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15 people shot, three of them fatally in Minneapolis

Police cars seen at the scene of a shooting near the Monarch nightclub in north Minneapolis, on Saturday, May 22, 2021. (Photo via CNN)

Three people were killed and 12 more wounded in separate shootings in Minneapolis, Minnesota, early on Saturday, authorities say.

According to police spokesperson John Elder, in one incident, two men in a crowd, who got into an argument near the Monarch nightclub in north Minneapolis, pulled out guns and began shooting.

Ten people were shot, including five men and five women, police said, adding two of the men died.

"Of the 10 victims, all are adults, five male and five female. Two deceased are male and one in critical is male," Minneapolis Police said on Twitter.

"Order fully restored to the scene and surrounding areas," the statement said, adding that seven injured people were treated in hospitals and their injuries were not serious.

Elder said later on the day that authorities arrested a 23-year-old Bloomington man and booked him on probable cause murder charges in the Monarch shooting.

Meanwhile, in separate incidents earlier on Saturday, five people were shot, one of them fatally, the Star Tribune reported.

The latest deaths brought the city’s homicide total to 31 for this year.

“Last night again brought tragic news,” Minneapolis’s mayor, Jacob Frey, said in a statement on Saturday. “Again, our collective conscience is shocked.”

“These outcomes are not fated,” he said. “We can stem crime in our city, but it will take all of us coming together with a renewed commitment to preventative work and a shared resolve to stop the gun violence and bring the perpetrators to justice.”

Steve Cramer, president and CEO of the Minneapolis Downtown Council, said in a statement that "this insanity will continue" unless "our entire community rises up — family members, elected officials, business, community and faith members, prosecutors, judges, all of us."

"There are too many people in our city today who believe they can act with impunity, consequences be damned," Cramer said.

Gun-related violence in mid-sized and large American cities has risen dramatically during the pandemic, and, according to criminologists, coronavirus-related socioeconomic loss in many communities is the major cause.

A study by the Council on Criminal Justice also showed a 30% increase in homicides overall in a sample of 34 US cities in 2020 as well as an 8% rise in gun assaults.


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