The Minneapolis Police Department is crediting a youth curfew task force with helping to prevent violence downtown over the weekend, particularly at Hennepin Avenue and Fifth Street, where three young people were recently killed and many others injured in two deadly incidents the proceeding weekends.

Officers from MPD, Metro Transit, and the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office met with members of the Minneapolis Office of Violence Prevention and various community groups Friday afternoon outside of the Minneapolis Central Library to hatch a plan for the weekend. Dozens of volunteers then spread out across downtown to offer resources to teens with the goal of getting them off the streets before curfew.

A countywide juvenile curfew requires kids under 12 to be home by 10 p.m., kids 12-14 by 11 p.m., and kids 15-17 by midnight during the weekend.

The task force comprised of roughly 50 unarmed violence interrupters canvased downtown streets Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

Over the three nights, the task force engaged with 49 teens prior to curfew, and all of them were then connected to family members, guardians, or available services. Only one teen was approached after curfew and referred to the Youth Connection Center and a diversion program. Task force members also checked in with families of teens who have “recent, repeated” police contacts.

The task force saw fever teens each night, and once curfew hours were in effect and no curfew violators were out on the streets, the task force assisted with other safety efforts around downtown.

“The combined effort of officers working with community members is the model of what is going to work moving forward,” Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said in a statement. “You can’t have successful community safety without the involvement of the community.” 

O’Hara stressed the importance of intervention before things get violent. That’s the specialty of the City’s violence interrupters and other groups that participated in the task force, including 21 Days of Peace, A Mother’s Love Initiative, MAD DADS, T.O.U.C.H Outreach, and We Push for Peace.

Of course, those efforts were bolstered by an increased police presence, including mounted patrols, and an enhanced late-night safety plan that’s been in place downtown for over a year.

O’Hara said the late-night safety plan has been effective in addressing issues that typically escalate to violence around bar close on the weekends, including adults who grab guns from a vehicle to settle disputes, but the issue with teenagers fighting in the street at Fifth and Hennepin is newer.

"One thing that overlapped over the last two weekends is a number of juveniles coming and a lot of them coming from out of town, too,” O’Hara told MPR News. They’re hanging out downtown, and really, they’re down there at a time — midnight, 2:00 in the morning — when there’s just nothing for them to get into but trouble.”

A 16-year-old was killed and five others were seriously injured Sept. 14 around 12:20 a.m. when an SUV was intentionally driven into a crowd of people who were fighting near the intersection. Two 14-year-old girls were among those hospitalized for injuries that weren’t considered life-threatening.

Days later, a 14-year-old boy was injured in a late afternoon shooting on Sept. 17 in a parking lot at Hennepin and Fifth. The following weekend, another shooting killed two young men and injured three others, including two teen girls, just before 2 a.m. on Sept. 21.

Latalia Margalli, 22, has been charged with second-degree intentional murder in the Sept. 14 death of De’Miaya Broome. But no charges have been filed in the Sept. 21 shooting that killed Benjamin Hezekiah Haggray, 20, and Lunden Marcel Woodberry, 21.

Officers are trying to identify teenagers who may have been present for both deadly incidents as investigations into them continue. “Quite frankly, it’s just too much of a coincidence to have teenagers hanging out at the same corner seven days apart from each other,” O’Hara said during the interview with MPR News.

No significant violent incidents occurred downtown between Friday afternoon and early Monday morning, according to MPD.

“I think we have to … use an all-community approach to try and take care of our kids,” O’Hara told MPR News. “It would be negligence on our part, not to try and disrupt this stuff that’s happening, particularly that’s involving teenagers. It is part of what we do as the police department.”

A spokesperson for MPD told Downtown Voices on Wednesday that the task force will be out again this weekend. Beyond that, efforts will depend on results and need, the spokesperson said.