Three people shot, one killed in north Minneapolis

At a north Minneapolis corner store, half a mile from home, Simone Blanch and Sylvester Holden made a quick evening pit stop. While they were parked in the lot , two young gunmen approached their SUV.

Holden flipped the vehicle in reverse, trying to escape. A barrage of gunfire struck the couple, whose Nissan crashed into a nearby embankment. One suspect fled on foot, while the other, also shot amid the struggle, collapsed across the street and died.

On Thursday morning, the Rev. Runney Patterson Sr. answered a frantic phone call from his longtime congregant, who recounted the attempted carjacking the night before that left her wounded and nearly killed her partner.

"It really shook me up," said Patterson, of New Hope Baptist Church in St. Paul. "It's disheartening when it happens to anybody — but especially when it happens to folks you love and care about almost like family."

Patterson considers it a blessing that none of the couple's five children were in the car. He is asking the faith community to rally around Holden, who remains in critical condition at North Memorial Health. Blanch, who suffered a gunshot wound to her arm, has been released from the hospital.

"They're good people, good parents," said Patterson. He said the family contributes to charitable causes, often volunteering to help feed the homeless.

The seemingly random act of violence unfolded about 8:20 p.m. Wednesday outside Gold Star Foods on Lowry Avenue, a few blocks west of Interstate 94.

Surveillance video from the market shows two men walking toward the couple and one circling the SUV. At some point, the driver's side door pops open and the vehicle begins backing up, dragging one of the assailants across the parking lot.

The other gunman fired nearly two dozen rounds, littering the snow with shell casings and piercing Holden in the abdomen. After the car became lodged in an embankment, the man being dragged freed himself and ran across the street before collapsing in the road. Minneapolis police officers performed CPR, but he died at the scene.

Investigators believe the gunman may have killed his own associate while firing wildly into the SUV.

One firearm was recovered from near the deceased and another from inside the crashed SUV, said MPD Chief Brian O'Hara. It's not immediately clear whether anyone else fired beyond the man who fled.

Police have yet to make an arrest.

A resident across the street recalled being on a work call when a flurry of gunfire rang out. She heard a woman's scream and watched as first responders covered the deceased. A pair of worn sneakers poked out from under the sheet.

"I hear gunfire every night. Every night. It's to the point that my kids don't even react anymore," said the homeowner, who asked not to be named for fear of retaliation.

At a press briefing late Wednesday, O'Hara expressed concern that around a dozen people have been shot in Minneapolis in the past three days. He stressed the importance of taking "as many guns (as we can) out of the hands of people who should not have them before situations like this happen."

Less than 10 hours later, police responded to a shooting at a homeless encampment in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood early Thursday morning. One resident of the Samatar Crossing encampment was killed, prompting officials to announce that they would move to close the site.

That marked the city's third homicide of the year.

"When I first moved here 18 years ago, I used to wonder if somebody got shot," the Rev. Patterson said. "Now I wake up I wonder how many got shot — or what tragedy took place."