Minneapolis police say they’ve arrested four people in connection to a rash of violent crimes committed in a two-hour burst early one morning last week that included the shooting of two bystanders.
Minneapolis police arrest four in ‘brazen’ violent crime spree that included two bystanders getting shot
Police say two of the suspects were juveniles, two adults. None have been charged yet.
The Minnesota Star Tribune
February 18, 2025 at 9:10PM
Police say they took two adult men into custody, ages 19 and 34, along with two 17-year-olds, on Monday after a surveillance operation. The officers served several warrants, they say, which led them to evidence linking the suspects to the crimes. None of the four has been charged at this time.
The crime spree began around 5 a.m. on Feb. 11 with a burglary report on the 4100 block of 25th Avenue S. A Ring security camera caught 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 the men fired a single round in the direction of a neighbor’s home across the alley, striking the 54-year-old resident, Boyd Hansen, as he peered out a window.
The bullet hit Hansen in the jaw. In an interview with the Minnesota Star Tribune, he said he was drinking coffee when he heard a loud bang and decided to see what had happened.
“The person saw me and shot me two, three seconds later,” he recalled while in recovery at HCMC last Friday.
“I didn’t realize I got shot,” he continued. “It happened so fast. I felt a little bit of sensation in the jaw.”
Less than 15 minutes later, officers responded to a reported carjacking on 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 the 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 32nd Street E. 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 suspects' vehicle.
Law enforcement responded to two more calls with similar suspect descriptions before 7 a.m.— one involving a garage burglary where a window was smashed and later a shots-fired call that resulted in no known injury or damage.
At a news conference last week, Police Chief Brian O’Hara decried the “disregard for human life” shown by the suspects, calling them “brazen” acts of violence. He noted that the victims appeared to be fired upon at random.
“The MPD remains steadfast in its mission to hold violent offenders accountable and ensure justice for victims,” O’Hara said in a news release Tuesday. “Our investigators have meticulously built this case based on evidence and facts, working in coordination with prosecuting authorities, and we are confident all those responsible for terrorizing residents during this violent crime spree are in custody.”
Paul Walsh and Liz Sawyer of the Minnesota Star Tribune contributed to this story.
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