Gang activity in Minneapolis, the Twin Cities explained

We’ve been hearing the phrase “Somali gangs” in the news recently, as law enforcement officials call for an end to shootings they say are primarily being perpetrated by Somali American youth.

Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher faced pushback when he used the phrase in a video on social media in July, after four separate shootings over about four hours left one person dead and three others injured. Then, in August, the phrase came up again as prosecutors sought an injunction to keep alleged gang members from gathering at the Minnesota State Fair. Now, three recent non-fatal shootings in Edina, Bloomington and Eden Prairie have renewed the conversation, as have politicians and commentators who have seized on the term this election season.

We wanted to take a step back to look at the bigger picture. Here’s what we learned.

What is the current scope of gang activity in the Twin Cities?

The exact number of gangs and gang members in the metro is difficult to nail down, said FBI Minneapolis Special Agent in Charge Christopher Dotson.

“Because gang affiliations and subsets shift frequently, there is not a reliable or fixed number of gangs to provide locally,” he said. “The landscape is fluid, and definitions vary, making any specific count misleading.”

Sheriff Fletcher, however, estimates there are between 1,000 and 2,000 gang members in the region. He shared the figure with media during a July town hall called in response to his video.

He and other law enforcement leaders, including Hennepin County Sheriff Dawanna Witt and three suburban chiefs of police, have said in subsequent meetings that those individuals are mostly teenagers and young men up to age 25, and that about 300 of them are Somali American.

Fletcher told MPR News Wednesday that those Somali youth are affiliated with 13 gangs. He did not respond to questions about other gangs in time for publication.

Indictments of dozens of alleged gang members in 2023 and 2024 suggest the Highs, Lows, Bloods, 10z and 20z may still be active in Minneapolis. Members of those gangs have not historically been Somali American.

Bureau of Criminal Apprehension Superintendent Drew Evans said the 13 gangs getting law enforcement’s attention now are more informal than gangs in the 1990s and early 2000s.

“They used to be concentrated in our more urban environments, and there used to be a hierarchy to them, so they were much more organized,” he said. “What we see today — and it’s not specific to the Somali gangs that we have been seeing — is that they’re much more decentralized. They have cliques or smaller groups, and they may not always even fit the definition of a traditional gang.”

What do Somalis have to do with this?

Many law enforcement officials are characterizing today’s gangs as “Somali gangs” because they say gang shootings have been largely done by Somali youth.

This characterization has caused concern among some that Somali Americans in Minnesota are being unfairly painted with a broad brush. Minnesota is home to more than 80,000 people of Somali descent. Out of that number, Fletcher said 300 are alleged gang members.

When asked about the term “Somali gangs,” Metro State University professor and gang expert James Densley said, “it’s a totally made-up word.”

“I just don’t buy the idea that you would preface any group by its ethnicity first,” he said.

Densley said gangs tend to form in “historically marginalized immigrant populations.” He said this has been the trend dating back 100 years, including in Chicago with Italian, Irish and Jewish immigrants — some of whom came to the Twin Cities during the Prohibition era.

“They emerge in environments characterized by social exclusion and economic disadvantage and insecurity, and they offer the things that people are looking for in those environments,” Densley said. “People want protection and belonging and money and status, and so you see these similar patterns across different communities and generations.”

You can see the pattern when you look back at gangs formed by Hmong and other Southeast Asian groups in the ’90s and the self-proclaimed Native Mob in Minneapolis.

Today, Somali Americans also make up a large share of the victims. Police say the violence has primarily been Somali-on-Somali crime.

“Violence tends to be very inward-looking within communities,” Densley said. “A lot of this is because of the proximity that these groups have to one another. If it’s territorial or if it’s within rival networks and beefs within individuals, it makes sense that the violence takes that similar shape.”

Somali leaders, including Imam Hassan Jama of the Al-Hikma Islamic Center, say they are working to be part of the solution.

“Youth violence has long been one of our highest priorities, and we have been gathering and working on it together,” he said in a social media post.

What crimes are gangs committing?

Dotson of the FBI said that this relatively small number of groups is responsible for a significant share of violent crime in the Twin Cities.

Law enforcement officials say much of that crime is showing up in the form of gun violence, and that many alleged members have legal gun permits.

Unlike gang members from the ’80s and ’90s, law enforcement officials say gang-affiliated Somali American youth are not primarily involved in distributing illicit drugs, and their rivalries aren’t based on territory. Instead, most of the violence stems from social media disputes.

Edina Police Chief Todd Milburn said arguments start over social media and are followed by “this quick reaction into gun violence to settle those disputes out in public spaces.”

Bloomington’s police chief echoed Milburn’s assessment.

“They’re out here simply shooting each other based on social media beef, period, that’s it,” Chief Booker Hodges said. “There’s no money involved, there’s no drugs involved, it’s all about social media beef.”

That’s in contrast to recent charges against members of the more traditional Highs, Lows and Bloods, which include murder, robbery and drug trafficking.

But law enforcement officials say these newer, social media-driven shootings are cause for concern. Some have already been deadly, and the use of trigger switches increases the risk of fatalities and bystanders getting hit. The illegal devices, which are also called auto sears, turn guns fully automatic.

“Unfortunately, when you’re waving a gun with a switch around, the bullets don’t always only hit your intended target, and that’s the problem that we’re facing,” Fletcher said. “Nobody deserves to get shot and killed, even if you’re a rival gang.”

Back in July, police were called to Yancey Park to respond to a shots fired call. Police said no one was injured, but the gunfire struck a nearby home. And in the Bloomington shooting, police say more than 100 shots were fired.

How does current gang activity compare to the past?

In addition to the shift online, there’s another difference: Crime is way down.

While the crime rate isn’t a precise picture of gang violence, it offers some perspective.

So far this year, there have been 8,785 violent crimes, according to data collected by the FBI. Last year, there were 13,199 violent crimes in the state.

Between 1994 and 1997, when gang activity was high, violent crimes exceeded 15,000 every year, with a peak of 19,131 in 1994.

It’s the same case for property crime. The number is the lowest it’s ever been, at 51,597 property crimes so far this year. Last year there were 83,157. Property crime peaked in 1996 at 193,353.

How are gang members defined?

The state has a nine-point gang criteria that law enforcement uses to determine whether someone is a gang member. A person has to meet three of those points to be considered a gang member and face legal repercussions such as sentencing enhancements.

They are:

• Admits gang membership

• Arrested with a gang member

• Displays a gang tattoo or brand

• Wears clothing or symbols intended to identify with a gang

• Appears in a photograph or image with a gang member engaging in gang-related activity or displaying gang signs or symbols

• Name appears on a gang roster

• Identified as a gang member by a reliable source

• Is regularly observed or communicates with a gang member in furtherance or support of gang-related activity

• Produces gang-specific writing or graffiti in furtherance or support of gang-related activity

Minnesota law enforcement used to track such individuals in a gang database, before pulling the plug in 2011. Most law enforcement agencies now keep their own databases, Fletcher said.

“We think the state should reboot the gang database at some point so we can use it statewide, but that’s a discussion with the state that’s going to have take place,” Fletcher said.

But Densley urged caution. He said the criteria itself is probably outdated given how gangs have changed, and there isn’t enough nuance in something as black and white as a database.

“Because you are embedded in a group or a member in a group, that doesn’t necessarily de facto make you a criminal, and it doesn’t make you the top target for whatever intervention follows,” Densley said. “I think it’s much more important to focus on the behavior than the label.”

What is law enforcement doing to address gang violence?

Leaders from over 40 agencies met last week with Evans of the BCA to discuss creating a regional gang task force. Evans told MPR News on Monday that they won’t be creating one at this time.

He said the BCA already has a Violent Crime Reduction Unit and that the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office has a Violent Offender Task Force.

“What needs to happen is to coordinate, share information, utilize resources across those various task forces,” he said. “So at the end of the day, you really arrive at the same result, you just may not be calling it a specific task force.”

At a public meeting last week, Hennepin County Sheriff Dawanna Witt said her agency’s Violent Offender Task Force will be putting the focus back on gang activity.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly commented on the recent spate of violence, criticizing Somali Americans and saying the federal government could get involved. Evans said that’s not necessary.

“The ATF and FBI were at our meeting on Friday. We work closely with them on all sorts of things, and always have,” he said. “They’re also conducting investigations and have been working with us on this problem already. So this is something that’s already underway.”