Four children ages 11-13 shot in Minneapolis while riding in stolen car

Four children in a stolen car between the ages of 11 and 13 suffered gunshot injuries early Sunday morning during a mass shooting in north Minneapolis.

The injured include a girl who was in critical but stable condition with a bullet wound to the head, according to comments early Sunday morning by Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara.

O’Hara called the incident “outrageous” and said it shows why more must be done to deter car theft by juveniles, since minors joyriding in stolen cars also are becoming involved in more serious crimes.

“We are failing these kids,” the chief said in a video posted by the Minneapolis Police Department on social media.

O’Hara said a preliminary investigation indicates the minors were in a stolen Kia, driving near the intersection of West Broadway and N. Girard Avenue, when a dark-colored sedan began following and firing at them with a fully automatic weapon. Police recovered about 30 shell casings from the scene, he said, although even more shots might have been fired.

Two boys and one girl injured during the incident have gunshot wounds that weren’t life-threatening, O’Hara said. A fifth minor in the vehicle was uninjured and detained at the scene when police found the car was stolen.

The uninjured minor then was transported home to his parents, since he was 11 years old, a police spokesman said Sunday afternoon. Police initially said that charges won’t be considered against any of the minors, but later acknowledged they misinterpreted state law. Children under the age of 14 cannot be charged as an adult with a criminal offense, but can be adjudicated delinquent in the juvenile justice system.

The shooter has not been arrested.

O’Hara said the incident is the latest to suggest that young people stealing cars are becoming more bold and getting caught up in other serious crimes, even as the theft of Kias and Hyundais is down by a quarter.

“There’s been more aggravated assaults, more robberies, more hit-and-runs, more serious crimes, more frequently committed by those individuals involved in the theft of these cars,” O’Hara said. “One car chasing another car with fully automatic gunfire ... it just shows really brazen, callous behavior.”

Police received calls about the shooting around 1 a.m., O’Hara said, followed by a report of people shot in a vehicle in the 1400 block of Plymouth Avenue N. The shooting victims were taken to Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis.

Two of the five minors involved in the incident had been found in a stolen car within the past two weeks, O’Hara said.

“Four kids shot ... is outrageous, and everyone should be up in arms over it,” the police chief said. “The police are doing everything that we can in response to this, but we can’t keep responding after the fact. … More needs to be done to deter this kind of activity in the first place.”

O’Hara added: “It feels like we have to take the fun out of it. When you get caught joyriding in a stolen car, especially if it’s multiple times, there needs to be a consequence. And I feel like that’s where we have failed here.”