Three people were shot and injured in a “violent, chaotic scene” at Tantrum Nightclub in downtown Minneapolis early Sunday, police said.
Three injured at Minneapolis nightclub shooting, the second at a downtown club this month
Police said three people went to the hospital with apparent gunshot wounds.
At about 1:47 a.m., officers responding to reports of a person with a gun in the 100 block of 4th Street N. heard gunfire coming from the Tantrum Nightclub and found a wounded man inside, police said in a news release. The man was taken to HCMC with an apparent noncritical injury.
Officers heard additional gunfire coming from the parking lot next to the club, where police said they found a person driving recklessly. Officers stopped the vehicle, arrested one man and recovered a firearm. Police said the man had fired gunshots, but it was not immediately clear how he was involved in the broader incident.
Officers heard more shots as they arrested him, the release said.
An initial investigation indicated there had been a fight inside Tantrum when the first shots were fired. As patrons fled, more gunfire erupted in the parking lot.
Police said a man suffering an apparent gunshot wound was dropped off at the hospital and a wounded juvenile male also went to the facility. Both wounds reportedly were noncritical.
The shooting was the second at a downtown nightclub this month. In early November, one man was shot and seriously injured at Vanquish nightclub.
“Responding urgently to chaotic incidents like [the] latest shooting inside Tantrum Nightclub and the shooting at Vanquish nightclub two weeks ago requires a large and immediate police response,” Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said in the release.
“This shows why we need sufficient numbers of officers available at bar close in Downtown, Dinkytown, and Uptown — without depleting the cops patrolling our neighborhoods.”
The Minneapolis Police Department has officers patrol the area when bars close as part of the department’s late-night safety plan.
In October, O’Hara told the City Council that the department was suffering from “critically low staffing” with more than 200 vacancies. The force has been pushed to use “overtime every day to do the most basic functions of a police department,” he said.
On Sunday, O’Hara said “a bad situation was interrupted before it got even worse.”
Officers were investigating the shooting. Anyone with information is asked to call 1-800-222-8477 or submit tips online at CrimeStoppersMN.org.
The $14.1 million project in the city’s Ventura Village neighborhood project will create 24 units for rent intended for people with no housing.