Minneapolis police detectives are searching for a man who is accused of assaulting three people within minutes of each other in the Ventura Village neighborhood on Wednesday night.
The victim in the first assault, a 28-year-old man, was walking east on Franklin Avenue about 9:14 p.m. Wednesday, and had just crossed 10th Avenue when he was approached by a man asking for a dollar, according to police. When the victim refused, the suspect started following him, police said.
Then, after telling the victim that he would die, the suspect assaulted him, hitting him in the right side of the face with either his arm or an object, according to police.
Not long after that, the same suspect walked up to a woman standing at a bus stop at the corner of Franklin and 11th Avenue and started berating her, saying that he hated all white people, according to police. She recalled in a statement to police that he balled his right fist and punched her in the head, before running away.
The woman, 33, told police that she either saw or heard the suspect attack an elderly man standing nearby, moments after he had assaulted her.
That victim, a 76-year-old Cambridge man, was walking east down Franklin, between Chicago and 10th avenues, when someone approached him and asked for a dollar to buy cigarettes, police said. The elderly man told him no and kept walking, but the other man persisted. After the suspect tried to trip him from behind, the man said he whirled around to confront the suspect and was struck in the face with a glass jar or bottle, according to police. The man managed to get away, flagging down a motorist for help.
By the time officers arrived, the suspect was gone. Paramedics later responded to the scene to treat the elderly victim for cuts on his face. The other two victims declined medical attention.
No description was available of the suspect.
