Family carjacked at home in south Minneapolis; 75 carjackings in December

A young family was carjacked at gunpoint at their home in south Minneapolis by a group of apparent teenagers. 

The carjacking took place on the morning of Dec. 18. However, newly surfaced surveillance video reveals the group of suspects and black SUV getaway car. 

"All of us mentally have walked away extremely scared and traumatized," said the owner of the car, who requested to conceal her name out of fear for her family’s safety. 

She said the group of apparent teenagers attacked her boyfriend in the garage before he had a chance to close the garage door. 

"They told him to give them the keys, they held a gun up to his head, demanded his phone as well as his iCloud password, and he didn’t know off the top of his head what his iCloud password was so they started punching him in the face with the gun held up to him – which my children could see from the back door," she said. 

Surveillance video shows at least four young men and a fifth person – possibly a woman – who remained in the getaway car. No arrests have been made in the case. 

Minneapolis police are investigating at least 75 separate carjackings for the month of December alone. 

While the victim’s car has since been located, she was told by authorities that it will remain stuck in MPD’s impound lot for the foreseeable future. 

"That likely it would be a long time before I was able to know the condition of the car or when I could get it back because they have such a large backlog in their impound – he said it was something like 100 cars," said the owner of the car.

As investigators begin work on this carjacking case, the victim is calling on the community to step up. 

"When I think about these crimes I keep thinking that no child wakes up thinking that they want to be a carjacker … or committing violent crimes," she said. "I think it’s a symptom of some pretty serious problems we have in our community and our lack of support for these kids and for the impoverished and I feel like if I don’t speak up, if the other victims don’t speak up – what change will come?"

Minneapolis Police DepartmentMinneapolisCrime and Public Safety