When the doorbell rang Thursday afternoon, the young father pulled back the window curtains and peeked nervously, leaving his north Minneapolis door locked. "What do you want?" he asked.
On the stoop was Pastor Linus Nyambu, who with another man was there to assure residents that they have support and help in a neighborhood marred by gun violence.
The two were among about 20 clergy members, anti-violence advocates and a police lieutenant who took to the streets to urge residents on the border of the McKinley-Camden neighborhoods to watch over one another and work with police to make their area safer.
The father in the window, William Hibbler, said he's had long-standing fears since moving to the area two years ago. They were heightened on Jan. 31 by the slaying of a retiree who opened his door to a man begging for help, only to be shot moments later. A suspect is jailed in lieu of $2 million bail, charged with second-degree murder.
That slaying was the catalyst as well for organizer Pastor Harding Smith and Nyambu, of the Spiritual Church of God, for the door-knocking walk. In pairs, they knocked on doors, spoke with residents and carried placards proclaiming "We will not live in fear."
"We are Americans," Nyambu told Hibbler, 26. "This is the land of the free, the land of the brave. We cannot allow fear to rule us or take over our lives."
That gave Hibbler pause to reconsider whether he still wants to move his family out of the neighborhood, where they've lived for about two years in the 3400 block of Bryant Avenue, often hearing gunfire, he said.
Slain good Samaritan Thomas Sonnenberg, 69, and his 68-year-old wife had lived only a few blocks away, in the 3700 block of Aldrich Avenue N. They also feared for their safety after being hit with burglaries and vandalism, their daughter has said.
