Fatal Halloween weekend shooting renews concerns over Dinkytown safety and alerts

A late-night shooting near the University of Minnesota earlier this month has renewed concerns over student safety in Dinkytown and raised questions about whether campus borders should dictate what real-time alerts are sent.

At around 2:30 a.m. on Nov. 1, just after bars closed and students filled the streets, a gunman unleashed automatic gunfire near 5th Street and 13th Avenue SE., injuring two people and killing one man whose identity has still not been released. No arrests have been made.

The shooting along the bustling thoroughfare was only a block away from the U’s campus. A student was caught in the gunfire and hospitalized. But because the shooting happened off campus, the U’s alert system, known as Safe-U, was not used to inform students. A notification known as a Dinkytown Alert was instead issued.

Dinkytown Alerts, offered by the U’s Department of Public Safety and Minneapolis police, cover incidents east of Interstate 35W, south of SE. 8th Street, and northwest of the East Bank campus, and include crimes ranging from robbery and homicide to sexual assaults and active shooters. Situations that are no longer active are not alerted. Students and community members must opt-in to receive the messages through text, phone or email — a difference from Safe-U alerts, which are automatically sent by email to students and faculty.

Before the shooting, some students expressed surprise they did not receive an automatic alert, and were unaware the opt-in Dinkytown alerts existed.

U freshman Joey Welch said that in his first semester, he has been unimpressed with the alert system.

“A lot of times, they’re later than we would like them to be, and then there’s always an apology like three days later,” Welch said. “But I’m pretty used to that.”

“Our Twin Cities students live across the metro area,” Linstroth said. “We believe they should have the option to choose what information they want to receive when it is not related to the university.”

In a statement five days after the shooting, University President Rebecca Cunningham and Executive Vice President Gregg Goldman acknowledged the anxiety it had generated. Offering sympathy to those affected, the two affirmed that the U’s safety systems operated exactly as planned.

“We all owe deep gratitude to both the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) and UMPD, who partnered to quickly respond to the scene,” the statement said. “UMPD and MPD continue to work together on the investigation and to support ongoing safety in areas surrounding our campus.”

Dinkytown is located in the Marcy-Holmes neighborhood along its border with the University of Minnesota campus. While police data show both neighborhoods have largely followed citywide crime declines, gun violence has increased in Marcy-Holmes over 2024, with about half of its eight shootings occurring in the vicinity of Dinkytown.

Data also shows that crime has decreased in areas of the University of Minnesota Police Department’s jurisdiction over the past three years. As a whole, some of the U’s most significant crimes, instances of assault, robbery and motor vehicle theft, have all either declined or held relatively stable since 2022. In 2023, the UMPD partnered with MPD to patrol areas of Dinkytown and the greater Marcy-Holmes neighborhood, citing the area’s large student population as a major motivation to expand the UMPD’s influence past the U’s campus borders.

“The university is strongly committed to safety on and around our Twin Cities campus, including our partnerships with local law enforcement and investments in public safety,” Swanson said. “We are thankful to the first responders for their actions this morning.”

According to the UMPD, the shooter is not believed to be affiliated with the U, but no arrests have been made. Though the MPD did not respond when asked for comment regarding updates on the shooting, earlier statements say the department is still detailing and reviewing the evidence of the case.

Three firearms were recovered from the scene, including a handgun from the deceased. Calling it “a very chaotic and dangerous situation,” Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said in a statement the morning of the shooting that students, parents and residents “will see an immediate increase in police presence in this area, and that the Minneapolis Police Department will work with all our partners to keep everyone in this community safe.”

Even through the anxiety, life continues for those who work and live in Dinkytown. Tiffany Maldonado-Cuevas, who works at Niko Niko Boba, about a block away from the shooting, said the shooting left her with a lot of questions about how real-time communication operates when incidents like this happen.

“It’s a little concerning,” Maldonado-Cuevas said. “Especially when I look out the window, and they’re literally wrapping things up with crime scene tape.”

Even still, Llerena feels the U should take a greater responsibility to protect its members, including automatically notifying students, staff and faculty of dangers in areas near the campus, not just on it.

“This is a huge hub where people live, young people,” Llerena said. “We have our phones with us, so why wouldn’t you use that as a way to protect us?”

Kameron Bailey has been living in the area for a while, and said the neighborhood isn’t always as dangerous as it seems. As a homeless man for more than a decade, he says he’s seen a lot. Bailey said there are weird and dangerous things happening all over Minneapolis at any given moment, with Dinkytown being no exception.

“I know there’s been a couple of shootings over the past five years,” Bailey said. “It’s hit or miss.”

Even with crimes such as the shooting, Bailey said he feels most people are not in danger as long as they make smart choices. Nonetheless, he said, moments like these can still put him and others in a similar situation in real danger, with nowhere to go. For the area’s most vulnerable residents, he wishes there were more protections put into place.

For more information on how to sign up for Dinkytown alerts, visit the U’s Department of Public Safety website.