The Minneapolis Police Department is shaking up how it handles armed robberies, implementing a new strategy that will hopefully be safer for everyone involved.
“Officers have been out in the street proactively, trying to prevent and trying to identify and stop this problem,” Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said.
The department shared that squads will flood the scene of a reported robbery to search for suspects and maintain a presence in high-crime areas.
O’Hara says he believes the recent incidents have largely been carried out by kids, and they want to get ahead of the spike.
“It’s very clear from what we’ve seen that this has been at least one group, or groups, of juveniles driving around and doing this,” O’Hara said. “And it’s just so brazen to be threatening folks like this with a gun. Putting a gun against someone’s head, pulling the trigger to make the gun click, putting a gun in someone’s mouth. It’s disgusting.”
The latest incident was an armed robbery Tuesday night, where two guns were recovered, and both suspects were just 17 years old and wanted on multiple warrants.
Police are working to determine whether the juveniles, after a string of criminal activity, are connected to any other robberies.
More than 40 violent crimes were reported just last weekend, including multiple carjackings, assaults, and armed robberies.
“Our investigators have been working very hard, our intelligence analysts, communicating with their partners, because it appears, this group of individuals, their criminal activity is not limited just to Minneapolis,” O’Hara said.