Stray bullet hits pizza delivery driver on Central Avenue
(Photo: Matt Rolfe says he was turning south onto Central at this corner when a bullet hit him in the arm. BY DAN HAUGEN)
By Dan Haugen
Northeast Beat EditorÂ
A pizza delivery driver is recovering after a stray bullet struck him in the arm early Saturday morning on Central Avenue.
Matt Rolfe, 27, had just delivered a pizza to the Northrup King Building and was turning south onto Central Avenue from 14th Avenue at about 1:30 a.m.
That’s when he heard three loud cracks he thought sounded like firecrackers, followed by a dull pain below his right shoulder.
“Imagine being hit in the funny bone, and then times a thousand,†Rolfe said.
For a split second, he thought he’d been hit by a bottle rocket, but then he saw his shattered passenger-side window and blood pouring profusely from his arm, he said.
As his hand went numb, Rolfe fought to dig his cell phone out of his right pants pocket. He drove another three blocks before he became too dizzy to drive and pulled over at Central Avenue and Broadway Street, he said.
A police officer arrived moments after Rolfe called 911, he said. He was taken by ambulance to Hennepin County Medical Center, where he was treated and released the following morning.
About an hour after the shooting, police arrested a 23-year-old man who was booked into jail on probable cause for felony, first-degree assault. Charges were still pending on Monday.
The bullet entered Rolfe’s arm about an inch below his shoulder and stopped just short of his humerus bone, he said. It’ll stay there, lodged in his upper arm muscle, for the rest of his life.
Minneapolis Police Lt. Greg Reinhardt said the shooting appears to be a random and isolated event, and that Rolfe was not the intended target of the gunfire.
A group of people were drinking that night in an apartment on the 900 block of 14th Avenue, just west of Central Avenue. The suspect fired the shots outside the building at one of the residents and missed, possibly on purpose, Reinhardt said.
“It’s unclear as to why there was a disagreement between the suspect and victim two,” Reinhardt said. “Certainly it was enhanced by alcohol.”
On Monday Rolfe said that his arm was still extremely sore. He could bend his elbow but couldn’t raise his arm at his shoulder more than an inch without pain, he said.
Mentally, he was still wrestling with what might have happened under other circumstances, he said, if he’d been driving just slightly faster or slower, for example, or if he’d been driving an automatic instead of stick shift.
“All the what-if scenarios start going through your head,†Rolfe said. “It’s just crazy to even think about all the variables that had to come together.â€
Minneapolis police track gunshots in parts of the city with technology that uses audio sensors to map the approximate location where they were fired. In Northeast, where gunshots are few and far between, police rely on citizens to call in reports, Reinhardt said.
“We do have them. There are certainly plenty of guns out there, but we don’t have the indiscriminate, routine gunfire that other parts of the city do,” he said.
Reinhardt said police will take a closer look at the area where the shooting happened, but they don’t believe it was gang-related or the start of any trend or pattern.
Rolfe is a full-time biology student at Minneapolis Community and Technical College. Summer is when he typically works multiple jobs and long hours to save for tuition. Even after physical therapy he said he’s worried the injury will keep him from working his usual jobs for a while.
Still, he knows it could have been worse.
It was fortunate for Rolfe not only where the bullet hit but also when. He doesn’t have health insurance, but because he was on the clock his employer, Pizza Luce, is paying for his medical expenses, he said.
“For being unlucky enough to have been shot in the first place,†Rolfe said, “I guess I’m pretty lucky.â€
Email This Article
Print This Article
Filed under: Central Avenue, Crime, Logan Park
Wow. That’s a few blocks from where my wife is getting an art studio. Ironically, we got a space for her in NE so she could get away from the gun-craziness of our northside home during the days.
Police say anyone with information about the shooting should call Sgt. Marilyn Raveling at 612-673-3705.
Hi,
Dan Thought you might want to know if you knew that The dollor store on Central was robbed yesterday 3pm.
Thanks MOhammed
“first degree assault” ? that’s it? seems kinda light….
Just a clarification. MPD does have equipment which detects shots fired outside. It is called ShotSpotter and is in stalled in 4 square miles citywide, 2 sq. mls. in North Mpls and 2 sq. mls. in South Minneapolis. These areas have over 50% of all the shots fired in one year.
There are no ShotSpotter devices installed in NE as of yet. We still depend on citizens calling 911 to report supected gunfire. Please continue to do so, and provide a discription of any suspects and/or vehicles.
Lt. Greg Reinhardt/MPD Second Pct.
Kudos on the well written account of the crime occurring in our neighborhood. I had not read or heard any news of this incident. Glad to know we are keeping an eye on the events…good and not so good.
Thank you, Jason
Thank you Dan for reporting this. Matt is my son-in-law and my daughter Brandy many times rides with him on his pizza runs. Luckily that evening she declined, or I would have been without a daughter. NE Mpls has been rapidly becoming victim to increased violent crimes… we must put a stop to it. I had written to Rybak, Ostrow and Sammuels…all of whom I know. The only reply that I received was from Paul Ostrow. Thank you Paul! However… where is Rybak??? This may seem small to him… but it is not. It is a symptom of what has gotten out of control under his direction. We have been active participants for the past ten years on establishing NE as an arts district. My husband and I have done an immense amount of work on cleaning up the neighborhood and supporting the good in the neighborhood. It is now time to have all of our community leaders unite in cleaning up crime…not just showing up for our parties and toasting our accomplishments as if it was theirs. Thank you again, Dan.
Eeris Fritz
I agree! I hate it when the elected officials annouce that crime is down and they are responsible for this. But I would like to know what neighborhood they live in. When I make suggestions like limiting new liquor licenses or stop building more rentals in a neighborhood with a rising crime rate - the city goes the opposite direction. They will not even investigate over occupancy complaints. I think the people who live in the neighborhoods know what is best for these neighborhoods. Elected officials should listen to the residents and act more on their suggestions. Paul may have responded to you - but did he really have a good response? And Rybak?? What city does he work for??
How would limiting new liquor licenses impacted this crime? How would it have impacted any violent crime in NE this year so far. I am interested to see your data.
Well let us see - they were at a party drinking. Where did they start drinking? But the point is that more liquor near a residential neighborhood has an increase in crime. It is a proven fact. From people urinating in our yards to violent crimes. Maybe not this case in particular because I do not know the details. But the city does not follow through on complaints and codes. If you were someone looking for a new home, would you buy one near graffiti and boarded up homes? Putting more police on the street will never be enough unless the city thinks about why the crime is rising and does something about it. Too much to list here.
They started drinking at a NE bar? I read the Strib and PiPress articles but must have missed that. From the two articles I read, it seemed they had been drinking in the residance all night. Can you provide a link to your source? Assumptions and presumptions are slippery slopes. I’d rather have renters and graffiti artists than people that make assumptions in our neighborhood.
The city does follow-through on complaints and codes, they have done so for us several times in the 6 years we’ve lived in SAE, perhaps not to the degree to which you might like, but the article up a couple regarding the 5th precinct wasting time traping venue owners is a good example of where your generallization fails.
If I were someone buying a home, I would not care. Another slippery slope. It’s nearly tantamount to “let’s raise the median home price high enough to keep poor people out of our neighborhood who might benefit from the services and access to public education and access to transport it provides.” If I were someone looking for another house, I wouldn’t be looking in Linden Hills for that reason. Whitebread suburban enclaves built into cities ignore the diversity things like bars, rental properties, and music venues provide…If I wanted that I could move to Maplebury or Woodbrooke or Edina Heights.
Please stop assuming and generalizing. Everything we touch is different and unique.
I really think you should reread what I wrote. I was talking about crime and lack of support from the city. You went well off into left field with your comments.
I did not bring up grafitti, rental units and bar licensing, three things that have little to do with a bunch of drunk morons playing with guns.
“When I make suggestions like limiting new liquor licenses or stop building more rentals in a neighborhood with a rising crime rate -”
“If you were someone looking for a new home, would you buy one near graffiti and boarded up homes?”
I only hope that by pointing out the lack of logic in these statements and my responses thereto, you have realized the non sequitur bringing them up became. Ad hoc ergo propeter hoc.
I was thinking of moving in NE area is this the kind of thinkg that i have to look forward to?
I moved to the northeast area from st. paul last year. Northeast has traditionally been a pretty low crime area. In the northeast crime statistics, I haven’t read about anything other than burglaries and petty crimes. I remember a carjacking in the Galleria in Edina a few years ago, and how about that kid who was killed in the trendy uptown area two years ago? IT happens everywhere.