Following a shooting outside of the Eden Prairie High School homecoming football game last week, some officials are calling for a task force focused on Somali gangs.

Two teens from St. Paul were injured by gunshots fired outside of Friday’s game in what police believe was a gang-related shooting. They were transported to Hennepin Healthcare in Minneapolis with non-life-threatening injuries.

In a statement Monday, Eden Prairie Mayor Ron Case called for the creation of a dedicated regional task force “to address gang activity among East African youth.” The task force would bring together state, county and local law enforcement, prosecutors, youth-service organizations and Somali community leaders, according to Case.

“Gang violence must be confronted, but the actions of those involved should not define the broader Somali community,” Case said. “I stand with the Somali Americans who call Eden Prairie home — our neighbors, business owners, parents, students, coworkers and friends — and I know many are deeply concerned about this violence and determined to be part of the solution.”

Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher said during a news conference Tuesday that he agreed with the need for a task force. Fletcher said there are around 12 Somali gangs that the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office has been able to name, with around 300 members.

“We need a task force that can address this problem,” Fletcher said. “And why is it? Well, it’s because of the mobility. I’ve worked gangs since 1980 when the Crips and the Gangster Disciples arrived here in St. Paul and Minneapolis. Those gangs were never really mobile. …This is a completely different mode of operation. These young kids are traveling all over the metropolitan area.”

It is early in the evolution of Somali gang crime and there is the opportunity to fix the issue, Fletcher said.

“Once they evolve into drugs, we’re in trouble,” he added.”Once they evolve into money … more money, we’re in trouble. But right now, it’s a lot of posturing. It’s a lot of threatening of each other.”

Citing a Monday shooting at a Speedway gas station in Eden Prairie, which Fletcher said is related to Somali gangs, and another one in Bloomington, which is believed to be connected, Fletcher said, “We’re now in the retaliation phase of gang violence.”

“You need a cooling-off period to stop the motivation to retaliate,” Fletcher said. “We don’t have a lot of police officers in Minnesota that are familiar with the Somali gangs. … And the problem is we need more. We need more people focused on this problem.”

There should be around 40 police officers dedicated to learning about the Somali community, taking culture classes and getting to know Somali youth and gang members, Fletcher said.

For a task force to start, there needs to be support and agreement from city officials, Fletcher said. Federal officials are interested in being involved, he said, such as the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

“Because 50 kids in this 300 need to go to jail, 25 need to be prosecuted by the feds for (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act or RICO) and another 25 need to be prosecuted at the local level,” Fletcher said. “We take 50 of the most active out of the mix and we will see dramatic changes.”

Law enforcement needs to get to know gang members, who range in age from 15 to 24, he said, because “that neutralizes everything.”

“But we need to arrest a big chunk of these kids and send a message to the groups as a whole that we’re not going to tolerate this type of shooting and violence,” Fletcher said. “And I do want to mention this number again because this gets really politically contorted: We’re talking about a small number of 300 children. There are over 100,000 Somalis living in Minnesota. At the sheriff’s office, we have a long-standing relationship with the Somali community … so we have a chance to fix the problem here in the short term.”

Past criticism

Somali community leaders criticized Fletcher’s approach to discussing Somali gangs after he said during a YouTube livestream in July that there had been 100-plus shootings and 14 homicides in the Somali community in the Twin Cities in the last two years.

Yusra Mohamud, founder and CEO of Yuspire, said at the time that the Somali American Partnership’s message is not about “denying violence, excusing criminal behavior or suggesting that public safety is unimportant.”

She and speakers outside St. Paul City Hall said Fletcher should have talked with Somali elected officials, parents, faith leaders, educators and community organizations first, rather than choosing “to have this conversation on a public YouTube livestream.”

In August, the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office and Minnesota Attorney General’s Office filed legal cases against two primarily Somali gangs to prevent them from associating at the State Fair. Officials alleged they previously created a public nuisance in and around the Fairgrounds through fights and shootings.

Though most individuals named in the lawsuit disputed allegations they belong to a criminal gang as defined by state law, seven agreed to stay away from the State Fair, and a Ramsey County judge granted an order applying to three other people. They were ordered to not associate with gang members during the Fair, not confront or intimidate people and not use gang signs, among other matters.