A man was left critically injured after a shooting in North Minneapolis, and police say they have not made any arrests as the investigation continues. Officers were called to the 3400 block of Emerson Avenue North Friday night after gunfire was detected in the area, and they are still working to piece together what happened.
According to 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS, the Minneapolis Police Department said officers responded to a ShotSpotter activation reporting multiple gunshots in the 3400 block of Emerson Avenue North at about 8:09 p.m. When they arrived, officers found evidence of a shooting but no victim at the scene. Police said a 911 caller reported seeing a shooting victim being placed into a vehicle and driven away, and the victim was later taken to a nearby hospital.
The man suffered multiple gunshot wounds and was listed in critical condition, the station's report states. Police had not identified him publicly as of the report, and as of Saturday, no arrests had been made in connection with the shooting. Officers canvassed the area for witnesses while crime scene investigators processed the scene for evidence, per the same account.
Investigation Remains Open as Few Details Emerge
Police described the investigation as ongoing, and the case remains open, with no further details released about what led to the gunfire. The circumstances surrounding the shooting, including what prompted it, have not been disclosed.
The shooting follows other reports of gun violence along or near Emerson Avenue North in earlier years, though those cases are separate incidents and not confirmed to be connected to Friday's shooting. In one earlier case, Minneapolis police investigated two homicides that happened less than an hour apart on a Wednesday night, including one in which a man was killed around 9:26 p.m. on the 2900 block of Emerson Avenue North, according to kstp.com. No arrests had been made in either of those homicides as of the Thursday morning following them.
In a separate incident, CBS Minnesota reported that one person was in critical condition after an alleyway shooting late on a Monday night, with officers called to the area of West Broadway and Emerson Avenue North around 11:31 p.m. where they found a male victim with what cbsnews.com described as an apparent life-threatening gunshot wound. No arrests were made in that case either, and police said they were still investigating what led up to the shooting.
Another Emerson Avenue Shooting Left One Hurt
Yet another shooting occurred in the 2000 block of Emerson Avenue North on a Monday night, with officers responding around 7:21 p.m. after reports of gunfire. Police said a man arrived at Hennepin Healthcare with an apparent non-life-threatening gunshot wound after officers initially found no one injured at the scene, kstp.com reported. According to that report, the man had been walking in the area when a vehicle drove by and shots were fired at him, and no arrests had been made in that investigation either.
North Minneapolis Has Seen Fewer Shootings Overall
Despite the recent violence, North Minneapolis has seen a broader decline in shootings this year. The station reported that the 4th Precinct recorded its lowest number of shooting victims since 2008, with the number of people shot decreasing from 132 to 91. Homicides fell by more than half compared to the previous year, and at a March news conference, Mayor Jacob Frey and Police Chief Brian O'Hara touted a decade-low rate of gun violence to start the year, per the same source.
That local trend echoes a broader pattern described by the Council on Criminal Justice, which found reported gun assaults were 6% lower in the first half of 2026 compared to the first half of 2025 across the cities it examined, though that figure was not reported as specific to Minneapolis. For now, Friday's shooting remains an open case, with the victim unidentified and investigators continuing to seek information as the investigation goes on.
