Posted on 03/19/2006 8:43:27 PM PST by Extremely Extreme Extremist
Minneapolis police say robbers shot a 25-year-old man Saturday night, even though he and his family cooperated with their demands. The victim is now fighting for his life at a Twin Cities hospital.
The shooting happened near Girard Avenue and 31st Street in Uptown Minneapolis. Ronald Barry's apartment window was just 60 feet from the scene.
"I was watching TV and I heard the shots and lady screaming," Barry says. "I called 911 and ran to their aid, and there was obviously nothing I could do for the guy. It was a horrible sight."
The victim was with his mother, sister and a friend Saturday night. They had just finished eating dinner at a restuarant near Lake Street and Hennepin Avenue, and they were walking south on Girard Avenue to get to their car.
Police say two young males approached them and demanded the mom's purse. She gave it to them, but the robbers still shot her son.
"I heard a pop, pop, and a lady went, 'Oh no!'" says one witness who didn't wish to be identified.
The suspects escaped, possible in a white car, police say. Police do not have a detailed description of the suspects.
Police say the victim had critical injuries. Barry thinks he was shot in the head.
"It was very brutal and it was uncalled for," he says."
Police say there was no struggle before the shooting.
"Usually when the purse is given up, or even if the purse is not given up, we haven't had any that have been shot," says Inspector Kris Arneson with the Minneapolis Police Department.
The shooting happened on a Saturday night, just before 10 p.m., within two blocks of several popular night spots.
"People know you have a lot of young people with money going to all the bars and restaurants in this area, and it seems like a prime target sometimes," says Justin Ellis, who was mugged in Uptown about six months ago.
"I've gotten mugged, I know people who have gotten mugged and it just feels unsafe," Ellis says.
Newly-elected city council member Ralph Remington hopes the shooting is an anomaly that won't be repeated.
"It will be stopped," he says. "But people should feel free to still go along with their lives, come to the area. We're gonna be on top of it. We'll make sure people are safe."
Uptown was hit by a rash of robberies last summer. Some suspects were charged with a number of those crimes. Police don't think that spree is connected to Saturday's shooting.
and yet, soon enough, somehow, someone on the hoplophobe team will manage to make this event an illustration of how, if only you comply with the mugger, you will come out better than if you carry a pistol...
They do not offer a description of the perps. They didn't on the tv broadcast, either.
I guess they don't want the public's help in catching them.
That doesn't narrow it down enough for you? Isn't that kind of profiling though--two young males? They should just say two humans or maybe two lifeforms.
Sadly, he died the following day.
I stumbled upon this months-old story while searching for something else and was appalled at the brutality of this crime. To shoot a young man in the head in front of his mother for a purse that she had already given up is just unspeakable cruelty.
how does society breed such monsters?
Has anything come of this case? Were the perpetrators ever caught? Or has it disappeared under the radar, lost forever to the public consciousness?
BUMP
See my post #5. Since I ran across this story while searching for something else, I haven't been able to stop thinking about it. This should have been national news. It certainly deserved more than 4 posts before it vanished into the archives.
It is nearly five months later. Did these inhuman monsters ever get caught?
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