FARGO, ND (trfnews.i234.me) Fargo Police announced more details today regarding 2 shooting incident in that town early Sunday morning that left 2 people dead and 2 wounded. Police say it was all part of an on going feud between 2 groups.
Thanks for your uh attendance today. We wanted to provide some updates. We had a pretty catastrophic day yesterday in a very short amount of period of time, about 30 minutes. Uh we had two individuals shot and killed and two other individuals shot. Uh one still in critical condition. We want to start by offering condolences to the family of Azim Holmes, a 20-year-old Fargo resident who was killed in a 50 block of Broadway yesterday at about 156 a.m. and the family of Elijah Hughes, a 21-year-old Fargo resident who was also shot and killed about 2:26 a.m. yesterday in the 4700 block at 16th Avenue South. the two additional shooting victims, 21 and 23 year old Fargo residents. Uh we are not releasing their names, not only to protect their safety, but the integrity of the investigation, and we’ll explain here a little more about that. Um what we can tell our community at this time and there are still a lot of active pieces going on as we speak. Uh but our team has identified that these two incidents, the homicide shooting and the homicide on 16th Avenue are part of an ongoing feud between two groups of individuals. This is appears to be going on for some time. We don’t know the motive behind the feud. Uh but it’s obviously escalated. For some time, uh since July, our PD team has been placing additional officers on overtime in our downtown corridor through bar closing. Um and this has been very significant. Uh since that time, we’ve made a lot of arrests, including gun arrests because of the additional saturation and some in some cases even with our partners. We’ve done a traffic safety and uh had highway patrol and and others involved in that. So, that’s gone very well. But our folks were actually out there when this happened at 1:56 a.m. They were right in the block. They heard the shots. They were the first there to provide immediate life-saving care to all three victims. Unfortunately, Mr. Holmes did not survive. Another officer observed a man with a gun near the body and engaged bravely in a foot pursuit of this individual. That person jumped into a random vehicle which fled the scene. Another officer initiated a pursuit of that vehicle which led our folks into Island Park where the subject jumped out of the moving vehicle and fled on foot. We immediately began to set up a perimeter. We had a canine and drone search uh in that area for some time. That individual initially eluded capture. The driver of the vehicle was arrested for fleeing. At this time, it does not appear that he’s involved with either of these groups. Uh maybe just knowing this person and picking him up. Uh there was a gun recovered uh in that from that vehicle and the passenger who fled on foot was later arrested. Captain Alfelt will have some more details on that as well. Back on the scene on Broadway, the bar closing crowd became uh unruly and was pressing our crime scene and our officers were having a difficult time controlling that scene. A request for mutual aid was made uh involved Morehead PD both Cass and Clay County Sheriff’s West Fargo PD, North Dakota University, NDHP, all of whom responded to assist uh in securing crime scene and in various parts of this investigation and the second incident that happened later on 16th Avenue South. We’re very grate grateful for their partnership and assistance at the scene and at in the following days as this was a very large-scale event. I think uh for those of you that have been downtown during a bar closing, we know that it’s a large crowd in a very short amount of time and if there’s something else in addition like this that is inflaming tempers or making it more rockous becomes a very dangerous situation for everyone and so we’re certainly appreciate their assistance and consume the resources of almost all those agencies uh in that in that piece. While on the scene, uh, still underway on Broadway 30 minutes later at 2:26 a.m., a report of shots fired came in in the 4700 block of 16th Avenue South. All of our folks were on Broadway with that scene. West Fargo PD responded to that uh, initial call. Uh, in fact, I’m told that most of their shift helped us uh, for the rest of the evening. So, we’re very grateful for their assistance. U, upon arrival, they found Elijah Hughes deceased with obvious gunshot wounds. Our patrol officers and investigation division personnel were called in and mobilized throughout these events and have done and continue to do a fantastic and tremendous job investigating these cases. Our intelligence and analysis unit and real-time crime center were also mobilized and began immediately reviewing our technology which greatly contributed to acquiring evidence and information helping us in identify those involved or those that may have been at the scene of of these incidents. I want to remind you that those folks are actually civilian members of our department. And I just want to reiterate they also came in in the middle of the night on a Sunday just like our investigators and detectives and our additional patrol people. Uh because our department team, sworn in civilian, is committed to public safety. Uh and I really appreciate their efforts and their continued work ethic. As a result of the investigative efforts thus far, we’ve identified a suspect in a murder on Broadway, and we are asking for our community’s help to locate and arrest this individual. You’ve received with the press release uh earlier today a nice photo of Tyreek Jones who is wanted for murder. There’s a Cass County warrant out for him currently. He should be considered armed and dangerous, and we don’t want anyone to be approaching him. But if anyone sees him or thinks they see him, we would urge you to call 911 immediately and report your observations and location to dispatch so that we can send units out there and attempt to take this person into custody. We’re also in the process of identifying a second suspect uh who would be involved in the homicide on 16th Avenue South. So, in essence, in a very short amount of time, 30 minutes, two groups of violent criminals, took two lives and injured two others. Uh, that’s a a lot in a short amount of time and especially at the location in which that occurred. Uh, really consumed not only Fargo PD resources, but regional resources. And again, I think it just illustrates the part the importance of those partnerships and how things like this can quickly become um unmanageable. I’m going to turn this over to Captain Bill Alfelt, our investigations division commander. He’ll have some additional information about uh the great work and uh that’s going on there and some other pieces for you and then we will take questions at the end. >> Sir, thank you chief. Thank you everybody for being here. Um really what I want to talk about is what’s been completed in the last 36 hours basically since this has happened. And I want to uh reiterate condolences uh from the police department uh to the families affected by this uh tragic incident. I also want to talk about how uh good of a job, how great of a job our criminal investigations division has done in the last 36 hours. Uh the phone call came out to us uh roughly around 3:00 a.m. uh that morning. And in those 36 hours, um an arrest has been made uh from an indiv individual around the scene. A suspect has been identified in one of these homicides. Three guns have been taken into evidence. A total of 414 12 total hours has been put into this uh investigation in the last 36 hours. So we have 37 sworn seven civilian individuals in our criminal investigations division. And those individuals in the last 36 hours have put in a 414 hour and a half hour combined response uh to this incident. Uh which uh is is just a testament to the dedication, the devotion of uh those in the criminal investigations division and uh in partnership uh with our uh other divisions within our agency which have been a huge help. Also, uh want to give thanks, uh to some of our federal partners, which have been a great help, uh in this situation. Uh our Cass County States Attorney’s Office, which has helped us with uh arrest warrants and uh and search warrants and uh partners within our community, especially in the downtown area, which has been a great help uh with this investigation. Um I want to reiterate what the chief talked about with our real-time crime center. Uh the Realtime Crime Center has been uh a huge piece to uh uh identifying evidence information uh for these investigations as they’re very much ongoing uh and and will continue to be ongoing uh into the the night into this evening uh until uh we can follow every lead uh and every piece of evidence which will uh undoubtedly lead us to a conclusion to both of these uh incidents. Um, also our gun crime intelligence center. Uh, we’re in partnership with the ATF, uh, with our NYN machine, National Integrated Ballistic Information Network. Uh, we’re able to take gun evidence from these scenes and, uh, hopefully tie them to, uh, other incidents or incidents involved here within the city. So, uh, I what I really wanted to reiterate today was, uh, the great job that, uh, has been going on here at the Fargo Police Department for the last 36 hours and that we can assure you will continue to go on, uh, as we continue to further this investigation. >> Yeah. Okay. Uh, I’m sorry, Ken. Uh, there was an individual who was arrested that the chief talked about uh, with this uh, fleeing incident from the scene. Uh, he was identified with a weapon in that scene. officers identified him right away going into a vehicle as it fled. Uh that vehicle was pursued for a short period of time. Individual fled from that vehicle initially was not caught, but later in the morning was uh his name is Kenji Moses. Uh and he was arrested for probation violations uh and taken to Cass County Jail where he still uh is being held. We’re working with the C County State Attorney’s Office to uh develop charges further past that probation violation. So I appreciate the reminder on that, Chief. that was the individual who fled uh from the scene. >> Um I think we’re happy to take questions. I just want to reiterate before we get to that. Uh there are multiple individuals involved in these groups. So there are a lot of things in play right now. Our folks are extremely busy and will continue to be very busy on these two cases uh for the the uh current upcoming days, weeks, etc. As we put those pieces together, uh we hope to have information hopefully by tomorrow. Uh if we’re able to get the identification on the other suspects, we can push that out to the community as well. Uh we’re still working in regards to that and we’re happy to take questions. where this incident kind of started? We understand they were running down Broadway kind of how did this incident happened and then the other two individuals you have not named. Were they targeted or were they just random people leaving the bar? >> Okay. So, the incident occurred uh in the 50 block of Broadway. uh started on the sidewalk and uh moved into the uh parking area between district 64 and uh Fort Knox. Uh as for what was the second question about the two other individuals? >> The the other two individuals who were the other two individuals who were shot, were they targeted by the gunman or were they just random people leaving the bar and just happened to get hit by gunfire? >> Still a subject of current investigation. Uh not willing to give an answer on that yet because we’re still looking into uh that qu that specific question. >> Uh just one other followup. Uh this one’s for Chief Zabolski. Talked about all the civilians who have come in to help the detectives. A lot of people have been wondering why not a press conference yesterday after one of the most violent nights in the city. Where were you yesterday and why wasn’t there more out to the public? >> Uh as everyone else was off. However, there was no information to provide until we were able to identify the suspect later in the day and then we immediately pushed that out to our community. So, other than the initial statements in terms of what we were doing, uh there was no other information to provide the community. Today, we have some substantive things to tell them. Hopefully, we’ll have more tomorrow. Uh but keep in mind, this is not a TV show. This is real life with real people. Uh we have to follow our investigative leads. We have to follow the law. We have to apply for search warrants. you have to do things by the book which takes significant time and everyone came in at 3:00 in the morning to start this. So I think in terms of all of that we have done a tremendous job. The community has been informed and continues to be well informed and now we’re asking for their assistance in locating this individual and we appreciate their continued support. >> Uh this for you Captain Alfeld. So just for clarification are there two different suspects in these shootings? Well, again, that’s uh part of an ongoing investigation, but we’re looking at uh multiple possibilities uh between these two incidents of of what might have occurred. Uh the individual that we’ve released as uh arrestable, as an open war for his arrest uh for homicide during the District 64 incident. Our evidence has led us uh to him as that suspect. We’re still looking at a lot of different possibilities uh uh on on the other situation. One thing I wanted to add on with uh uh with all the work that’s been done in the last 36 hours, six six search warrants have been written for a multitude of different things uh throughout that morning into yesterday and continue to be written uh for searches for everything from technology to vehicles to uh to dwellings. So uh just a lot of active work going on here and a lot of active leads to follow. Uh for the chief, you mentioned about in your opening comment about downtown the bars getting out and uh with people with an active scene going that things got unruly. Explain. Can you paint that picture for us? >> Sure. Well, I mean it’s bar close and so who’s been downtown at Park Close? No one. Okay. A couple. All right. I got one honest person in the back. So, we have and we’ve talked about this many times with our downtown uh situation. It’s a great entertainment venue, but at bar close, all the doors open at one time and hundreds and hundreds, if not thousands of people are flushing out onto a relatively small area, Broadway, right? And in the adjoining streets trying to get to their cars or what have you. And sometimes things that start in the bars carry out now into the street uh and and get out of hand. So, you’ve got a lot of people who have been consuming alcohol for maybe a period of time and now we’ve got a shooting uh with several victims. As you can imagine, there’s probably people in that crowd that know the victims. They maybe know the people involved. Those various groups start to maybe go at it. And in either event, people want to get to the victims while we’re trying to secure the scene, provide first aid, uh maintain evidence, all that kind of stuff. And so it’s uh it’s really just becomes unmanageable. And that’s exactly what was happening and uh resulted in the mutual aid request which was uh uh absolutely necessary. And had we not I think had that assistance I don’t know if we could have held that scene uh because it was just there’s just too many people. We don’t have a uh a plethora of cops at any given time. You’ve heard me talk about our staffing over at all and the need for more officers in our department for several years. Um, and so we staff as well as we can, our cops do a great job with what they have. Uh, but you know, we could also use more cops. Even if we did though, in this situation, without the mutual aid, there’s no way you’re going to control a large crowd like that. So, um, I think things just started to go south pretty quick and and they made the call. >> When you say, was there a risk of the scene being? Yes. >> Couple years ago, I asked you about a couple shootings that happened and your answer was, “We can stop this. Get rid of all the illegal guns on the street. >> The guns that were confiscated in this situation, are were they legal? Illegal? >> That’s still part of the ongoing investigation. When we take these guns into evidence, as I said, we took three into evidence. Uh there’s a process that we run them through with our gun crime intelligence center. Not only uh running spent shell casings, but also doing uh traces of the guns where they might have come from. This happening on a Sunday, that takes a little bit longer because certain entities that we run that through are closed for that day. So, still part of an ongoing investigation, but I can assure you something that we’re looking at. And I guess I certainly the guy that got arrested with the gun that fled in the car is a felon. So that’s an illegal gun that he was in possession of. And I think as the investigation continues to unfold, you will see more illegal gun usage uh as this comes together. But yes, thank Captain Bobby Fal. I just want to ask quickly um you’ve been kind of mentioning that uh groups of individuals involved in these have they’ve been known to each other. Was this gang related and do we know the possible location of you’ve identified the suspect one as Tyreek Jones? Do we know where he is possibly located? And if there is a suspect in the other shooting, how come the name has not been provided yet in that shooting? >> Sure. Um the uh if we knew where Tyreek was, he’d be in custody. That’s why we’re here today asking for the community’s help. Uh the other suspect has not been fully corroborated yet. So until we can corroborate through legal means that we have to follow that he is in fact the suspect, we cannot release that information. So, as soon as we have that corroborated, just as we do with Tyreek, and as soon as we had it put together last evening, we sent it out to our community because we’ve got probable cause for his arrest. And uh early this morning, a warrant was issued to support that as well. So, that’s that’s that process. And I’m sorry, what was the first question? >> Were these shootings gang related? >> Oh, yes, gang related. So, uh there’s no indication at all that there’s any gang relationships. Uh but again as I said earlier we don’t know the motive but there seems to be some intense conflict between these two groups of individuals and I think as the investigation continues and we’re able to connect some more dots and share more with the community uh you’ll see that at this juncture we’re not able to say any more about that. >> Chief Ken Duffy with Flag Family. Uh I had a question about public safety. You know, going back to that other question, it’s 36 hours later. You’re holding a press conference now. All day yesterday, people did not know if they were safe to go downtown. I mean, there were two different shootings until 5:30 yesterday. >> What about reassuring the public that they’re safe to go downtown, walk around, and get information out there about the the shootings regardless of what you have? >> Yeah, I think we did that in our releases. In fact, the mayor did a release as well, and I commented >> that. I think I interrupt you. That was at 5:30 in the afternoon. I mean, we It happened at 2:00 in the morning. We’re talking about 5:30 and there was no information until then. >> I think we gave you all the information we could. There isn’t anyone here that can ensure anyone’s safety anywhere in the world. Uh things happen. Uh so I don’t know exactly what you’re looking for, but uh we’ve provided as much information as we can, as quickly as we could, and we didn’t know as we were still in the midst of that investigation what the significance or extent of this is. So there’s really nothing more for us to say on Well, Chief, if I could just follow up, I’m not necessarily looking it forward for me. It’s about the public and their interest in knowing about what’s happening concerning their safety downtown, >> right? I think the public is interested in identifying and making sure that those involved get arrested. Uh I think I could talk about the safety of downtown and just as well as I could make that statement, you would likely mock me in the media for saying, “Well, if it’s so safe, why did the shooting happen?” So, I think we’re talking about a no- win situation and a no- win question. So, I’ll leave it at that. Chief of one more >> next question please KF girl. Yes. >> Any other substantive questions? Yes, sir. >> You may have already answered this question. Are the incidents related? >> Yes, they are. They are. We believe they are related. Yes. >> Okay. And so, do we know what the beef is about? And you may have when you said motive earlier, I don’t know. Do we know? >> We don’t know the motive. We don’t know that part yet. >> Okay. And following up a little bit on what he was asking, what’s your message to the public when they are concerned about um the perception of of Fargo being unsafe or the perception of downtown? >> Well, my answer is this. How many homicides did we have before yesterday? Can anyone tell me that answer? >> None. There you go. We had zero. Our last homicide was December 4th of 2024. So that’s eight months of no homicides. I never saw a report on that anywhere. But there’s still a perception, especially in certain areas of town, that people aren’t safe. In fact, how many shootings have we had this year up until Sunday? One, and that was late July. And then we had the incident yesterday. So for seven to eight months, we’ve had no persons shot and we’ve had no persons murdered. That’s extremely safe. But we have a catastrophic event yesterday. And so you can’t apply one catastrophic day to an overall safety of a community. This community is extremely safe for a city this size, extremely safe. Uh but we do have incidents just like every city does. And yesterday was a very bad day in terms of violent crime. Uh what I think the good news on that is is we’re starting to put those pieces together. We know that it’s uh it involves two groups of individuals who we will work through to identify. Everyone and anyone that is involved uh will be arrested and charged as appropriate. We’re not going to leave any holes uh uncovered on any of that and we’ll continue to take a very aggressive approach to the investigation and send it over to the prosecutor for charges. Uh that’s the very best that we can do and I in terms of community safety this is a very safe city but I know people have a perception that there are other issues. So we’ve talked about that a lot even at our crime press conferences. Our crime is down overall last year 6.8%. Down slightly the year before it’s down so far this year. So I can give you that all day long but I can’t change your perception unless you’re willing to consume the facts and change your cognition of that information. Right? So again, it’s a it’s a question of we could debate that all day. And so I don’t, you know, I try to stick with here’s the factual information, here’s my opinion in terms of safety, go from there. >> Yes, sir. >> Do we maybe clarify this? I think that’s what >> So if we have an active shooter, if you have an active shooter somewhere, it’s you have people shelter in place. If you’re having people shelter in place, then what do you put out? You put out a notice that they can move out. >> They’re never vigil. If the scene is there and the shooter’s gone, basically by 7:00 in the morning, the suspect’s cleared the area. We normally our protocol is we wouldn’t put out any notice because of that. It’s it’s a cleared zone. So unless there’s a quote shelter in place, then you have to wait for then somebody to say, “Okay, now you don’t have to shelter in place.” So I don’t know what the press is excited about. It was a scene and action happened and we’re investigating it right now. It’s safe to go downtown. Sunday there was like activities going on. Everybody was downtown doing stuff. I think what the press has to remember is downtown’s a neighborhood. It’s a neighborhood. People are going to be up and about. They’re going to be walking their dogs in the morning. They’re going to be doing stuff. >> Mr. Mayor, anybody on the scene, >> we go through the communications team. We put out a statement and we did that. So, sorry I can’t answer it any better. Yes, sir. >> Matt, she’s >> Oh, I’m sorry, Tasha. Yes. >> Sorry. I have just a few questions about the suspect. Mhm. >> Um, >> have you ruled out the possibility that he could be the suspect in this second homicide? >> Uh, we’re not able to comment on that right now. >> Okay. Are you aware of any connection that the suspect had with Westwood Estates, the apartment complex where the second homicide? >> Not. No. >> Okay. And then the last one is that suspect had a previous um charge last year. He was um charged with a well he’s charged with terrorizing. He was accused of holding two people up at gunpoint that was reduced to a misdemeanor and he was uh he was on a year of supervised probation. He’s currently on supervised probation. Um are you frustrated that that with the kind of pleading down that that charge happened for that for that for that incident? Well, we’ve had a number of these situations lately. Um, I think we might have discussed that and that’s an issue uh to address, I guess, either with the prosecutor’s office or with the judges, but we have um had a lot of instances, even the guy that got arrested with the guns, a felon. And so, uh, I think there is still an issue with accountability in the criminal justice system u here in North Dakota. I don’t I don’t think that these some of these violent people are getting sufficient sentences. They’re getting out too soon. uh in some instances they’re dropped in even without supervision. So uh much larger issue beyond our control and unfortunately we’re the ones that uh have to deal with the outcome of that of those decisions and our community as well. >> Uh okay, last question, man. >> Yeah, I have two questions here. One, you mentioned the number of shootings, number of homicides. >> However, you classify shots fired as a different category. How many of those have we have? Because some may consider them just as dangerous. Just because they miss doesn’t mean they’re any less serious. But the >> they’re not always shooting at someone, but yes. Uh so shots fired is is shooting at a car, a house, something like that. Those numbers have actually last year we’re significantly down and this year on a similar track. So uh again, we’ve had very little gun violence this year compared to other years. Yeah, we’re we’re in good shape there. And the other thing is on those I don’t have the exact number, but it’s on our website. You could go there and check. We post them every month and you’ll see because I was just looking at it the other day in the shots fired category uh we have nearly 50% of those cleared by arrest. So again a tribute to our technology uh the NY system and investigative efforts is those crimes aren’t always uh cleared because they’re often difficult. You know someone fires off some guns or a gun and there’s casings and evidence left or something is struck. Uh we don’t always have witnesses. So those are difficult cases to clear. So from that perspective, I think we’re also doing outstanding uh from a crime clearance perspective. >> And I guess the other question is kind of I know we’ve touched on this a few times now just you know kind of here we are 36 hours later. I mean five people are shot in Minneapolis their a couple months ago their police chiefs out at 1:00 a.m. Not with the case solved but just telling the public what’s going on behind the scenes what the department as a leader of this community. Don’t you feel the public should see you and hear from you a lot sooner than 36 hours? >> Not always possible, Matt. >> Why is that not possible? >> Cuz we all have off days, don’t we? Or do you think I should work 24/7? >> I was off yesterday. I came in. Well, that’s >> and then coach softball. >> Congratulations. All right. Any other questions? Thank you everyone. Have a great day.
FULL NEWS CONFERENCE: Fargo Murders “On Going Feud”
