BULLET SPARKS RIOT IN MINNEAPOLIS

Shot Fired By Officer Goes Astray During Raid, Injuring Boy

MINNEAPOLIS -- Dozens of people shouted at police, smashed windows and
assaulted members of the media after a 10-year-old boy was injured by a
bullet fired by a police officer that ricocheted.

The officer was shooting at a pit bull dog that had been turned loose on
police who were trying to serve a search warrant on a house suspected of
narcotics activity. But the bullet hit concrete and ricocheted into the arm
of the boy who wasn't in the line of fire, a police spokeswoman said.

The boy was treated and released from a hospital, spokeswoman Cyndi
Barrington said.

The incident happened at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, but tensions grew later as TV
news crews arrived to cover the event. About 75 to 100 people gathered in
the north Minneapolis neighborhood and shouted at police and journalists.

Crowds surrounded a city bus and several media vehicles, smashing their
windows. A KMSP-TV car was set on fire.

Two reporters for the Star Tribune of Minneapolis were beaten and suffered
minor injuries.

A photographer for the St. Paul Pioneer Press was hit in the head with a
rock as a group of people surrounded his car. He received stitches at a
nearby hospital, an editor for the Pioneer Press said.

Three people in the city bus suffered minor cuts from broken glass, and a
WCCO-TV reporter also was cut when the windows were smashed in her vehicle.

By midnight, police said the area appeared to have quieted.

Tensions in the neighborhood have been running high following an incident
Aug. 13 in which police shot and wounded a 19-year-old black man who
allegedly pointed a gun at an officer. In the aftermath of that situation,
a white police officer was alleged to have said, "You all got one of ours.
Now we got one of yours," referring to a previous shooting. The only
arrests Thursday night were of three people in connection with the search
warrant on the house. They faced weapons and drug charges.