Minneapolis police chief issues apology for linking Somali youth to local crime
'The Somali community here in Minneapolis has been welcoming and has shown love towards me, and I appreciate it,' O'Hara said
By Rachel Wolf Fox News
Published November 22, 2025 1:52pm EST
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O'Hara apologized to the Somali community for a comment he made connecting "East African kids" to crime.
"The Somali community here in Minneapolis has been welcoming and has shown love towards me, and I appreciate it," O'Hara said at a news conference on Thursday. "Over the last three years we have been working together to try and address some of the real serious problems that we have in our community."
"We have to be honest at times with the problems that we're having in our community, and we need our community to help us fix those problems together because it's real and it's serious. At the same time, if people have taken anything that I have said out of context in a way that’s caused harm, I apologize, and I’m sorry for that because that’s not my intention at all," O'Hara added.
In an interview with WCCO earlier this month, O'Hara was speaking about a deadly Halloween shooting as well as juvenile crime plaguing the city when he made the comment. Alpha News reported that the Dinkytown area, where the shooting took place, has seen a series of crimes including assaults, robberies, shootings and auto thefts.
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