Community patrols to start in Minneapolis following weekend gunfire

Monday, community members will join together in an effort to stop violence in Minneapolis.

Community patrols begin Monday throughout Minneapolis.

Faith leaders plan Minneapolis block patrols

The patrols follow a violent weekend during which four people died and at least 12 others were hurt as the result of gunfire in the city.

Starting Monday, Minneapolis faith leaders are launching what they are calling "21 Days of Peace." Community members can sign up for daily shifts and patrol areas that are seeing violence. It’s a plan city leaders say they fully support.

"This has got to be a both-end approach right now," Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said. "It’s community, it’s law enforcement, it’s the Office of Violence Prevention and let’s just be very clear, when you have bullets flying like they’ve been, it’s unacceptable, we cannot tolerate it as a city, and together we all need to unite around that cause."

Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo said, "The concern that I have is when we are silent as a community, that silence is deafening, when we are silent as a community and are not shown in those spaces, then the bad actors and perpetrators feel they have free reign and that can’t happen."

The goal of the community patrols is to deter violence but also offer resources for housing and job opportunities.

Over the weekend, hundreds of people showed up to a community meeting at Shiloh Temple to volunteer.

The efforts come after a string of shootings in Minneapolis, including a shootout that left two people dead and eight others injured outside Monarch nightclub in downtown Saturday.

Suspect in custody in connection with shootout that left 2 dead, 8 injured in downtown Minneapolis

As those investigations continue, families of three children recently shot in Minneapolis are demanding answers.

Families, city leaders plead for information on people who shot 3 children in Minneapolis

In recent weeks, a 6-year-old girl died and a 10-year-old boy and 9-year-old girl are still in the hospital.

"Every day, every day we wake up and it starts all over again, the pain, the hurt, it starts all over again," Raishawn Smith, 9-year-old Trinity Ottoson-Smith’s father, said. "It’s a terrible thing to have to feel."

Police say detectives are working around the clock on these investigations. Anyone with information is asked to contact CrimeStoppers. There is a reward of up to $30,000 for any information leading to an arrest in the children’s cases.