In May of 2022, Shawn Michael Tillman committed the crime of a fatal shooting at the Metro Green Line’s central station in downtown St. Paul. The murder of 37-year-old Demitri Ellis-Strong happened after hours while the trains were not in service. He died of multiple gunshot wounds and his murder was “Heinous” according to the jury. In turn, Tillmann was found guilty and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole on March 25th, 2024. With the jury sentencing Tillman to life in prison, the question of change arises with a spike in crime throughout the years in Minneapolis, St. Paul, and Marcy Homes for example. Will the jury begin to inflict greater punishments on those who have committed murders? 

As the weather begins to get nicer in the state of Minnesota the violence begins to spike up. Ranging from crimes such as vandalism to murder, the active city of Minneapolis has gotten more and more dangerous as the years have progressed. As a current student at the U of M, the campus alerts have not had the best reputation when informing students about any threat going on near or on campus. The Safe-U alert often gives vague descriptions of the incidents and late messages hours after the incident happened which in turn is not the best method of safety for students on campus. Something I like to use instead would be the citizens app. I find it helpful when planning a night out or keeping me informed on my late-night walkbacks. With up-to-date information about violence and reports of suspicious activity from users, this app is a great tool to use to avoid danger in the city or around campus.

 For example, this past weekend on March 29th multiple people reported a man on the 4th floor of the Field House apartments with a gun present. Multiple police officers arrived at the scene and helped neutralize the threat leaving 2 people tased and multiple people maced. While many were out of town due to Easter being around the corner, those around campus and living inside of the apartment complex experienced a panic like no other. Student Luke Sonnek said, “This was probably the scariest thing that has happened to me this year just because this threat actually took place in my apartment. Somewhere I thought I would be safe”. When talking to students around campus about the growing threats some reported saying that they were unsure if their apartments or homes would be safe to go to after a long day because of this recent incident. 

The increase in threats around the city and campus has me questioning if the jury will begin to inflict greater punishments on those who have committed crimes and what their plan is to try to decrease crime rates, or if this was a one-and-done deal because of a heinous crime committed.  This problem in my opinion would be much more worthy of improving instead of discontinuing accessible ride-share services from the city of Minneapolis such as the recent cancellation of Uber and Lift. From my perspective, I believe that although the city of Minneapolis has done a great job of decreasing crime rates the U of M’s campus could use more security measures to ensure that students stay safe on their day to day basis. Whether it be adding additional units to patrol our campus or adding new methods of transportation the security of our campus would be worth improving. The murder of Demitri not only made me extend my condolences to a family who had lost a loved one, but it made me begin to question what I as a student could do to take extra precautions for the violence occurring around campus.