4% in 2024 for auto theft cases in Minneapolis; police often tell us they know who is involved but do not have the evidence to prove it.”
The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office has not yet received any case submissions for the shooting over the weekend, the statement says.
O’Hara responds during a heated news conference
The statement from the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office was issued around 3:30 p.m. on Monday. A little over two hours later, Chief O’Hara held a news conference during which he accused the county attorney of not telling the truth.
In fact, O’Hara claimed, the Minneapolis Police Department had referred at least two of the kids involved in Sunday’s incident for charges.
“It is not true to say no one from this case [was referred],” said Chief O’Hara. “That’s not true at all. Two of the kids in this stolen car were referred for charges on August 9th for auto theft. Nothing was done. They didn’t put them in their diversion program. They didn’t charge. Nothing.”
O’Hara says even the family of the children were “begging” for legal intervention.
“Despite pleas from their parents, begging for help, begging for them to be detained,” O’Hara explained. “They were let back into the street, into the same environment, to commit more crimes. We’ve had several of the parents involved with the kids involved in the shooting this weekend asking for us to arrest their kids, begging us to detain them. Because they can’t control them and they’re afraid they’re going to get killed.”
O’Hara said the police department communicated these fears to the attorney’s office but to no action. “The county attorney’s office isn’t listening,” said O’Hara. “The idea of catch and release for violent juveniles is not working.”
Previous issues
This isn’t the first conflict between the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office and the Minneapolis Police Department.
In March, Moriarty also criticized the Minneapolis Police Department for failing to work with her office on the youth auto theft diversion program during a presentation to the Minneapolis City Council.
“I am a big believer of collaboration,” said Moriarty. “I’ve been in this system for over 30 years in Hennepin County. And one of the things I saw that was really destructive is finger pointing and blaming.”
“But we need to communicate with each other,” Moriarty added. “And that has been a problem right now. I would like to see that communication between MPD and our office improve.”
O’Hara, who was in the audience for the presentation, fired back after, saying in part: “Any implication that the Minneapolis cops are not doing everything they can to try and solve that problem, not partnering with people to try and address it, is just not true, and it’s a slap in the face to the cops that are out there every single day putting their lives on the line to try to resolve this problem.”
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