UPDATE
May 6, 2022
A St. Paul man and woman have been charged in connection to the shooting of Minneapolis Police Department forensic scientist Nicki Lenway.
According to the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office, 41-year-old Timothy Amacher and 24-year-old Colleen Larson both face one count of attempted first-degree murder of Lenway.
Read more.
April 26, 2022
Nicki Lenway, a forensic scientist with the Minneapolis Police Department, was shot multiple times outside a daycare near the University of Minnesota last week.
The scene of the shooting was apparently very chaotic, per Crime Watch Minneapolis, a local police scanner watchdog. Shots rang out at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday outside the daycare, sending “parents and children running for cover,” according to radio traffic. After the dust settled, Lenway was struck in the neck and arm, but nobody else was hurt.
Lenway was immediately rushed to a local hospital and is now in stable condition, according to a GoFundMe organized on her behalf by MPD officer Nate Sundberg. “Inevitably there will be a number of costs/bills that she will incur during her road to recovery,” the GoFundMe says. Thus far, over $45,000 have been raised.
Lenway has been a forensic scientist since 2013, according to her LinkedIn.
The shooting is being investigated as a domestic incident, per The Star Tribune. More information about the details of this investigation is not available.
“Out of respect for the wishes of her loved ones, MPD won’t be commenting except to say that we’re holding Nicole and all of her loved ones in our hearts during this time,” a public information officer told Alpha News.
The Prospect Park neighborhood, where the shooting took place, is just east of the University of Minnesota. Although Prospect Park experiences 8% more violent crime than the national average, it is generally a much safer area than Minneapolis as a whole, which reports 198% more violent crime than average.
Six other people have been shot in the city over the last seven days and police have logged dozens of reports of gunfire, according to an MPD map of such incidents.
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