2 shootings in 8 days onboard Metro Green Line
Crime on public transit rose in recent months, remains down overall in 2024
The Metro Green Line was back on track on Saturday after service delays around the Hamline Avenue Station on Friday night due to police activity following a fatal shooting onboard a train.
Metro Transit police said a man was shot on a westbound train around 8:30 p.m. as it approached the stop near the intersection of University Avenue West and Hamline Avenue North. He later died at the hospital, a spokesperson said.
It was the agency’s second homicide of the year, following none in 2023, according to Metro Transit police data. There were three light rail train-related homicides in 2022, a spokesperson added.
Friday also marked the second shooting onboard a Green Line train in just over a week. The first happened near the intersection of University and Western avenues on Nov. 21.
Police said a woman was shot in the leg shortly before 9:30 p.m. She was expected to survive, according to preliminary information at the time.
“Man, it’s very disheartening,” Tray Pollard reacted on Saturday to the news of the latest shooting.
“We have to do better, man, and we can do better. And I know we can do better.”
Pollard is the founder and CEO of We Push For Peace, which is one of 10 organizations contracted by Metro Transit late last year to bolster security on trains.
We Push For Peace started riding the Green and Blue Lines daily in January, where they spent much of their time interrupting active drug use, forming relationships with regular riders and ultimately connecting several of them to housing and addiction recovery services, Pollard said.
5 EYEWITNESS NEWS saw this in action in February.
“They have helped quite a few of the people I associate with on this train,” a rider shared at the time.
Over their four months of work, a team of 35 outreach workers with We Push For Peace spent more than 2,000 hours on outreach work, according to data provided by Pollard.
According to his calculations, the team enrolled at least 38 people in the organization’s Free Work Readiness Program, enrolled 16 people at an addiction treatment center, and connected more than 40 people with shelter beds, including some long-term shelters, among other services.
To Pollard’s dismay, that work — which was paid for by one-time state funding — ended in April.
“When we first started to work with Metro Transit, you know, I told them that, you know, if this is something that we’re just simply trying to put a band-aid on, then I’m not interested in doing it,” Pollard said.
“Well, when the pilot part of the program was over with, there was no more funding to continue what we had already started.”
In the meantime, recently released Metro Transit data for Q3 showed crime on trains and buses was up 6.7% this summer compared to the same timeframe in 2023.
Crime remained down by 8.4% overall this year compared to 2023, according to the data available through Sept. 30.
In a statement on Saturday, a Metro Transit spokesperson said four of the 10 contracted community groups have some funds left and “remain active on transit, including the Link MN, The Family Partnership, Minnesota Community Care, and Mental Health Minnesota, and we aim to sustain this work, without interruption, in 2025 and beyond.”
“Future opportunities” to apply for additional funding to continue the work were not yet available but “coming soon,” according to the spokesperson on Saturday.
“So it’s just time to have a real conversation, man. And then put a real, consistent plan together,” Pollard reacted.
“And, let’s execute the plan because, at the end of the day, the one that suffers the most is that individual that got shot and killed last night, right? You can invest a lot of money into expanding the light rail, expanding transit services, but if people don’t feel safe, they’re not going to use it.”
No arrests were made related to the fatal shooting on Friday as of this report. The BCA is supporting Metro Transit Police with the investigation, a spokesperson added.
See Metro Transit’s full statement related to work with community organizations below:
“After receiving $2 million in state funding for the Transit Service Intervention Project, we contracted with 10 community-based organizations, including We Push For Peace, in 2023. Four of these organizations remain active on transit, including the Link MN, The Family Partnership, Minnesota Community Care, and Mental Health Minnesota, and we aim to sustain this work, without interruption, in 2025 and beyond. This includes advancing plans to hire a contract administrator to manage contracts with community-based groups. More than 11,000 contacts and 5,100 referrals have been made since the Transit Service Intervention Project launched last year. As noted above, this is one of several efforts underway to expand our official presence on transit.
You’ll also note in our latest Council update (linked above) that we have a pending partnership with the Saint Paul Downtown Alliance that will bring Safety Ambassadors to the Green Line’s 10th Street, Central and Union Depot stations in St. Paul starting early next year.”