Man shot in jaw amid crime spree vows from HCMC: ‘I’m staying. Minneapolis is worth fighting for’

A Minneapolis man who was shot in the jaw looking out the window of his home at suspects in a crime spree vowed from the hospital Friday that he’s not giving up on the city.

“Hell no, I’m staying,” Boyd Hanson said a couple of hours before heading into a second surgery at HCMC since a single shot hit him in his left shoulder and then his jaw as he stood in his house in the 4100 block of 25th Avenue S.

“Minneapolis is too good an area,” Hanson said. The 54-year-old grew up about a mile from where he lives now with his girlfriend and has lived all his life in the city, other than a brief time in Colorado. “It’s worth fighting for.”

With good nature and an occasional chuckle, Hanson recounted drinking coffee in his man cave when “all of a sudden, I heard a very loud bang. It’s a city, so I don’t think too much about it. But I needed to check in case something happened.”

Hanson said he peered through the blind, and “that when the person saw me and shot me two, three seconds later.”

At first, he said, “I didn’t realize I got shot. It happened so fast. I felt a little bit of sensation in the jaw.”

Hanson said he yelled to his girlfriend to call 911 while he used paper towels to put pressure on his jaw to limit the bleeding as thoughts of dying within minutes crept into his mind.

Hanson has his own IT consulting business, but “does not have health insurance,” friend Sunderta Kaur wrote on an online fundraising page that she started for him.

On Tuesday, Police Chief Brian O’Hara said during a news conference that “I don’t know what you’re supposed to say to somebody that simply looked out their window because they heard a noise and the next thing now they’re getting shot. That’s terrible.”

Police are asking for the public’s help identifying the three armed suspects connected to six separate incidents throughout south Minneapolis in what officials are calling “brazen” acts of violence.

“We will find them, but it’ll be a lot faster with the public’s help,” O’Hara said.

The seemingly random crime spree began around 5 a.m. Tuesday and stretched throughout a wide swath of the Police Department’s Third Precinct, leaving Hanson and another innocent bystander wounded by gunfire.

Over a two-hour period, officers scrambled to respond to back-to-back garage break-ins, a robbery and carjacking linked to the same three suspects traveling in a white sedan.

The first incident occurred near Hanson’s home. A Ring security camera showed three armed suspects in dark clothing exiting a white car in the alley. Two approached a garage and kicked in the door, while the others waited by the vehicle. They re-emerged within 30 seconds without taking anything.

“Oh, somebody is looking over there,” one man said, according to surveillance footage released by police, as he and an accomplice each raised a handgun. One of them fired once in the direction of Hanson’s home across the alley, striking him as he was looking out an upstairs window.

Less than 15 minutes later, officers responded to a reported carjacking in the 5100 block of 34th Avenue S., where a 29-year-old man’s Mazda SUV was taken at gunpoint by four males. The suspects arrived in a white sedan and fled in both vehicles.

There were other reports of possible forced entry into garages in the area, including incidents where nothing was taken.

Around 5:41 a.m., police rushed to the aid of a 25-year-old man who had been shot in the chest near the 2300 block of E. 32nd Street. The victim told investigators the shooting occurred during a robbery involving three male suspects in a white sedan.

A third incident involving the same suspects activated the department’s Crime Pattern Response Protocol, which diverted all available resources not assigned to priority calls to locating the suspect vehicle.

Law enforcement responded to two more calls with similar suspect descriptions before 7 a.m. One about a garage burglary where a window was smashed and later a shots-fired call that resulted in no known injury or damage.

Officers have since recovered both the stolen Mazda SUV and the original suspect vehicle.

Anyone with information can leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers online or by calling 800-222-TIPS (8477).