Mpls. Family: We Live In Fear Due To Daily Shootings
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Seven people, most of them innocent bystanders, have been shot within a 24-hour period in Minneapolis.
This recent rash of violence has many living in fear and wondering what can be done to make it stop.
Brianna Hinkle and her family hear gunshots daily from their front porch near North 41st and Emerson avenues.
"Some people nowadays, they just want to handle business their own way and it's not the safe way," Hinkle said.
But recently the gunmen's targets are not the ones being hit.
"I don't want to send my son out to the bus stop and fear he's not going to come home that day," Hinkle said.
A man was shot while waiting for the bus near 38th and Fremont avenues just after 10 a.m. Thursday.
Two hours later, another man was shot in the leg near 28th and Aldrich avenues.
In all, seven people were shot from the north to the south side of the city.
"You're going to take our innocent lives to prove what point? It doesn't make you look big and bad," Hinkle said.
She lives a block over from where a 13-year-old girl was shot. This blended family is on guard, and only allows kids outside when adults are present.
"My child should not have to grow up and fear the person walking down the street. My child should not have to fear going to school and wearing the wrong colors or saying the wrong thing, because in this day and age you can get shot over anything," Hinkle said.
This family knows police cannot do everything and the solution to gun violence, they say, starts at home.
"We're teaching our children the wrong things right now. We need to take care of our children. Our children are the next generation, and if we're going to raise them based on hate, discrimination and violence, that's exactly what our world is going to turn into," Hinkle said.
Since Aug. 1, Minneapolis police say eight people connected to this surge in shootings have been arrested, and 29 guns have been taken off the street.
