St. Anne’s Place, a 54-person shelter for homeless families, has been vacated and boarded with plywood with private armed security patrolling outside, after neighbors smashed its glass doors, assaulted residents and shot one of their cars, according to operator People Serving People.
Police reports from last Thursday show multiple 911 calls about a large group of neighbors yelling at shelter residents, threatening to beat them up, breaking the glass of two doors with a metal baseball bat and brandishing a gun. The incident lasted more than four hours, from 8 p.m. to early the following morning.
People Serving People said the events were captured on camera and that the footage has been given to police. The alleged assailants are known to the shelter. No arrests have been made.
According to the public narrative of the investigation, which is still open, officers responded to an assault that was an “ongoing issue between two neighbor groups. ... We were unable to determine who the aggressor was in the fight. One group damaged a vehicle and building windows.”
Minneapolis Police spokesman Garrett Parten said he has not reviewed the footage as of Tuesday evening, but that the responding officers’ nonpublic reports do not match the shelter’s accoun.
“Based on the supplements that I’m reading, either what you said couldn’t be confirmed by the officers on site, or it’s just untrue,” Parten said in response to the Star Tribune’s request for comment.
Shelter staff and those who live there were further traumatized by the police response, a shelter spokeswoman said.
”The officers on the scene were dismissive of the victims, disrespectful to staff and guests, and provided comfort and reassurance to the assailants,” said the spokeswoman, Laura Vitelli. “No arrests were made despite clear camera footage identifying the assailants and staff willing to make statements. The neighbors were emboldened by the MPD’s lack of response and continued to threaten and harass families and staff through Thursday evening and Friday. When PSP tried to relocate one of the impacted families to a nearby hotel, the neighbors followed and harassed them.”