Minneapolis City Council Member Jamal Osman carjacked by two teen boys

Nearly a week after sailing to re-election, Minneapolis Council Member Jamal Osman was carjacked Monday by two teenage boys, who seemingly targeted victims at random throughout the city in a violent crime spree.

In an interview Tuesday afternoon, Osman recalled how he was talking on the phone in his parked, rented Volkswagen near Lake Street and Portland Avenue, near a new coffee shop on the southern edge of the ward he represents. Around 8 p.m., he saw two boys get out of a vehicle in front of him. One opened Osman’s passenger door and threatened to mace him if he didn’t give them the keys and get out. The other indicated he had a gun.

“They looked scared,” Osman told the Minnesota Star Tribune. But also, he said, they “looked dangerous.”

Osman decided it wasn’t worth fighting and “quietly cooperated.” He said the vehicle was rented for his campaign to transport people to vote.

“If it can happen to a council member, it can happen to anybody,” Osman said. “We should not normalize this kind of behavior in the city of Minneapolis.”

Police tracked and arrested two teens – ages 15 and 16 – after they crashed the stolen vehicles into parked cars and a fire hydrant in south Minneapolis following a pursuit. Investigators recovered a replica firearm and later tied the boys to at least three carjackings, including Osman’s, committed over a six-hour period Monday.

In a news briefing Tuesday afternoon, Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara outlined the sequence of events, where “totally senseless” behavior left residents terrorized and one woman battered and bruised.

But the most egregious incident occurred on the city’s North Side, where a mother and her young daughter were carjacked near N. Elwood and Humboldt Avenues around 5:15 p.m. The suspect jumped in the front seat as the mother was attempting to strap her toddler in the back — repeatedly punching her in the face as she clung to her child inside the moving vehicle.

That 31-year-old mother, Jackie Aguirre, was leaving work at a nearby daycare facility and heading back to her parked car in the adjacent lot on Humboldt just after dark. She had turned the vehicle on and was preparing to leave when another vehicle rolled into the lot, Aguirre told the Star Tribune.

“This guy appears out of nowhere,” Aguirre recalled in a phone interview, noting that his face was obscured with a COVID-style mask.

The teen hopped in the front and began to drive. Aguirre jumped in the back, lying on top of her 18-month-old child huddled on the floor. He turned and assaulted her before crashing about a block away and fleeing on foot.

“I was trying to protect my little daughter,” she said, adding that her child was not physically harmed. But the attack left her riddled with bruises on her face and leg and shook her sense of security. Aguirre is scared to walk to her car alone at night now.

Police also announced the arrest of two adults in connection with an unrelated armed carjacking from a north Minneapolis gas station early Monday. Authorities spotted the stolen vehicle overnight Tuesday and captured the men after a search with police dogs. O’Hara said both suspects had active warrants for their arrests at the time of the crime — and said he will pursue federal charges with the U.S. attorney.

“These incidents are all disturbing, but they also demonstrate the effectiveness and coordinated efforts and the commitment of the police officers urgently yesterday to apprehend all of these violent offenders,” O’Hara said in the news conference, joined by Osman.

By about 11 p.m. Tuesday, Osman’s car had been located and he was back home with his family in the Phillips West neighborhood. On social media, he lauded the Minneapolis Police Department for their quick response and thanked Mayor Jacob Frey and O’Hara for their “outreach.”

“This incident is another reminder of the work ahead to keep all of our communities safe,” he wrote. At the news conference, he called on parents to take on a more active role in their children’s lives and noted that there must be consequences for these “heinous crimes.”