Area Schools React to Brooklyn Park Shooting

In the aftermath of an apparent shooting in Brooklyn Park that left three dead Monday, April 9, several buildings in the and nearby Hennepin Technical College reacted quickly as law enforcement officials worked to locate the suspect.

The incident started April 9 around 6:30 a.m. at a home on the 8100 block of College Park Drive in Brooklyn Park, according to an article on StarTribune.com. Police Inspector Todd Milburn initially told the Star Tribune that three adults were found dead in the home, but did not release additional details about the incident or the victims. The Hennepin County Medical Examiner released the name of the victims April 10 as James Henry Bolden, Clover Dale Bolden and Delois Bolden Brown. The examiner said all three died as a result of a gun shot wound, each death ruled a homicide.

As law enforcement attempted to track down the suspected shooter after the incident, several area schools reacted by locking doors. 

Hennepin Technical College, located over the Maple Grove border by Highway 169 in Brooklyn Park, went into a lockdown around 7:15 a.m. Monday, April 10. Students/staff on campus were kept in the school, others were notified electronically to not come to the college, according to media reports. 

A short time later, several buildings in the Osseo School District went into reverse evacuation, which means “access from the outside is prohibited but school continues inside the building," according to Osseo School District School/Community Relations Director Barbara Olson. 

in Maple Grove, and in Osseo along with the CBVAT, ACHIEVE, OSTC, OALC sites in Brooklyn Park all started their reverse evacuations between 8 a.m. and 8:45 a.m. Monday.

“At about 9:30, based on information from the Brooklyn Park Police Department, the reverse evacuations were lifted,” Olson said in an April 9 email to Maple Grove Patch.

“The decision to implement a safety procedure is usually done in collaboration between the site leader and district officials, using information provided by police,” Olson said. “The decision is a district/school decision, but we certainly communicate with police in order to inform the decision.”

The lockdown at Hennepin Technical College was lifted around 1:20 p.m. April 9, according to Annette Roth, a college spokeswoman in a Pioneer Press article. Hennepin Technical College planned to reopen to staff and students at 3 p.m. the same day.

As of approximately 5 a.m. Monday, April 16, there were no reports or statements issued from law enforcement that the suspect had been located. 

Police describe the suspect as a "black man in his mid-20s and riding a BMX-style bicycle. He was wearing blue jeans, a navy blue sweatshirt with a gray hood and two 1-inch stripes down the back", according to a report on StarTribune.com. The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension released sketches on its Facebook page April 10 of jacket worn by the suspect in Brooklyn Park homicide and urged those with information to call 9-1-1.

"We have dedicated a considerable amount of resources to solving this case, and we will work until it is solved," said Brooklyn Park Police Chief Mike Davis, as reported by Channel 12 Monday afternoon. "We're currently offering a $10,000 reward for anyone or to anyone that has information that leads to the conviction of those responsible for this crime."

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