In a startling incident just days before the holidays, gunfire erupted near a Minneapolis daycare on Tuesday during a festive visit from Saint Nick, sending police on the hunt for suspects. According to a report by FOX 9, bullets pierced the New Horizons daycare in North Minneapolis around 5:15 p.m., while children were inside the building. Remarkably, no one was injured during the terrifying ordeal.
The daycare, located off Penn Avenue North, was struck by stray bullets, potentially to disastrously coincide with a seasonal visit from Santa Claus. Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O'Hara detailed that officers and Hennepin County deputies were already on a focused enforcement detail when they heard the shots being fired. While investigators believe to have identified a person involved in the shooting, "It's deeply concerning that we have people in the community who are willing to fire weapons, endanger everybody in these residences, and then strike a day care with kids inside, putting their lives at risk," Chief O'Hara told FOX 9.
A suspect was apprehended after a brief on-foot pursuit and found in possession of a firearm. The involvement of the detained individual in this crime is still under investigation. As stated by CBS News Minnesota, the day care staff recounted the close call, with children having just evacuated the room hit by gunfire moments before the shots were fired.
"At around 5:00 p.m. an isolated incident occurred in our community that impacted our school. There was stray gunfire that led to shattered windows in one of our preschool classrooms on the second floor of our building," New Horizon said in a statement. Staff reacted swiftly, with the director immediately notifying the authorities and the daycare resuming normal activities in the wake of the incident. "The safety and security of the children in our care and our early childhood educators is our utmost priority," they affirmed, emphasizing the use of high-end security monitoring technology to foster a safe environment for the kids.
