The Agape Movement, a group of violence interrupters rooted in George Floyd Square, has made it a mission to tap ex-gang members to try to pry young men from the Bloods gangs that have preyed on south Minneapolis.
But federal prosecutors are now claiming that active leaders from the same gang — one of several being targeted in a broad, ongoing crackdown — helped start the very community group meant to counter it.
They are also accusing Agape of paying “tens of thousands of dollars” from a City of Minneapolis contract to multiple active Bloods members, including one man since convicted of murder for a 2020 killing and now on the eve of trial on federal racketeering charges.
Though led and co-founded by former gang members, Agape’s leadership swiftly rejected any claim that active Bloods leaders were among those responsible for launching the group amid the uprising over Floyd’s murder by Minneapolis police officers four years ago.
“No member of Agape is an active gang member, period,” said Reginald Ferguson, co-founder and executive director of the Agape Movement, in an interview with the Star Tribune at his office in the Square last week. “You just can’t do that.”
The U.S. Attorney’s Office, in a recent memo previewing testimony expected in next month’s trial of three alleged Bloods members, for the first time linked Agape to active members of the prominent street gang accused of rending the city with murders, shootings and drug trafficking.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Esther Soria Mignanelli wrote in the filing that a “cooperating defendant” will testify that “members, associates, and leaders” of the Bloods helped form the Agape Movement Co.. Citing “bank and check records,” Mignanelli added that Agape has paid “tens of thousands of dollars” to multiple members of the Minneapolis Bloods with money from a contract with the City of Minneapolis for violence interruption and community outreach work.
That includes Desean Solomon, 34, of Richfield, whose trial on federal racketeering charges is scheduled to start Sept. 4. Solomon is also serving a state murder sentence linked to a north Minneapolis gun battle in June 2020.