Minneapolis police are investigating a possible link between a gun battle in the Shingle Creek neighborhood that left a man dead early Thursday and an earlier drive-by shooting in which three people were injured.
Both incidents may have stemmed from a dispute between rival gangs, according to a source familiar with both investigations.
Just after 2 a.m. Thursday, two groups of people in separate vehicles heading eastbound on 53rd Avenue N. traded gunfire before both vehicles crashed in the area of 53rd and Logan avenues N., police said. One vehicle landed on its side and several occupants fled on foot. A man in one vehicle died at the scene, while a woman in another vehicle suffered noncritical injuries, police said. A department source said that the man wasn't shot during the encounter but that he likely died from the crash.
On Saturday, three people were wounded when someone heading west on Interstate 94 opened fire on their vehicle.
Staff reports
