Minneapolis neighbors attacked family homeless shelter residents, agency says

St. Anne’s Place, a 54-person shelter for homeless families, has been vacated and boarded with plywood with private armed security patrolling outside, after neighbors smashed its glass doors, assaulted residents and shot one of their cars, according to operator People Serving People.

Police reports from last Thursday show multiple 911 calls about a large group of neighbors yelling at shelter residents, threatening to beat them up, breaking the glass of two doors with a metal baseball bat and brandishing a gun. The incident lasted more than four hours, from 8 p.m. to early the following morning.

People Serving People said the events were captured on camera and that the footage has been given to police. The alleged assailants are known to the shelter. No arrests have been made.

According to the public narrative of the investigation, which is still open, officers responded to an assault that was an “ongoing issue between two neighbor groups. ... We were unable to determine who the aggressor was in the fight. One group damaged a vehicle and building windows.”

Minneapolis Police spokesman Garrett Parten said he has not reviewed the footage as of Tuesday evening, but that the responding officers’ nonpublic reports do not match the shelter witnesses’ statements.

“Based on the supplements that I’m reading, either what you said couldn’t be confirmed by the officers on site, or it’s just untrue,” Parten said in response to the Star Tribune’s request for comment.

Shelter staff and those who live there were further traumatized by the police response, a shelter spokeswoman said.

”The officers on the scene were dismissive of the victims, disrespectful to staff and guests, and provided comfort and reassurance to the assailants,” said the spokeswoman, Laura Vitelli. “No arrests were made despite clear camera footage identifying the assailants and staff willing to make statements. The neighbors were emboldened by the MPD’s lack of response and continued to threaten and harass families and staff through Thursday evening and Friday. When PSP tried to relocate one of the impacted families to a nearby hotel, the neighbors followed and harassed them.”

About 54 people were living at St. Anne’s at the time, including 16 mothers and 38 children.

The shelter, at 2634 Russell Av. N., was transferred from Haven Housing to People Serving People this May.

For nearly a year during the pandemic, St. Anne’s was being fitted with a new HVAC system and did not take on residents. One of alleged harassers moved into the neighborhood during the period when the shelter was empty and there was not the competition for street parking that exists when the shelter is full of residents and staff, said People Serving People CEO Hoang Murphy.

Murphy said that last Tuesday, one of the residents parked in front of a neighbor’s home on the public street. The neighbor and the resident got into an argument. St. Anne’s staff intervened, and the resident moved her vehicle to avoid arguing further.

The following Thursday, another shelter resident parked her nearly identical vehicle in the same spot. Murphy believes the neighbor assumed it was the same person and accosted them. Staff again tried to de-escalate. Allegedly a large gathering of neighbors, including children being egged on by adults, then broke the glass of the shelter’s front and side doors in an attempt to unlatch them, kicked a staff member who was holding an infant at the time, and “pistol-whipped” a shelter resident who was trying to flee, Murphy said.

One of the neighbors allegedly shot the vehicle in dispute and broke its windows. The 911 call data shows screaming women could be heard in the background.

Murphy said the adult neighbors were the ones who engaged in the most harm, and that People Serving People wants them prosecuted. St. Anne’s doors are now boarded and everyone relocated to other shelters and hotels. He said police declined his request to post a patrol car in front of the shelter but did erect a mobile camera on Tuesday after he called half the City Council.

“I couldn’t leave a building empty, especially with this type of climate, and expect it to be OK,” he said. “We’re going to need to step up security at St. Anne’s place before families return there.”