Teenage boy fatally shot while driving stolen car, Minneapolis police say

A teenage boy was fatally shot in north Minneapolis Friday evening while driving a stolen Kia car, according to Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O'Hara.

Minneapolis officers responded around 6:30 p.m. to reports of a car accident near the intersection of N. 40th and Dupont avenues, and soon after reports of someone shot in the same area. Officers found a red Kia, and a teenager in the driver seat suffering from multiple gunshot wounds.

Officers performed CPR and other-life-saving measures, but he was pronounced dead at the scene.

Shortly after, two other teenage boys who fled the car accident returned to the scene, and were in police custody Friday night, according to O'Hara, though he said there were no arrests yet. No guns were recovered from the scene, he said.

Additional 911 calls came in six minutes prior to the fatal shooting regarding shots fired from a moving shooter a few blocks south of where the suspected homicide took place, the chief said. Police believe the nearby gunfire, traffic accident and the fatal shooting are related.

The death marks the end of a notably violent week in Minneapolis, the second homicide in the past 48 hours and the fourth since Jan. 1. The death was also about a mile north of where a man was fatally shot after allegedly trying to carjack a vehicle in the Gold Star Foods parking lot on N. Lowry Avenue on Wednesday night.

O'Hara also spoke about the department's frustrations with dealing with increased violent crimes connected to stolen Kias. Many U.S. police departments have lamented the recent skyrocketing number of car thefts due in part to how easy certain Kias and Hyundais are to hotwire. It's been referred to as the "Kia Challenge" on the social media platform TikTok.