Victim of Uptown shooting dies

Victim of Uptown shooting dies

"this crime is an aberration"

Police, residents and business owners share concerns about crime in Uptown.

Jim Adams, Chao Xiong and Jenna Ross, Star Tribune
Minneapolis police said today that a man who was critically wounded in a shooting in Uptown on Saturday night died Sunday.

Police Chief Bill McManus, at a news conference this afternoon at the intersection where the crime occurred, called the shooting "a seneseless, callous murder. I can't tell you how shocked and upset this community is." He added that "this crime is an aberration" for the Uptown area.

McManus, who will be leaving soon to head the Police Department in San Antonio, added that police are paying just as close attention to this homicide as they would if it had happened in other parts of town that are less affluent and more racially diverse.

"Where it occurs, it doesn't matter," the chief said. "We've had press conference on the north side.

"I don't want to get into a competition, North Side vs. South Side, black vs. white." Zebuhr is white.

Robberies in Minneapolis' Uptown area, where Michael Zebuhr of Buckhannon, W. Va., was shot, have spiked several times in the past year. That brought an increased police presence, arrests and a temporary lull in Uptown robberies, police leaders say.

Police have been focusing patrols on the nearby Whittier and Stevens Square neighborhoods along Franklin Avenue, which have traditionally had more of the Fifth Precinct's street crime, said Inspector Kris Arneson. That may have pushed crime toward Uptown, she said.

Residents and business owners share police concern about the violent, but unusual, robbery.

Since the shooting, more people have called to join a crime patrol for the Calhoun Area Residents Action Group, said Christy Devens, chairwoman of the crime and safety committee, which has grown from about three members to a dozen residents.

"There's increasing concern about violent crime here," said Devens, 41, a resident for six years. Although she said she believes the area is still safe, Devens said she's worried that statistics foreshadow worse times ahead.

A robbery-shooting is unusual in the Uptown area around Lake Street and Hennepin Avenue, police and residents say.

Zebuhr was shot about 10 p.m. while returning to a car with his mother and two others from an Uptown restaurant.

He was a 2005 graduate of Davis & Elkins College in Elkins, W. Va., and is a graduate student in bioengineering at Clemson University in Clemson, S.C. He was in Minneapolis to visit his sister with their mother, Suzanne Strong. Police said Zebuhr was shot after two men grabbed his mother's purse. Police had made no arrests Monday, and they said there may also have been more suspects in a getaway vehicle.

Arneson noted that robbery has increased in the precinct this year, but not significantly in Uptown, where crime often occurs just outside the commercial hub on side streets.

Police say street crimes like robbery seem to be moving south and west from the Whittier and Stevens Square neighborhoods toward Hennepin and Lake.

"I am leery going out at night" except along well-lit 3lst Street, said Phillip Rauk, 46. He lives in a townhouse less than a block from the robbery site and heard screaming after the shooting Saturday in the 3100 block of Girard Avenue S.

Rauk said he was disturbed that an innocent person was shot by strangers. "In this case, you could be a victim just [by] walking around," he said.

Robberies in the Fifth Precinct have increased 43 percent to about 100 so far this year over last, Arneson said. Citywide, robberies grew 39 percent in the same period, according to police data through March 13.

Police said the Uptown area has several traits that make it an attractive target: a high density of housing and businesses and heavy foot traffic. And some criminals like Uptown because that's where the money is, said Lt. Mike Fossum, head of the robbery unit.

The thousands of people drawn daily to Uptown shops and restaurants also attract crime, but violent crimes like Saturday's are unusual there, said Deputy Chief Sharon Lubinski. She noted that Uptown businesses hire off-duty officers to patrol and that they complement regular police patrols. "Overall, the Uptown area is very safe," she said.

City officials have been encouraged by improving property values along Lake Street and Hennepin since 2000.

"Hennepin and Lake Street are both fast rising commercial corridors," said Mike Christenson, the city's director of the economic development. He said higher market values "reflect land use and growing consumer confidences in those neighborhood shopping districts."

Many Uptown business people, however, said their customers were abuzz over this weekend's shooting. And that talk is bad for business, they said.

Dain Harrington, a manager at Famous Dave's Barbecue, said crime in Uptown often affects restaurant staff. Two workers were robbed as they walked to their cars one night last summer, he said. So when Harrington, 30, heard about this weekend's shooting, he spoke with employees about safety.

An occasional burst of extreme violence during robberies is not unusual, authorities said. For example, Martin Pliego Ruiz was fatally shot in the head one night last May by one of two robbers who accosted him and his wife near 39th and Dupont Avenues N. They were walking home after a day's work at a McDonald's and willingly gave up their belongings, as did the group in Saturday's shooting.

Authorities said that despite the violence of Saturday's robbery, few victims are shot if they oblige a robber's request.

It is unclear whether Saturday's incident is linked to other cases. Lubinski said there were no "strong constant" patterns in robberies this year, which are up in each precinct.

Anyone with information about the robbery is asked to call 612-692-TIPS.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. Jenna Ross is a University of Minnesota student reporter on assignment for the Star Tribune. jadams • 612-673-7658 and cxiong • 612-673-4391