Former Minnesota state trooper John Nagel says Democratic leniency emboldened Somali gangs shooting up Twin Cities suburbs and asks where Rep. Ilhan Omar is.

Two teens were shot outside an Eden Prairie high school football game this month. In a Bloomington neighborhood, police recovered more than 100 shell casings. The string of gun violence has rattled suburbs around the Twin Cities and put fresh pressure on Minnesota’s Democratic leadership.

John Nagel, a Minnesota native who spent 30 years as a state trooper and is now the Republican challenger to Rep. Ilhan Omar in the 5th Congressional District, told Fox News Digital the shootings are not random. He said soft-on-crime politics from Democrats have emboldened gang members and ordinary crooks alike.

Nagel put the congresswoman at the center of the failure. He said he does not see her at community meetings, issuing statements, or sitting down to ask how to stop the bloodshed.

"Where is Ilhan Omar in all of this?"

Nagel continued:

"I would think that as a congressman that represents this particular area that she'd be at these meetings or she'd have a statement or she’d be sitting down and saying, ‘Hey, how can we help this? How could we stop this?’ And I don't see her."

Omar already faces separate scrutiny in Washington, including a DHS probe into her marriage history. Fox News Digital reached out to her office for comment on the violence.

Eden Prairie homecoming shooting brings felony charges

Authorities charged 18-year-old Adam Abdihakeem Adam on Friday in connection with the Eden Prairie homecoming football game shooting. The Hennepin County Attorney’s office filed two counts of second-degree assault with a deadly weapon and second-degree riot.

County Attorney Mary Moriarty said in a press release that Adam “will be held accountable.” She also said violence in the community is “completely unacceptable” and that it requires a professional, coordinated response, “which happened here.”

Nagel was not impressed by the broader record. He accused Democrats, including Moriarty’s office, of keeping their heads in the sand while officers are held back from doing the job.

"They're being restrained by politicians, people that are trying soft on crime, people that're trying to send somebody other than a police officer to take care of issues, and it's not working,"

He said the public is done waiting. “The people do” want enforcement, he said. “They're tired of it.”

Minnesota’s wider accountability fights keep pulling in the same cast of Democratic leaders. Senate testimony has already tied large-scale Medicaid fraud schemes to Gov. Tim Walz and Omar’s orbit, adding to voter frustration over basic public safety.

Sheriff: 98 percent of these gang members are Somali

Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher held a press conference this week and refused to blur the demographics. He said a “big chunk of the problem” is the failure to hold gang members accountable, and he called on Moriarty’s office to get more aggressive with juvenile prosecutions.

Fletcher put a hard number on the gangs driving the violence.

"98% of these gang members are Somali"

He said the broader “East African” label is not fair, and he rejected the urge to dodge the term.

"I think we just have to say what it is and not run away from the term,"

Nagel backed that plain talk. He said Minnesota has Latino gangs, Asian gangs, and Black gangs as well. Calling out Somali gangs, he argued, is not prejudice. It is pattern recognition.

"I mean, we have Latino gangs and Asian gangs and Black gangs, and we have Somali gangs. This is not being prejudicial."

He added that it is a “Somali problem” because that is “who's showing up.” He called the political dodge “ridiculous.”

Nagel’s background is enforcement, not messaging. “I'm a police officer. I don't care who you are. I don't care what color you are,” he said. The same rule applies to every crew that opens fire near a high school field or dumps more than 100 casings into a residential street.

Local police work has also brushed Omar’s household. Minneapolis officers previously raided the home of Omar’s son and seized guns and ammunition, another reminder that law-and-order questions keep landing close to the congresswoman.

Bloomington casings still await charging decisions

The Bloomington neighborhood incident has not produced charges yet. Daniel Borgertpoepping, a spokesperson for Moriarty’s office, told Fox News Digital that no cases from that shooting scene have been submitted for charging consideration. If they arrive, he said, “they’ll be thoroughly reviewed.”

Nagel’s diagnosis is simpler. He said years of Democratic control in Minnesota left gang members and other offenders feeling protected.

"Because of how the Democrats have run Minnesota over the years, these gang members and then just crooks in general, they’re emboldened by this,"

His prescription matches the old playbook: use the laws already on the books. “We don't need to pass any more laws. We don't need any more people asking for money to help their group. We need to take the laws that we have and prosecute people.”

He wants a gang task force, arrests, and prison time. “We need enforcement, we need arrests, and we need incarceration,” Nagel said. “Otherwise, this is going to continue to spiral.”

Watchdogs have kept pressure on Omar from another direction, pushing the House Ethics Committee to obtain her financial records after an earlier panel vote to drop a probe. Public safety, not paperwork, is the issue Nagel is forcing into the race.

Nagel will face Omar and independent candidate DeVelle Jackson in the upcoming midterm election for Minnesota’s 5th District. Fox News Digital also reached out to Gov. Tim Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison for comment on the violence and the enforcement debate.

Parents in Eden Prairie and homeowners in Bloomington do not need another task force study. They need the people with badges and the people with charging power to treat gang gunfire like the felony it is, before the next homecoming night ends the same way.