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MINNEAPOLIMEDIA NEWS | More Than 100 Shots Fired in Bloomington as Metro Police Chiefs Push Regional Response to Gang Violence
Law-enforcement leaders from Bloomington, Edina, Eden Prairie and Hennepin County called for a coordinated regional response Tuesday after police said approximately 100 rounds were fired in a Bloomington neighborhood, the latest in a series of shootings authorities believe involve interconnected gang conflicts.
BLOOMINGTON, MN (October 7, 2026).
A burst of gunfire that sent approximately 100 rounds through a Bloomington neighborhood early Tuesday has intensified concern over a series of shootings across the southwest Twin Cities metro and prompted law-enforcement leaders to call for a coordinated regional response.
Bloomington police responded shortly before 1 a.m. to the area of Harriet Avenue South between West 99th and 102nd streets.
Police Chief Booker Hodges said multiple armed people fired approximately 100 rounds.
One minor suffered an injury. Police described the injury as minor, an outcome strikingly disproportionate to the amount of gunfire investigators say occurred.
No arrests had been announced by Tuesday afternoon.
Hodges was joined at a Tuesday news conference by Hennepin County Sheriff Dawanna Witt, Eden Prairie Police Chief Matt Sackett and Edina Police Chief Todd Milburn.
The officials said investigators believe recent shootings in their jurisdictions involve gang activity and may be connected.
That includes Friday's shooting outside the Eden Prairie High School homecoming football game, which wounded two teenagers and forced evacuation of the stadium, and another shooting Monday night at an Eden Prairie gas station.
Four people were arrested following the Monday gas-station shooting.
Police are also investigating other recent gunfire in the southwest metro.
Law-enforcement officials have described some of the people involved as belonging to Somali-American or East African gangs.
That characterization requires precision.
Police are describing specific individuals and groups they believe are involved in criminal activity. It does not establish criminal involvement by the broader Somali-American community, one of Minnesota's largest immigrant communities.
Somali community leaders and elected officials have separately warned against allowing criminal allegations involving individuals to become a basis for stereotyping an entire population.
That concern has intensified as public discussion of the shootings has spread.
At the same time, law-enforcement leaders say the violence itself requires a response that crosses municipal boundaries because people involved in conflicts do not remain within a single city's jurisdiction.
Officials are discussing a regional gang task force or similarly coordinated operation.
Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher has also publicly supported creation of a regional effort.
The Bloomington shooting illustrates the challenge.
Investigators processed a large residential crime scene containing scores of shell casings. The number of rounds fired suggests multiple weapons or shooters, according to police accounts, while the people responsible were able to leave before officers arrived.
The investigation now depends on physical evidence, surveillance video, witness information, firearms tracing and coordination with investigators examining the other shootings.
The public-policy question is what structure that coordination should take.
Twin Cities law enforcement already operates through overlapping municipal, county, state and federal partnerships. Creating another task force would require decisions about leadership, staffing, intelligence sharing, prosecutorial coordination and the geographic scope of its work.
Tuesday's news conference indicates that several law-enforcement leaders believe existing arrangements are not sufficient for the current series of incidents.
For residents, the immediate concern is simpler.
More than 100 rounds were fired in a residential Bloomington neighborhood.
By extraordinary fortune, police reported only a minor injury.
Investigators are now trying to prevent the next shooting from producing a far different outcome.
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