Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara says the incident downtown over the weekend in which a woman allegedly drove her car into a crowd of people, killing a 16-year old, could have been much worse.
He adds that it’s remarkable no one else was seriously injured or killed given the sheer number of people in the area at bar close on a busy downtown night.
O’Hara told Vineeta Sawkar on the WCCO Morning News they’ve ramped up staffing and have implemented new strategies since downtown crime peaked in 2021-22.
“There’s roadways that are closed down, traffic patterns are changed in order to prevent the problem,” explains O’Hara. “You know, that had been affecting 2021 and 2022, of people getting drunk, getting into arguments and then going into their cars and getting a gun to settle the most ridiculous of disputes.”
Charges could be filed against the driver of the car as early as Monday. The crash at 5th Street North and Hennepin Avenue happened just before 12:30 Saturday morning. In addition to the teen who was killed, five others were hurt and had to be hospitalized.