Within the course of 24 hours on July 19th, thirteen people who woke up expecting a “normal day” in Minneapolis now live with a gunshot wound from either of two mass shootings that took place. But as far as luck goes, they weren’t the unluckiest: the fourteenth would never get to wake up again.
I. Reign Event Center
July 19th had only been July 19th in Minnesota for a little over twenty minutes before 9 people had been shot.
Star Tribune reports that at 12:27 AM, gunfire broke out at Reign Event Center, informally Reign nightclub, wounding 9. Police arrived within one minute to find a large crowd, and FOX 9 corroborates the size of the crowd and number of people injured led them to call for backup. The same source furthers the cause of the shooting was an “altercation.”
KSTP, an ABC affiliate, reports on discontent regarding the police response. Its article highlights testimony from anti-violence activist Nasir X, who denounced the lack of accountability (“no arrest has been made?!”) given the fast response time (“You [were] able to respond within a minute”).
Describing the situation, Nasir furthered: “this is a war zone.”
After the shooting, Sandy Hook Promise made an instagram post, announcing their support for the victims and asserting that “no community should have to experience the fear and trauma that follows gun violence.”
Gun violence has unfortunately become a fact of life for many today, and our youth and students are some of those least able to ignore it. (The Sandy Hook shootings took place in an elementary school.) Observing the Reign nightclub, they took note: a high school student in a bordering city texted a friend after the shooting in staccato bursts: “There was a shooting…Minneapolis…My friend’s uncle was injured…bad news.”
While traumatizing, one mass shooting would have taken to the news as a blip alongside seven other mass shootings that took place in seven other states this weekend (ABC News reports other mass shootings in Colorado, Delaware, Maryland, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Arizona, and Tennessee.)
The day’s shootings, however, would end not then but 20 hours later in an untoward coda.
II. Stevens Square
Around 8:20 PM, shooting erupted outside of a business around Stevens Square, and officers responded again. Three people were taken to Hennepin County Medical Center (HCMC) via ambulance, a fourth to North Memorial Health, and a fifth later walked into Hennepin with a nonfatal gunshot wound. ABC News furthers police have reported no evidence connecting the two shootings.
There were fewer shot at the Stevens Square shooting than the Reign Nightclub shootings, partially due to the absence of a large crowd around the shooter. Unlike the Reign Nightclub shootings, however, not all the injured would survive. After being taken to HCMC, one of the five succumbed to his injuries.
Star Tribune reports the deceased to be Ajoko Gaye, 28. Tiara Johnson, who described Gaye as her best friend, commented: “This is so sad…I just saw him a couple of weeks ago.” However, it is uncertain whether Gaye will remain the only casualty of the shooting. Although still alive, two others presented at HCMC with potentially life threatening wounds, according to CBS.