Shooting of 4 children in a stolen car triggers alarm in Minneapolis

Moriarty's office could not be reached for further comment Monday evening.

The children were caught in a stolen 2020 Kia Optima registered to a couple in St. James, Minnesota. Their 20-year-old daughter, Adly Velasquez, said she drove it from her home in Mankato on Thursday to visit a friend in Minneapolis who lives near the University of Minnesota.

She recalled parking the car under a streetlight in front of the Marco Apartments on SE 8th Street and locking it. Velasquez's girlfriend came out the next morning and saw the car was gone. Velasquez saw her vehicle on a television news report over the weekend. The rear window was “completely shot out” and a taillight was shattered in the hail of bullets, she said.

Now she's waiting for police to recover evidence from the car before they can pick it up from the city depot. “It just sucks,” she said. “All you can think about is 'Why me?'” At the same time, she added, “And when you think about these kids, it's a lot to process.”

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, car thefts by teenagers have skyrocketed across the country. The thefts of Kias and Hyundais in particular were sparked by a social media trend that revealed a simple method to hotwire these cars.

“This is a huge problem that we have had in the two years I have been here,” O'Hara said.