100-shot Somali gang gun battle rocks Minnesota as sheriff warns 'we're in trouble'

Violence tied to Somali-American gangs in the Twin Cities metro erupted in recent days, with law enforcement recovering nearly 100 casings after a gunfight captured on a resident’s surveillance camera — as officials warn they need help to contain the problem before it escalates.

The warning follows a burst of violence across several Twin Cities suburbs — including a Bloomington shootout that left nearly 100 shell casings and another shooting in Eden Prairie — as law enforcement says the incidents have entered a retaliation cycle and officials race to disrupt the groups before the violence evolves into more entrenched drug- and money-driven crime.

"We have the opportunity to fix it," Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher said of a surge in Somali gang violence across the Twin Cities — but warned authorities could be facing a much more difficult problem if the groups escalate the resources they use.

3 DEAD, INCLUDING SUSPECTED GUNMAN, AND 3 OFFICERS INJURED IN MINNEAPOLIS SHOOTING "It’s early.

Once they evolve into drugs, we’re in trouble.

Once they evolve into money, more money, we are in trouble," said Fletcher, whose county is anchored by St.

Paul and runs along the west bank of the Mississippi River.

Fletcher estimated that about 300 juveniles are involved and said part of the problem lies in the Somali gangs ’ relative novelty to local law enforcement and what he characterized as a reluctance to aggressively prosecute offenders across the river in Minneapolis.

TRUMP’S LAW-AND-ORDER BLITZ MARKS ONE YEAR WITH EYE-POPPING HAUL OF SUSPECTS, GUNS IN BLUE CITY "We need more people focused on this problem.

Because 50 kids in this 300 need to go to jail, 25 need to be prosecuted by the feds for RICO and and another 25 need to be prosecuted at the local level.

Take 50 of the most active out of the mix, and we will see dramatic changes," he said.

He ascribed some of the reticence to neighboring Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty , saying she has not been sufficiently "aggressive" in prosecuting such offenders.

FEDERAL JUDGE REFERS PHILADELPHIA DA LARRY KRASNER TO DOJ FOR POSSIBLE CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION "One of the misconceptions is that somehow when you prosecute people, put them in jail that you're destituting them to some terrible life.

This is how kids get corrected," he said.