A dozen Somali gangs with hundreds of members, mainly teenagers, are wreaking havoc in Minnesota, committing public shootings and murders out in the open, according to local officials.

Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher, whose office patrols the metropolitan region surrounding Minneapolis and St. Paul, told the Washington Examiner that as many as 300 Somali youth are engaged in gang activity around the Twin Cities area.

According to Fletcher’s office, Somali gangs were responsible for at least 14 homicides in the past two years, as well as over 100 shootings, including gunfights that broke out at massively attended gatherings, such as high school graduation ceremonies and the Minnesota State Fair.

Fletcher mentioned that one Minneapolis police officer reported that Somalis account for one-fifth, or 20%, of the city’s homicides. While the Minneapolis Police Department does not publish homicide data by race or national origin, making that claim impossible to verify, homicides in the city have been tied to Somali gangs in the past, as far back as the mid-to-late 2000s. For instance, in 2009, seven Minneapolis-area Somali men were killed over a 10-month period, and authorities believed that they were all murdered by fellow Somalis who belong to gangs.

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