Two men are killed and EIGHT injured after two people in a crowd started shooting in Minneapolis 

Two men have been killed and eight others injured after two people in a crowd got into an argument, pulled out guns and started shooting each other in Minneapolis.

The mass shooting unfolded in the early hours of Saturday morning along the 300 block of North 1st Avenue in the downtown area of the city, reported KSTP.

The 10 people shot included five men and five women, with all the victims confirmed as adults. 

The two people killed are men, while another male is in hospital in a critical condition. The remaining seven victims have non-life-threatening injuries and are expected to survive. 

Minneapolis Police spokesperson John Elder said the deadly shooting began when two people standing in a crowded area got into a verbal fight.

The two people then both pulled out guns and started shooting at each other.   

Officers were working in the downtown area for the evening bar close when they heard the sound of gunshot at 1:59 am. 

The officers ran to the area and ‘encountered an exceptionally chaotic scene’, said Elder.

Several victims were found lying on the ground suffering gunshot wounds, including one man who was already dead on arrival.

Officers began administering emergency medical care to the victims and found another man was also already dead. 

Police said the officers told people to leave the area and tried to secure the scene. 

But they were forced to call for back-up as the crowd of people made it difficult for emergency services to get into the area. 

Officers from inside and outside the Minneapolis area responded and Minneapolis Police tweeted around 4 am that order had been restored.   

The victims were rushed to Hennepin County Medical Center and other local hospitals. 

The identities of the victims have not been revealed.  

The Medical Examiner will release the identities along with the nature and cause of death in the coming days.  

It is not clear if the two individuals who first started shooting are among the dead or injured. 

It is also unclear if they were the only two who opened fire during the fatal incident.  

Elder confirmed to DailyMail.com that no arrests have been made at this time.

The investigation is still ongoing.  

Violent crime has surged in Minneapolis in the last year since black security guard George Floyd was murdered by white cop Derek Chauvin. 

Homicides spiked to the second highest levels in history, reviving the city’s unfavorable nickname ‘Murderapolis.’ 

Of the 5,426 violent crimes recorded in Minneapolis last year, 83 of them were homicides, according to the city’s police crime statistic data. 

That the second highest number of homicides since 1995 when a record 97 homicides were recorded.  

More than 550 people were wounded in shootings, marking a 100 percent increase in shooting victims in 2020 compared to the year prior. 

Carjackings also spiked to 375 last year, which was up 331 per cent from the same period in 2019.   

Violent crime was already trending upward in the first half of last year but it really started to spike after Floyd’s Memorial Day murder, which sparked protests demanding an end to systematic racism and police brutality.

In the week after his death, nearly 1,400 gunshot were recorded across the city.  

Authorities have put much of the surge in violent crimes down to the COVID-19 pandemic and the unrest following Floyd’s death. 

The trend has continued into 2021 with figures released this week showing violent crime has increased again so far this year.

Year-to-date homicides are more than double what they were by this time in 2020 while gun theft from vehicles is up more than 100 percent.  

The stark findings were shared at the city’s Health and Public Safety Committee meeting Thursday, as leaders grapple with how to tackle the surge in crime, reported KSTP.com. 

Police officials have warned that part of the problem is not having enough officers on the street.

Floyd’s murder at the hands of a police officer escalated calls to defund the police and exacerbated tensions between the city’s African-American community and its police force. 

An unprecedented number of officers quit or went on extended medical leave after Floyd’s death and the unrest that followed.   

Last June, a majority of city council members agreed to dismantle the police department and replace it with a ‘transformative new model of public safety’ amid calls for law enforcement reform.

But a city commission then blocked the issue being put to voters in the election.   

While some leaders are pushing for a new public safety model to replace the department, the city appeared to make a u-turn this year by channeling more funding into the force.

In February, it was revealed that Minneapolis was planning to spend $6.4million to hire dozens of police officers, to replace those who left. 

The City Council voted unanimously to approve the additional funding that police requested. 

But the future of the police department remains uncertain.  

The city boarded up again this spring in preparation for the trial of Chauvin. 

Chauvin was found guilty of Floyd’s murder in April and is awaiting sentencing.

Following the verdict, the Justice Department announced it was opening a sweeping investigation into Minneapolis policing practice. 

The Justice Department was already investigating whether Chauvin and the three other officers charged in Floyd’s death violated his civil rights.  

The new investigation is known as a ‘pattern or practice’ – examining whether there is a pattern or practice of unconstitutional or unlawful policing.  

Since Floyd’s death, some reforms have been made to the police department including a ban on chokeholds and an update on the use of force policy.