Brooklyn Park neighbors on edge after fights, shootings over the weekend
BROOKLYN PARK, Minn. -- Brooklyn Park neighbors are on edge after a string of violence over the weekend.
It started Friday night at Rivers Park, just before 8 p.m. Brooklyn Park Police were called to a large gathering underneath the pavilions of 150-200 teens. When officers arrived, numerous fights started within the larger group and they closed down the park.
READ MORE: Brooklyn Park police close River Park Friday due to rowdy crowds
"When I got home on Friday night, it was cop cars at the park, cop cars on the street up here, there were kids everywhere," said Mike Prehatney, who lives just up the street from Rivers Park.
When officers broke up the gathering and closed the park, the group scattered into nearby yards and lingered.
Prehatney says some of them were in his yard.
"I finally just walked the yard and kind of just said, 'You mind kind of moving it on,' not to make a big deal out of it, but it was just strange," said Prehatney.
Rivers Park had close to 100 people in it on Sunday during the day, but it was filled with families on the playground and friends having a cookout. Prehatney says this type of crowd is more common.
"It's been great down here for many years, but lately…we don't know what's going on," said Prehatney.
He worries about the ongoing crime not just in his neighborhood, but all over Brooklyn Park.
Brooklyn Park Police are also investigating three other shootings that happened Saturday into Sunday.
Two of them were calls for shots fired, which police believe are connected.
The other was a shooting at a restaurant where someone was killed. On Tuesday, the Hennepin County Medical Examiner's Office identified the victim as 21-year-old Dae-Vonn Howell of St. Paul.
"It's kind of dicey," said Prehatney, "Very seldom do you have to call the police around here, except for parking, but to have major stuff go on, it's like 'oh boy.'"