Video captures shooting on University Ave.; police find teen wounded near U Of M campus
MINNEAPOLIS -- Surveillance video captured gunshots ringing out on University Avenue in Minneapolis late Friday night as people ran down an alley behind buildings near the University of Minnesota campus. The video captured someone shooting down the alley before running off.
In the backyard of the building on the 1700 block of University Avenue, police say they found a 15-year-old boy with a gunshot wound to the leg. The building sits along the portion of University Avenue known as Fraternity Row. Greek life neighbors, Delta Kappa Epsilon, say this stretch is no stranger to crime.
"It's been three weekends in a row there's been gun shots," said Ricky Kanak, a junior at the U of M, and member of the DKE fraternity.
Police dispatch has been called 46 times to the address on University Avenue between January and June.
"I heard gun shots, I heard people screaming," said Michael Seokaran, who just moved into DKE fraternity house two weeks ago, and has witnessed a consistent police presence on his block. "It's kind of unsettling knowing that you don't know what's going to happen on the weekend."
The U of M says the building is independently owned by a group called the Students' Co-Op, but no students or university staff live there. Its website says its purpose is to be affordable housing on campus.
Kanak hopes the building can go back to its roots.
"We're completely in support of that, we're all for equitable housing, but I think with COVID, they kicked people out and emptied it for safety, and then never got around to rehabilitating it," Kanak said.
Saturday afternoon, volunteers cleaned up the mess outside the building as the leadership at the Co-Op Board formally evicted everyone who lives in this building, and boarded it up.
"It's sad that it's taken this long," Kanak said. "I just hope that this actually does something."
The U of M says the Students' Co-Op Board is required to implement security measures, including hiring private security and installing security controls.