Man sitting in a van in Minneapolis is shot in the head and killed

A young man sitting in a van was shot dead when gunfire broke out Tuesday afternoon near a school in north Minneapolis' Jordan neighborhood, according to police and scanner reports.

Police were called around 2:30 p.m. to the corner of 30th and Irving avenues N. — a few hundred feet north of the Hmong International Academy — on a report of shots fired, police said.

When they arrived, officers found the 22-year-old victim bleeding from a gunshot wound to the head, police said. A dark blue economy van that he had apparently been sitting in was towed to the police impound lot.

Dispatchers described the suspect's vehicle as a white Jeep that was seen heading west on Lowry Avenue, according to scanner traffic. No other suspect information was released.

The victim was transported to North Memorial Health Hospital, where he later died. An autopsy is expected this week by the Hennepin County medical examiner's office, which will also release the man's identity.

His death was the city's 11th homicide of the year.

Officers from the Fourth Precinct and investigators from the department's homicide unit spent the next few hours going door to door in the neighborhood searching for potential witnesses, police said.

By about 5 p.m., the scene was quiet except for the squeals of a group of children playing basketball half a block away. A pair of firefighters scrubbed the blood off the sidewalk with bleach, as officers pulled down the yellow caution tape that surrounded the area. A small crowd of onlookers formed nearby.

A department spokesman didn't immediately respond to an e-mail Tuesday afternoon seeking clarification on whether the victim was alone when he was shot.

Libor Jany • 612-673-4064