A shooting outside a suburban Minneapolis homecoming game left two Somali teenagers wounded and sent thousands of spectators sprinting for the exits, prompting officials to cancel the school’s dance the next day.
The gunfire erupted shortly before 9 p.m. Friday in the parking lot at Eden Prairie High School’s Aerie Stadium, where the Eagles were hosting Minnetonka for a football matchup, the Eden Prairie Police Department said in a Saturday statement. The victims, ages 17 and 18, were both known to law enforcement, and investigators believe the violence stemmed from an ongoing conflict between local Somali immigrant gangs, sources told FOX 9.
The younger victim remained hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries, while the 18-year-old was discharged Saturday, police said. Neither teen attended Eden Prairie nor Minnetonka High Schools, KARE 11 reported.
The chaos unfolded rapidly for those inside the stadium. Spectators and athletes first realized danger was present when the PA announcer abruptly instructed everyone to evacuate through the south end, play-by-play announcer Wally Langfellow, who was calling the game from the press booth, told FOX 9.
“Everybody was just running in one direction,” 11-year-old spectator Addison Stetcher told KARE 11.
“People were climbing the fences and that kind of scared me.”
Langfellow, who has spent more than three decades broadcasting high school football, said he had never witnessed anything comparable.
“In my 30-plus years of doing high school football, I’ve never seen anything like this before,” he added.
Minutes before the shooting, a large fight had broken out on the stadium’s west side, according to police. Authorities locked down the school parking lot overnight as they processed the crime scene, leaving many attendees unable to retrieve their vehicles until Saturday morning.
“[Police] said, ‘You’re not going to be able to get it at least for a couple of hours. They’re clearing the crime scene now,'” Langfellow recalled being told by an officer.
Despite the gang-related theory, investigators acknowledged Saturday that they lacked sufficiently specific suspect information to release publicly, KSTP reported.
The violence’s ripple effects extended directly into the school’s homecoming traditions. Saturday’s scheduled dance was canceled, with Dr. Jaysen Anderson, the school’s principal, explaining the decision in a Facebook post.
“While we believe we would have the planning, resources and support to make tonight’s event safe and enjoyable, holding a dance less than 24 hours after a trauma in our community feels out of place,” he wrote.
The shooting interrupted what should have been a celebratory evening in a community unaccustomed to such violence. Eden Prairie, an affluent suburb southwest of Minneapolis, has long ranked among the region’s most desirable places to live, making the parking-lot gunfire and subsequent gang allegations all the more jarring for residents.
Police have not announced any arrests in the case.