Minneapolis, MN (KROC-AM News)- One person was killed and five others were injured in a mass shooting that occurred in Minneapolis. 

Officers responded to the gunfire around 11:30 Monday night near an encampment. 

A news release issued by the Minneapolis Police Department says the shooting happened on Franklin Ave. East between 16th Ave. and 17th Ave. in the southern part of the city. 

Responding officers found six people who had been injured by gunfire. A woman suffering from life-threatening gunshot wounds was taken to a hospital. 

She was later pronounced dead. The Hennepin County Medical Examiner has been tasked with identifying the fatal gunshot victim. 

Police also found a man with life-threatening gunshot wounds along with two men and two women suffering from non-life-threatening gunshot wounds. All of the gunshot victims were taken to a hospital. 

Officers responding to the shooting also had to contend with what the news release describes as a crowd of 20-30 unruly people. 

Members from surrounding law enforcement agencies responded to disperse the crowd to allow officers to render aid to the gunshot victims. 

Police did arrest one person with an active arrest warrant on suspicion of obstructing the legal process and charges tied to the warrant, which are not related to the shooting, officials say. 

Officers found a gun at the scene and investigators canvassed the area. It’s not yet known what led up to the mass shooting. 

Authorities are asking anyone with information regarding the deadly shooting to share it via Crime Stoppers.

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Lev Roth works the front desk at a downtown Minneapolis condo building, helping residents use the building’s facilities and keeping an eye on who’s coming in and out. Roth says they have run into frustrations in recent years, like workplace safety concerns and scheduling headaches.

“We are given some amount of vacation time, but it’s so hard to find people to fill the shifts that we miss,” Roth said. “Having some way to make sure that people can use their vacation and sick and safe time would be fantastic.”

Those are the kinds of issues that Roth thinks a city labor standards board could address. Roth has been organizing with their union, SEIU Local 26, to advocate for the creation of a board — and the idea has long had support from the Minneapolis City Council.

After a lengthy process, council members say they plan to share language establishing the board and vote on it soon — but even before that happens, business owners and labor advocates are at odds over the idea.

What would the board do?

While specific details are still in the works, in general the board — if formed — would be able to study specific industries in Minneapolis, like property services or restaurants.

The board would form subcommittees specific to an industry, made up of workers, business owners and community stakeholders, like consumers and academics. Subcommittees could come up with recommendations for new regulations, to be forwarded to the City Council for consideration.

The standards board on its own could not enact regulations. Its recommendations would still need to go through the council’s full legislative process. 

City Council members voted last winter to draft the design for the board. They are currently still working with city staff to craft the language; neither business owners nor labor advocates have seen a draft of the resolution.

Councilmember Aurin Chowdhury is one of the resolution’s authors. She says workers need the forum with employers that the board would provide.

“Working people are dealing with rising cost of living, and wages oftentimes not meeting that,” Chowdhury said. “We had a number of different workers come forward and share that they are struggling in different ways.”

Pushback from business owners

But the idea has set off alarm bells for some employers. Several Minneapolis restaurant owners have rallied with Hospitality Minnesota, calling for the standards board to be blocked. 

Chef Gustavo Romero owns Oro by Nixta, a Mexican tortilla and taco restaurant in northeast Minneapolis. 

Romero said he’s worried about the possibility that more regulations could arise from a labor standards board, creating more challenges for an industry that struggled through the pandemic.

“It looks like we’re finally getting momentum into the restaurant where people are coming out again, and it feels like they’re waiting for us to get on our feet so they can swipe us back,” Romero said. 

Romero was one of 120 restaurant owners who signed a letter to the council in June opposing the board. The letter-writers noted that a third of its signatories identify as people of color and said they would be hit hard by new rules.

Romero said he runs on thin margins, like many minority restaurant owners who struggled to get their businesses running in the first place. He worries that more regulations could mean more expenses, and it’s not easy to bring in more revenue. 

“I cannot charge you $6 for a taco today and $10 tomorrow,” Romero said. “We know realistically that doesn’t work.”

He’s worried members of a city labor standards board won’t understand that. 

Waiting for the draft language

City Council Vice President Aisha Chughtai said the board is designed to avoid those misunderstandings. That’s why any board research into specific industries would include employers and employees, she said.

Chughtai said she believes misinformation is behind much of the backlash. She said the council is working to include as many voices as possible in the creation of the labor standards board.

“Community members and workers and local entrepreneurs are left behind in policymaking around labor standards, or feel left behind in that type of policy creation,” Chughtai said. “I think that’s where the support of this type of policy comes in in the first place, is just people feeling like their voices weren’t considered.”

Meanwhile, proponents of the policy say they want to see the process speed up. The idea for a labor standards board was first floated two years ago, when a majority of the City Council and Mayor Jacob Frey came together with labor unions in support.

Brian Elliott is the executive director of SEIU’s Minnesota State Council. He said he thinks it will be easier to negotiate with business owners once stakeholders can see the draft language — which he says is taking longer than with other city policies he’s been involved in.

“When people don’t know, they really go for the worst-case scenario, so one of the challenges we have is actually getting out a draft ordinance,” Elliott said. “For this policy, we are all waiting for a draft.”

City Council members said they hope to have a resolution ready to review in the coming weeks.

The labor standards board is part of a bigger push, in Minneapolis and nationwide, to give workers a seat at the table. Unionization efforts have gained momentum in recent years, including at several Minneapolis restaurants. Kim’s in Uptown recently unionized, after owner Ann Kim told workers to vote against the effort. Workers at Colita and the four locations of Café Cerés announced their intent to unionize last month. 

Lev Roth says they want that seat at the table.

“The backlash I’ve heard is from employers who say that they know best what their employees need. I can’t imagine that employers know better than employees what employees need,” Roth said. 

City Council members say they’ll schedule more meetings with employees and employers to hear opinions about the board as they continue drafting the resolution.

The deadline to purchase the Roof Depot site in the East Phillips neighborhood of Minneapolis came and went on Monday without a sale to the group slated to buy the property.

The East Phillips Neighborhood Institute (EPNI) has been vying to buy the property and turn it into an urban farm since last year.

A deal passed by the Minneapolis City Council in September 2023 meant the EPNI needed to raise $3.7 million to combine with nearly $8 million from the city and state in order to complete the sale.

However, millions of dollars in funding did not pass through the legislative session this spring, leaving the future of the EPNI’s purchase in limbo.

RELATED: Millions expected from state not passed in legislative session, future of Roof Depot site back in the air

In May, the board president of the EPNI told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS that the legislative funding falling through was “unfortunate” but the EPNI still believed it could raise the funds.

According to Erik Hansen, Minneapolis’ director of Community Planning and Economic Development, the city will issue a notice of termination on Tuesday, which means EPNI representatives have 60 days to complete the purchase.

Hansen added that if the sale does not go through, the previously agreed-upon purchase agreement will fully expire.

Hansen says city staff have been made available to find a path forward throughout this process.

5 EYEWITNESS NEWS has reached out to EPNI for a comment and will update accordingly.