Nearly 100 bullets hit north Minneapolis home, surrounding properties, homeowner reports

A family is staying in the suburbs this weekend after their north Minneapolis home was hit by bullets late Thursday night.

Jamie Wilson, speaking to 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS on Saturday, said she and two of her kids were at their home on the 3700 block of Russell Ave N when the gunfire began at 11:41 p.m.

Wilson thanked her lucky stars that, because of a late meeting Thursday, she happened to be in a safe place downstairs with her 2-year-old asleep on the couch next to her, and her 12-year-old son happened to be sleeping at his dad’s.

Upstairs on Saturday, she counted at least 16 bullet holes in the wall of her son’s room. Several more hit the pillows on his bed.

“This is his front pillow, and he would have been laying right where those four bullets came through,” Wilson pointed out. “Luckily, he didn’t come home that night but if he would have, I mean, he would have been in bed by then.”

The shots created more than one close call for Wilson as the bullet trail continued into her bedroom.

In that room, she held up another pillow that a bullet appeared to penetrate and said, “My 2-year-old usually lays next to me, and it went through the top of his pillow.”

At least one bullet traveled all the way through the closet at the back of the room and into her 19-year-old daughter’s bedroom at the back of the house.

She was in the room at the time but was not hurt, Wilson said.

Outside, Wilson said officers on scene told her at least 20 rounds were found in the garage where the back window of a Jeep was smashed out. Another car in the driveway was also damaged.

“97 rounds in total that went off in 45 seconds,” Wilson said police told her before they left.

The gunfire appeared to come from the alleyway behind the home.

In total, Minneapolis Police noted damage to two addresses on the block and three vehicles.

Even though no one was hurt, the entire experience was far too close for comfort for Wilson.

“Just realizing that possibly, I put my kids in danger by getting a house where I got a house,” she said, explaining that buying this house was a big step for her as a single mom.

As of Saturday, Wilson said she’s not sure if she will return to live there, at least until there are answers about who put her family in danger and why.

“It’s the worst feeling and like, your soul is crushed,” she said with tears starting to fall. “Your reason for doing everything could have been taken away. And that, for me, is the worst thing in the world to have to feel.”

A police spokesperson on Saturday said officers are still investigating, whether the shooting could have been targeted. Investigators are also looking into a possible connection between this shooting and two other incidents, including an earlier altercation in Roseville and another report of gunfire in south Minneapolis about a half hour before the bullets hit Wilson’s home, the spokesperson confirmed.