Gunfire at a park along the Mississippi River near downtown Minneapolis wounded eight people, some of them with critical injuries, officials said Tuesday.
The shooting occurred about 11:30 p.m. Monday at Boom Island Park, just south of the Plymouth Avenue Bridge, said Park and Recreation Board spokeswoman Robin Smothers.
No arrests have been announced.
“There was no formal July 4 event or fireworks in the park or on the river,” Smothers said in an email, “but park visitors gathered on their own at Boom Island and other parks to celebrate the holiday.”
Smothers said “eight victims are hospitalized, (with) several in critical condition.” She did not have information about the victims’ identities or exactly how many were among those with critical wounds.
A park police incident report listed four people with a “major injury,” with three of them 18 years old and the other 22 years old.
HCMC spokeswoman Christine Hill confirmed early Tuesday afternoon that the downtown hospital received eight people from the Boom Island incident. Hill declined to reveal any of their conditions.
“After shots were fired, the large group that had gathered in the park dispersed, many leaving prior to police arriving,” Dawn Sommers, another Park Board spokeswoman, said late Tuesday morning. “A majority of the shooting victims later arrived at local hospitals on their own, where police were notified by the hospitals.”
Neither Park Board spokeswoman had information about the circumstances surrounding the gunfire. They said that anyone with information about the shooting should call park police at 612-230-6550.
City Council Member Elliott Payne, whose ward in northeast Minneapolis is near Boom Island Park, called the shooting indicative of the availability of guns in Minneapolis and other cities.
“If they weren’t so pervasive, maybe these events would play out differently,” Paybe said.
Payne said he and other council members have been discussing what they can do to reduce the number of guns in the community.
“We should all be disturbed by this type of violence happening,” he said. “It’s not acceptable, and we’ve got to get a handle on this.”
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