Bullet grazes Minneapolis man’s head while outside home with neighbors

A Minneapolis man says what started as an evening talking to neighbors ended with a bullet grazing his head. He said he was outside his home near Loring Park last Friday when the bullets came toward him.

"I was just spending some time outside, sitting, chatting with the neighbors … and as we were talking all of a sudden just out of nowhere it was pop, pop, pop, pop, five rounds came at me from back to my left, when I heard the first two started to look and by the third and fourth I realized it was really close and that I was downrange and that’s why it was so loud, and then the fifth one caught me in the head," Minneapolis resident Shannon Grendahl said. "When I got hit, you had a lot of thoughts run through your head in a matter of split seconds. I just remember blood rolling down my head and then realizing I had to put pressure on it to stop the bleeding I knew I was going to be OK, I was fully cognizant."

Grendahl said doctors told him he’s OK.

Grendahl told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS he believes the shooters were purposefully firing in his direction where he was standing with a few friends outside of his home on Friday night.

"I’ve done enough shooting in my life to know if you’re downrange or not, I could tell right away we were downrange, they were shooting our direction, they were shooting at us, there was nobody else to shoot at, it was not a stray bullet," he said.

Rep. Jeremy Munson, R-Lake Crystal, posted about the incident on his Facebook page, calling Grendahl a friend. His social media post said in part, "Minneapolis needs to restore the rule of law."

Grendahl said, "I just want to see the rule of law in our streets."

The Minneapolis Police Department says some of the crime suppression strategies it is using in the 1st Precinct include:

• CRTs (Community Response Teams) engaging in focused crime reduction details,
• Strong partnership with the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office and their extra patrol,
• Metro Transit Police-coordinated details downtown,
• Hennepin County Violent Offender Task Force partnership in details,
• MAD DADS participating in the Nicollet Outreach Pilot Program,
• Downtown Improvement District Reserve Police Patrols,
• Multiple units from Minneapolis Police Department providing support in crime prevention/suppression details,
• Increased patrols,
• Increased use of foot beats.

A spokesperson for MPD also said violent crime is down 12% in the 1st Precinct compared to this time last year.