Number of people wounded by gunfire in Mpls. spikes

The number of people shot and wounded in Minneapolis is up sharply this year, while the number of homicides remained flat.

Police officers reported 59 gunshot wound victims in the first three months of 2016. That's nearly double the number of people shot over the same period last year. Three of those victims died.

The city's Youth Violence Prevention coordinator Sasha Cotton said this could be because shooters are trying to maim, not kill. But that may not be the only reason.

"Young people who aren't familiar with handguns or how to hold them or how to use them sometimes just don't know how to hit the mark," she said. "So in some ways, we're lucking out."

Most of the shootings were reported in north Minneapolis. The 4th Precinct saw the number of gunshot wound victims triple in the first quarter of the year.