Friends identify man found shot to death in car in Minneapolis

A man who was found fatally shot in a car that crashed in the Hawthorne neighborhood Thursday worked as a north Minneapolis educator and youth mentor, according to friends.

Authorities have yet to name the victim, but longtime peace activist K.G. Wilson identified him as 34-year-old Larry Borteh.

Officers found Borteh about 2:45 p.m. Thursday in a car that crashed near the intersection of N. 21st Avenue and N. 4th Street, but police suspect he was shot elsewhere, possibly in the 2100 block of N. Fremont Avenue.

He was taken by ambulance to North Memorial Health Hospital in Robbinsdale, where he died, according to police spokesman John Elder. No further details about the circumstances of the shooting were immediately available.

Soon after, Wilson said that he went to the crime scene to comfort the victim's family, as he has done for years, not realizing his friend had been the one who was fatally shot. It wasn't until the following day that he learned the devastating truth, he says.

"I'm crushed, I'm hurt," he said of learning about Borteh's death. He described Borteh as an outgoing and cheery man who worked at the Minnesota Internship Center in north Minneapolis and mentored area youth.

"Larry was a good dude. He was really motivated, he was great with the kids at the school, they all loved him," Wilson said.

A Facebook Live video shot by a bystander showed firefighters and police working to resuscitate Borteh as he lay in the street, next to a car with a shattered back window. A few minutes into the video, paramedics are seen pulling up to the scene and lifting him onto a gurney and into an ambulance.

As of Friday afternoon, no arrests had been announced.

"He was a little brother that I never had," Wilson said

In an unrelated shooting Friday, police say a 16-year-old boy with a gunshot wound stumbled into Wally's Food at 1840 N. Penn Av., where an employee called 911. Police believe he may have been injured in a drive-by shooting.