Caught on tape: Teens attack people on the streets

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Police in Minneapolis and St. Paul are looking into a video posted on YouTube that appears to show a group of young men attacking bicyclists, pedestrians and children. The creator of the six-minute video describes it as “A video of a bunch of Somali males engaging in criminal behavior assaulting random bicyclists and children.”

Police say the assaults amount to actual crimes.

“The biggest issue here is these are crimes that create tremendous levels of fear,” said Sgt. Paul Schnell with the St. Paul Police Department.

During the video, which was edited and set to music, the young men give full names and nicknames such us “Shark,” “Lil Stain,” and “Jigsaw.” They take turns saying, “Watch this,” before knocking down people walking, jogging and riding a bicycle.

Police believe the eight suspects — who all appear to be teenage boys — targeted their suspects in St. Paul and Minneapolis this last weekend. Police say they don’t appear to have a clear motive for the crimes: not a fight, not robbery, not self-defense.

In fact, police believe the young men are engaging in a countrywide trend called “wilding,” where the suspects document their crimes and then post them online.

“They simply appear to be motivated by messing with, harming, hurting or scaring people,” Schnell said.

But the video does offer police key pieces of evidence: including the suspects’ faces, names and images of the crimes being committed.

“This investigation is going to be made a whole lot easier by the fact that this video was posted,” Schnell said.

Police also need victims to come forward before prosecutors can charge the suspects with the crimes. Until a victim files a police report, police are simply trying to talk to the suspects to urge them to stop the crimes before anyone is seriously hurt.

“It’s pretty stupid. They’re going to run into somebody who’s not too happy with them and roles are going to be reversed,” said Sgt. Jesse Garcia with the Minneapolis Police Department.