Maryan Khalif and her husband plan to take their five kids to the Minnesota State Fair later this month after several years of missing the annual event.
But after several brawls among rival gangs at the fair the past couple of years, and rumors of potential violence at this year’s fair, the 31-year-old Minneapolis resident is second-guessing whether it’ll be safe to go.
“I always see on the news what is happening and I’m really upset about it, and also worried,” said Khalif, who is Somali. “This is becoming too much.”
In an effort to prevent violence at the 2026 fair, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and Ramsey County Attorney John Choi filed civil lawsuits against two Somali gangs that ban the gangs from gathering at the fairgrounds.
The civil injunctions rely on a state law commonly referred to as the Minnesota civil gang nuisance law, and are asking a judge to designate the fairgrounds and its immediate vicinity as a “safety zone” for the duration of the fair from 8 a.m. on Aug. 27 through 6 a.m. on Sept. 8.
Several Somali community members were supportive of the effort, which they hope will help curb increasing violent behavior by some of the community’s youth.
“Everywhere you go, you’re just not sure if somebody’s going to be shot. It’s so scary,” Khalif told Sahan Journal. “Something has to be done.”
The injunctions can’t outright ban alleged gang members from attending the fair, but explicitly state that individuals listed in the lawsuits can’t publicly associate with each other on the fairgrounds.
“Most of our deputies have worked there for the past five years, and they’ve observed the disorderly behavior of the gangs in the past,“ Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher told Sahan Journal. “The injunctions are now a tool in our toolbox.”
The documents identify two Somali gangs — Muddy and The Ville — and describe several incidents that allegedly involved the groups, including fights at the 2025 State Fair, a shooting just outside the State Fair in 2024 and a shooting outside of the Metro State University graduation in May 2026.
Alleged gang activity by Somali youth has become a focus for community members and law enforcement this summer, prompting several meetings in different corners of the metro, including one hosted by Fletcher last month and another with DFL state Reps. Cedrick Frazier and Mohamud Noor last week. Youth outreach groups and police agencies met with exasperated parents at the meetings in attempts to solve the issue.
Parents at the meetings were shown social media videos of youth holding up guns, and others of them engaged in large-scale fights. Some parents asked law enforcement what they’re doing about access to firearms. Meanwhile, some Somali community members decried the use of terms like “gangs” to describe the activity, saying it was fuel for rightwing commentators to use in their hateful rhetoric against the Somali community.
Mohamed Bulhan, 20, said he was attending his cousin’s high school graduation in St. Paul in June 2025 when gunshots rang out. Bulhan, who is Somali, and other attendees fled. Shootings at large gatherings like graduations are becoming all too common, said Bulhan, who supports the injunctions.
“We always have to talk about when we’re going somewhere: Are there going to be gunshots? Is it an unsafe place? And if yes, then we have to change our minds,” Bulhan said. “It’s sad to see kids like that nowadays finding ways to kill each other.”
Many Somali youth, including 15-year-old Mohamed Ahmed, are now making that calculation before attending big events. Ahmed told Sahan Journal he thinks it’s “not okay to cause disruptions at events that are made to keep people happy.”
“You’re going there to have fun; there shouldn’t be something like that to worry about,” he said.
In a declaration filed as part of the injunctions banning gang activity at the fair, Minnesota State Fair Police Chief Ron Knafla described a dramatic change in the agency’s security plan, including increases in the number of outside law enforcement agencies supplementing the State Fair Police Department during the event. Knafla said in the court document that state fair police have observed more criminal gangs appearing to plan large-scale brawls during the fair, including last year’s fight, which included dozens of people.
“These violent events cause chaos that is extremely disruptive to the State Fair, and severely harms the sense of security for visitors who wish to enjoy the event,” Knafla said in the court filing. “During last year’s brawl, innocent bystanders had to run quickly out of the way to safety. Families attending the fair together became separated among the large crowd.”
The injunctions cite social media videos that allegedly show fights between rival gang members near the Midway during the 2025 State Fair. The videos show young people allegedly throwing up gang signs and taunting each other before a fight broke out in the area, which features carnival rides and games.
The Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office also submitted screenshots of social media posts as evidence that the injunctions are needed, including a post made to look like a promotional flyer advertising a boxing match describing the 2026 State Fair as “THE BIGGEST BATTLE OF THE SUMMER.”
“We monitor traditional Black gangs, we monitor Karen gangs, we even monitor the Hell’s Angels in the white community, but we’ve never seen this before,” Fletcher said. “The gangs themselves are announcing where they’re going to fight and challenging other gangs to show up. This is the significant difference that we have going on right now with the Somali gangs.”
The city of St. Paul filed similar temporary injunctions to prevent violence and other gang-related activities during the city’s Cinco de Mayo festivals in 2009 and 2015. The 2009 festival saw no apparent gang-related violence, although some gunshots were fired during the 2015 festival, leading to the arrest of a juvenile suspect.
Fletcher said his agency will have more than 30 deputies at the 2026 state fair, with many of them stationed near the Midway, where problems historically occur. The sheriff’s bike team will be monitoring the fair’s perimeter, and its SWAT unit will be on standby.
Fletcher told Sahan Journal that his deputies, six of whom have been investigating the Muddy and Ville gangs for more than two years, are extremely familiar with the alleged gang members and their behavior. Although just 10 gang-affiliated individuals are specifically named in the injunctions, law enforcement will broadly have less tolerance for any attendees congregating in large groups or running at other fairgoers to try to intimidate them.
“We’re going to be observing and monitoring the other kids besides the 10, and if they act in a way that causes fear, they’re going to be arrested for disorderly conduct,” Fletcher said. “We will be making more arrests this year than in past years, and that’s part of our strategy to have zero tolerance for disorderly conduct this year.”
