North Minneapolis Sees 3 Shooting Deaths In As Many Days
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Investigators are searching for answers in the deaths of three people in the last three days in north Minneapolis.
On Thursday, 50-year-old Michael Whitelaw was found shot to death inside his apartment on Glenwood aAnue.
One of the victims, Dana Logan, was shot and killed inside her car.
Logan was one of two victims shot overnight, making them the 32nd and 33rd homicides this year in Minneapolis.
The daughter of another Minneapolis shooting victim, 58-year-old Birdell Beeks, said she is sick of people with helpful information not coming forward in these crimes.
Sa'Lesha Beeks' mother's murder from May is unsolved like many others, so she is hoping to take action to catch more criminals on camera.
"Everyone says it gets better. It doesn't get better, we learn to deal with it in different ways," Beeks said.
It has been more than five months since her mother, Birdell Beeks, was driving her minivan near 21st and Penn Avenues North and became the unintended victim caught in a burst of gunfire.
"Her birthday is coming up soon, the holidays are coming up," Beeks said. "So it is becoming a little bit more hard for us all over again."
It is like reliving her mother's murder every time Beeks hears of another dead shooting victim in Minneapolis.
Beeks started a change.org petition to ask the city of Minneapolis and police department to install cameras to ShotSpotters, a technology used to detect gunfire and alert authorities to the location immediately.
"These criminals are not staying around to wait and the cops pull up," Beeks said. "They're gone."
The police department said there are cameras placed throughout the city, but none are attached to ShotSpotters.
The locations of the ShotSpotters are kept secret.
"I just think there needs to be more eyes out there," Beeks said "The community aren't willing to step forward when something happens, they turn a blind eye and it just gets swept under the rug."
Beeks hope more cameras can help, but said one of the biggest obstacles to solving crimes is still people who are unwilling to come forward with information that could lock up murderers and help save lives.
Beeks has met with Gov. Mark Dayton's office about her ideas.
The governor's press secretary Sam Fettig released this statement in regards to the meeting.
"James Burroughs, Chief Inclusion Officer for the State of Minnesota, met recently with Salesha Beeks. Mr. Burroughs expressed his deepest condolences for her loss, and the two had a productive and informative meeting."
Beeks is working to set up a meeting with Minneapolis Police Department.
Beeks still puts up posters of her mother's face near the intersection where she was killed in May
Beeks said people have torn them down but she still puts them up because she knows somebody knows who killed her mother.
