3 injured in shooting at Juneteenth festival

No one was seriously hurt, but the event came to a jarring halt. The shooting appeared to be gang related.

By BILL WARD, Star Tribune

Last update: June 21, 2008 - 10:35 PM

Paper cups and sandwich wrappers pockmarked the grassy fields and knolls at Theodore Wirth Park, and vendors chatted casually as they pulled down their awnings and loaded up their equipment.

It looked just like the aftermath of every previous Juneteenth celebration, except for one small detail:

It was 6:30 p.m., a good half-hour before the festivities were slated to finish. A volley of gunfire an hour earlier had injured three people, sent thousands of festivalgoers fleeing and jolted Saturday's event to a premature halt.

No one was seriously injured, said Minneapolis Police Sgt. D.F. McCormick.

He said that the shooting appeared to be gang related and that at least two of the victims were not the intended targets. The investigation is continuing.

"This was a peaceful event, a very family-oriented event," McCormick said. "And then the gangs come in and the next thing you know, there's gunfire and everybody's running."

With scores of Minneapolis and park police already on the scene, officers were able to interview several festivalgoers in the area.

McCormick said the descriptions of the young men involved "were so vague that it could have been about 100 people who were here."

Two victims were treated at North Memorial Medical Center and released, a spokesman said. WCCO-TV reported that two of the injuries took place at the WCCO Radio promotional booth, where a woman from U.S. Bank was shot in the thigh and a WCCO Radio promotions employee was grazed by a ricocheting bullet. The bullets were fired about 200 feet away from the victims, the station reported. WCCO-TV also reported that one of the victims, Mike Kinghorn, 23, was shot in the ankle.

"It just makes you sick," said Walter Robinson, who had come up from High Point, N.C., to work at a booth at the event. "You couldn't have asked for a more perfect day, and then all of a sudden you've got your Blood and Crips wannabes coming in and everybody's running away. It's ridiculous, and it's really sad when you consider the occasion this event is held for."

Juneteenth, which is celebrated in dozens of states, commemorates the freeing of African-American slaves. The event, sponsored by the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board and Juneteenth Minnesota, examines and celebrates African-American history and culture.

"This event is supposed to be a healing for the African-American community," said Albert Michael Young, a member of the Juneteenth board of directors. "Something like this hurts not only those of us who were here, but the whole community."

At the Junteenth festival in 2006, North High School basketball star Brian Coles, 18, was killed in a drive-by shooting.

Bill Ward • 612-673-7643