Neighbors heard multiple gunshots when 10-year-old was shot New Year’s Eve

Neighbors heard multiple gunshots when 10-year-old was shot New Year’s Eve

Neighbors heard multiple gunshots when 10-year-old was shot New Year’s Eve

Just before midnight on New Year’s Eve, Michael Green heard multiple gunshots outside his home in St. Paul’s Frogtown neighborhood.

“I was in bed; I didn’t know if I should jump under the bed or what I should do when I heard the shots ringing off,” said Green.

Green says the gunshots sounded like “automatic gunfire.” Police say one of those bullets hit a 10-year-old boy in the stomach, leaving him in critical but stable condition. 

RELATED: St. Paul records 1st homicide of year; boy critically injured in separate shooting

Investigators say the 10-year-old was inside his home on Sherburne Avenue. Police believe it was a targeted shooting.

Michael Dotterweich was outside the house next door at the time of the shooting. He says the suspects were in the alley.

“I [saw] the muzzle flash on the house like right where I was standing. I was like, ‘whoa,’ so I just ducked out on the porch,” Dotterweich said. 

Across the river, just minutes into the new year, a Minneapolis girl was also shot. Police say the girl was in her room when a bullet was fired into her home.

5 EYEWITNESS NEWS captured video of what appears to be a bullet hole in the window. The girl was taken to the hospital and is expected to be okay. 

It’s been a brutal start to the new year and neighbors are pleading for the violence to stop.

“That’s a shame. It’s a bad area. It’s been you know, I’ve lived here all this time, and it changes and gets bad, and it gets worse,” said Green. 

There have been no arrests in either case. 

That same night, a teen was also grazed by a bullet in the Payne-Phalen neighborhood in St. Paul. The teen is also expected to be okay.