Man shot dead in car in beleaguered north Minneapolis neighborhood

A man in his 20s was shot to death while sitting in a car Monday evening in the Jordan neighborhood of north Minneapolis, police said.

The shooting took place at about 5 p.m. in the 1600 block of Hillside Avenue North.

Officers called to the scene found the man in the back of a dark gray Chevrolet with its rear window blown out. The man had multiple gunshot wounds. Officers and EMS personnel attempted lifesaving measures but the man died at the scene.

Neighborhood resident Donna Reller said she was in her house on North Ilion Avenue when she heard gunfire.

"I heard three shots," she said. She walked to the corner and saw police officers arrive and then pull the man out of the back of the car. It was clear he was already dead, she said, adding that he looked like a heavyset Black man with dreadlocks.

It's at least the third murder in as many years within earshot of her house.

The shooting took place around the corner from a memorial to Michael Darnell Smith, 32, who was gunned down on the sidewalk on the 2200 block of N. Ilion Avenue on May 22 last year.

Smith's memorial is across the street from the house where 9-year-old Trinity Ottoson-Smith was shot in the head in May of 2021 while jumping on a trampoline in the home's backyard. She died 12 days later. A 20-year-old man plead guilty to the killing in March and was sentenced to more than 37 years in prison.