Minneapolis city leaders look to address public safety concerns after tragic few days
MINNEAPOLIS — Inside Minneapolis American Indian Center, building trust and community safety is at the top of mind Tuesday night.
"We are public servants, and we must be accountable to community," said Michelle Phillips, Minneapolis' director of Civil Rights.
The city's top leaders, top cop and a group designed to transform policing, the Unity in Community Mediation Team, celebrated progress and partnership. But a community is reeling after a tragic few days.
"When we talk about reducing violence, we don't just mean violence from police to us — but also us to us," said Lisa Clemons, of A Mother's Love Initiative.
Clemons is hoping for community members to join her in the fight to save lives.
"We need to not be burying our children, visiting them in prisons and hospitals," Clemons said.
Frustration is bubbling over the tragic weekend in Minneapolis. On Monday, a 14-year-old boy was shot just feet from where 16-year-old De'Miaya Broome was killed in a hit-and-run early Saturday morning.
Latalia Margalli, 22, was charged with one count of second-degree murder and five counts of second-degree assault, according to documents filed in Hennepin County on Tuesday.
Broome was with a group of people at the intersection of Fifth Street and Hennepin Avenue early Saturday morning. A fight broke out, and Margalli allegedly got in her car, drove the wrong way down Fifth Street and through a crowd of a dozen people, investigators said.
WCCO spoke with Broome's family on Monday, and they said she comes from a family who loves and misses her.
It's the pain the Broome family feels that Clemons says has to stop.
"What we need to do is be in a rooms talking about reform and transformation in community against community," Clemons said.
Margalli makes her first appearance in court on Wednesday.