Cedar-Riverside community members said they were left with mixed feelings on the neighborhood’s current state of safety and funding for the youth following a January shooting between two rival gangs.

Feysal Ali, 19, and Bilal Farah, 18, were charged on Feb. 6 in connection with a Jan. 27 shooting in the back parking lot of the West Bank Diner, according to Hennepin County District Court documents. While multiple community members said they were not aware of the shooting, they said it is not surprising to hear about it. 

Ali is facing up to 20 years in prison and a bail up to $35,000 after being charged for possessing a firearm after a previous conviction, as well as possessing and operating a machine gun, according to court records. 

Farah was charged with assault and is facing seven years in prison with a bail up to $14,000. 

The 1627 Boyz, of which Ali is associated, is a gang originating from and occupying the Cedar-Riverside community, according to the court documents. Farah is an associate of the Muddy gang, a younger generation of the Somali Outlaws that occupies the Karmel Mall near Uptown. 

The motivation for the shooting is unclear other than the two are associates of the rival gangs, according to court records.

Minneapolis police spokesperson Sgt. Garrett Parten did not respond to multiple phone calls and emails for comment. 

Subeyda Jama, daughter of the owner of Sagal Cafe next door to the West Bank Diner, said many teens in the community slip into gangs because it is what their peers are doing. 

“It’s the idea of feeling stronger than someone or proving a point,” Jama said. “Morals kinda get lost in that environment and logic gets thrown out the window.”

Jama, 21, who grew up in the Cedar-Riverside community spending time at her mother’s business, said gang violence was at its worst around 2016 when substance abuse came into the picture. 

Fartune Robla, a mother who has lived in Cedar-Riverside for 22 years, said violence has gone down in the community compared to the start of the pandemic, but she still sees room for improvement, especially during the nights.  

Today, Jama said gang violence is minimizing, but drug abuse is still prevalent. Jama added she sees more community elders being informed about substance abuse, specifically through the Cedar-Riverside Community Council’s safety outreach program. 

Halima Ainte, a Cedar-Riverside resident and neighborhood ambassador through the safety outreach program, said the community meets to find solutions to reduce drug abuse and inform families on administering naloxone, which is used to reverse an opioid overdose.  

“This world is not easy, you have to advocate for people,” Ainte said. “People, children dying in the middle of the road.”

Jennifer Weber, youth director for athletics and enrichment at the Brian Coyle Community Center, said gang violence and substance abuse became more prevalent once funding for the center was cut in 2016.

“When that funding got lost, that’s what we’re seeing out on the street,” Weber said. “That lack of programming, that lack of hope, that lack of joy.” 

The Minnesota Legislature appropriated $330,000 in 2014 for designing an expansion of the Coyle Center, according to the Minnesota Star Tribune. 

The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board, which owns the Coyle Center and the land it sits on, and Pillsbury United Communities, a nonprofit community development organization that leases the building, failed to negotiate, stalling the expansion for eleven years, according to Weber.  

Weber also leads Ground WORK, a youth employment program that creates landscaping learning opportunities through beautifying the neighborhood. Through this program, teens, primarily boys, are taught to have stamina for jobs and a sense of accomplishment.

“Instead of blaming the youth, we got to see them repair the neighborhood,” Weber said. 

Although they are finding success in Ground WORK, without organized programming and steady funding, Weber said continuing programs at the Coyle Center will be difficult. 

“There just needs to be more programs because our young people will have less likelihood of going in the (wrong) direction,” Weber said.