Minneapolis police arrest three juveniles Sunday in robbery sprees on opposite sides of city

Minneapolis police arrested three juveniles in a string of robberies that occurred Sunday during separate crime sprees on opposite sides of the city.

Police Chief Brian O'Hara said Sunday that four robberies took place in 18 minutes in the city's Fifth Precinct, in south Minneapolis, according to video from KSTP. The precinct stopped responding to calls for service for 45 minutes in order to triage limited resources toward the robbery reports, part of a new protocol to thwart active threats with the department's depleted staffing.

A half-hour later, police responded to another carjacking followed by an armed robbery across the river in northeast Minneapolis.

O'Hara said the suspects are young and mostly targeted female victims, in some cases at gunpoint. No one was injured in the robberies.

The crimes may be connected to a string of similar robberies that occurred in Minneapolis earlier this month, O'Hara said.

"This again appears to be the same MO, the same groups of juveniles, that we suspect were involved in the previous robbery spree," he said. "We've had investigators working around the clock to try to identify all the different individuals involved. However, we believe this is more than one group. And we suspect today it may have been two groups of juveniles working in tandem that committed these crimes."

So far this year, 237 robberies have been reported in Minneapolis, on pace to match the average from the past three years, but up 34% from the same time in 2023 — marking a setback for downward progress in violent crime seen last year — according to police dashboard data.

Earlier this month, O'Hara issued a departmentwide memo to reallocate resources during a robbery spree. The protocol directs patrol officers across the city who are not on a high-priority call or actively engaged in another emergency to respond to the area of the robbery spree. All lower priority calls are to be suspended, and police are told to cease breaks, writing reports and other non-emergent duties, until the threat is over, according to the memo.

O'Hara said the police response Sunday "did have the intended effect" of stopping the crime sprees. He asked the public to be on the lookout for groups of young people circling a block in stolen cars looking for potential victims, and urged anyone who sees suspicious activity to report it as soon as possible.

"It's also important for people to know, if you happen to be a victim of one of these crimes, remember that property can be replaced," he said.

Police say they are still investigating and will release more information as it becomes available.