St. Paul, Minnesota, is witnessing a significant drop in the number of non-fatal shootings this year, with the St. Paul Police Department reporting a decrease from 26 incidents at this time last year to just 8 in 2025. Chief Axel Henry attributes this reduction to the effectiveness of the department’s Non-Fatal Shooting Unit, which was created in response to previous years’ violence.
According to a post on the Saint Paul Police Department’s Facebook page, one of the largest impacts on the decline of these shootings is the city’s dedication to this specialized unit. The initiative is part of a broader strategy to combat gun violence by treating each non-fatal shooting with the seriousness of a homicide. However, allocating sufficient resources for this purpose has been a robust challenge.
The unit’s formation was made possible through a one-time allocation of $2.9 million in state public safety funding, which is intended to sustain the team until 2027. “If it’s going to continue to work the way that it is, we’re going to have to, as a city, work out a way to fund that beyond the three years because it is driving the number down,” Chief Henry remarked in an interview with KARE 11. This funding supports 12 investigators dedicated exclusively to solving non-fatal shootings…