Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O'Hara
MINNEAPOLIS – The Minneapolis Police Department’s chief is addressing what was a chaotic 4th of July.
Officers responded to over 40 young adults shooting fireworks in Boom Island Park Tuesday night, targeted at people and police, with some fireworks going into the early hours of Wednesday morning.
Chief Brian O’Hara says while he encourages everyone to celebrate and enjoy Independence Day, targeting innocent people with fireworks is unlawful, dangerous, and “wholly unacceptable.”
O’Hara said the city is very fortunate there were no serious injuries from fireworks this year.
The department doubled their staffing in comparison to last year’s number, as well as disrupted traffic patterns, and limited access to Stone Arch Bridge and other areas.
O’Hara said gun violence was down. There were 12 gunshot victims in Minneapolis this weekend, compared to 25 victims during the same period last year.
“The Focused Enforcement Initiative we had throughout the weekend with the Violent Crime Unit of the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office resulted in 17 arrests, and 10 additional illegal guns being recovered from our streets,” O’Hara said.
O’Hara said his team knows there are limits to proactively eliminating this behavior, but MPD was able to respond more quickly and effectively this year due to strategic city planning.
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