Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara issued [1] an apology Thursday at a press conference following comments he made during a Nov. 11 interview in which he referred to “groups of East African kids” while discussing ongoing crime investigations.
The remarks were made to local station WCCO as O’Hara provided updates on an Oct. 31 homicide case.
MPD chief cites ‘East African kids’ from ‘out of town’ in ongoing Dinkytown, youth crime problems
In addition to the recent homicide, there has been a rash of other crimes and disturbances in the area adjacent to the University of Minnesota campus that have included assaults,… pic.twitter.com/EocKUiZZiL [2]
— Alpha News (@AlphaNews) November 14, 2025 [3]
A petition on Change.org calling for an apology collected 629 signatures.
Before O’Hara spoke at the press conference, two Somali community leaders made remarks through interpreters.
O’Hara addressed his relationship with the Somali community during his statement.
“The Somali community here in Minneapolis has been welcoming and has shown love towards me, and I appreciate it,” he said.
“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.”
He later added, “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.”
During the Nov. 11 interview, O’Hara told WCCO that gang activity was part of the issue, along with the fact that many individuals involved in crimes such as vandalism and carjacking were not Minneapolis residents.
He also said lenient prosecutorial and judicial practices in the city have made crime response more difficult, according to Alpha News.
O’Hara said, “They aren’t the poor kids from Minneapolis that are our residents, these are kids coming down in mommy’s Mercedes-Benz to Dinkytown, and they don’t know where they are.”
He noted that the person killed in the Oct. 31 shooting, as well as one of the individuals wounded, were not from Minneapolis.
In the Nov. 11 interview, O’Hara stated, “Groups of kids, groups of East African kids that are coming from surrounding communities and not just one community, kind of all over the place.”
The press conference came shortly after another high-profile incident in the city.
Democratic City Councilman Jamal Osman was carjacked on Nov. 10, one day after winning reelection on a platform focused on “restorative justice” and “violence prevention programs.”
Authorities continue to investigate that carjacking and other recent cases involving juveniles and groups operating in areas such as Dinkytown and surrounding neighborhoods.