Brooklyn Park police are investigating a shootout in a strip mall that left shoppers and business owners ducking for cover on Saturday.

The shooting happened near the intersection of Brookdale Drive and Zane Avenue North.

Police are still searching for who’s responsible.  No one was injured.

People in the area said the violence is a reoccurring problem that picks up in the summer.

“It’s scary. You can’t even stand outside. You’re scared. You don’t know what’s going to happen,” Matalie Cisse, M&T Beauty Supply Owner, said.

Cisse feels trapped in her own beauty supply store in Brooklyn Park.

“In the summertime, it’s not easy out here. Sometimes you see boys walking out here with guns,” Cisse said.

That’s exactly what she saw on Saturday around 4:30 p.m.

Brooklyn Park police got a call that people were shooting at each other in the shopping center off Brookdale Drive.

Investigators found at least 40 shell casings in the parking lot.

“We hear that gun sound and everyone had to go on the floor. You don’t know what’s going on. People like crazy in the parking lot, running up and down,” Cisse said. “We’re lucky no one got shot.”

Police said the strip mall has been a crime hotspot for years.

“There has been a variety of things that have happened there, from drug dealing to shots fired and to homicides,” Elliot Faust,  Brooklyn Park Police investigator, said.

In 2021, the city contracted violence interrupters to keep an eye on the area for a couple of years.

“During the course of those interactions definitely had some deterrence on the criminality that was happening there,” Faust said.

The partnership between the violence interrupters and the city came to an end because it was too expensive to keep afloat.

Faust explained they have some resources dedicated to this strip mall, but they’re down about 20 officers.

“Our resources are extremely stretched, but we’re doing all we can to react to this,” Faust said.

Business owners noted customers are hesitant to come to the area because of the recent violence, which hurts business.

People who work in the strip mall are calling on the city to make the area a top priority before it’s too late.

“Our life is in danger,” Cisse said. “We need the security to be back because it’s safe for us and safe for the community.”

Faust explained that other violence prevention strategies are being developed and should be implemented in the next couple of months.