For Maryan Khalif, a long-awaited family outing to the Minnesota State Fair now comes with a difficult question: Will her children be safe? The 31-year-old mother of five plays with her children near Currie Park, close to Riverside Plaza in South Minneapolis, on August 10, 2026. Khalif says she plans to take her family to the fair and supports injunctions barring Somali gangs from the fairgrounds. Credit: Dymanh Chhoun | Sahan Journal
Khalif and her husband had planned to bring their five children to the Minnesota State Fair later this month, their first visit in several years.
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Yet a series of brawls involving rival gangs at the fair in recent years, along with rumors of possible violence at the 2026 event, has left the 31-year-old Minneapolis resident reconsidering the trip.
“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.”
Seeking to head off violence at this year’s fair, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and Ramsey County Attorney John Choi filed civil lawsuits against two Somali gangs. The lawsuits seek to stop the groups from gathering at the fairgrounds.
The cases invoke a state statute commonly known as the Minnesota civil gang nuisance law. They ask a judge to establish the fairgrounds and surrounding area as a “safety zone” from 8 a.m. on Aug. 27 until 6 a.m. on Sept. 8, covering the full duration of the fair.
Several Somali community members said they support the legal action, hoping it will help restrain increasingly violent conduct by some young people in the community.
“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 proposed injunctions would not categorically bar alleged gang members from entering the fair. They would, however, specifically prohibit people named in the lawsuits from publicly associating with one another 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 court filings name two Somali gangs, Muddy and The Ville, and detail several incidents allegedly connected to the groups. Those incidents include fights at the 2025 State Fair, a shooting near the fairgrounds in 2024 and a shooting outside Metro State University’s graduation ceremony in May 2026.
Alleged gang activity among Somali youth has drawn heightened attention from community members and law enforcement this summer. Meetings have taken place in several parts of the metro, including one Fletcher hosted last month and another held last week by DFL state Reps. Cedrick Frazier and Mohamud Noor. Youth organizations and police agencies met with frustrated parents to discuss possible solutions.
At the gatherings, parents viewed social media videos that appeared to show young people displaying guns and taking part in large fights. Some questioned law enforcement about how young people were obtaining firearms. Other Somali community members objected to describing the activity as the work of “gangs,” warning that the term could give rightwing commentators more material for hateful rhetoric aimed at the Somali community.
Mohamed Bulhan, 20, was attending his cousin’s high school graduation in St. Paul in June 2025 when gunfire erupted. Bulhan, who is Somali, fled with other attendees. He said shootings at large public gatherings, including graduations, are becoming increasingly common and said he 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.”
That same safety calculation is affecting many Somali youth, including 15-year-old Mohamed Ahmed. Ahmed told Sahan Journal that disrupting events intended to bring people joy is “not okay.”
“You’re going there to have fun; there shouldn’t be something like that to worry about,” he said.
In a declaration submitted with the lawsuits seeking to prohibit gang activity at the fair, Minnesota State Fair Police Chief Ron Knafla described a significant overhaul of the event’s security strategy. The plan includes more outside law enforcement agencies working alongside the State Fair Police Department. Knafla wrote that state fair police have seen more criminal gangs appear to organize large-scale fights, including a clash last year involving 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 injunction requests point to social media videos that allegedly depict rival gang members fighting near the Midway during the 2025 State Fair. In the videos, young people allegedly display gang signs and taunt one another before a fight breaks out in the section known for carnival rides and games.
The Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office also provided screenshots of social media posts as evidence supporting the injunctions. One post was styled as a promotional flyer for a boxing match and described 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.”
St. Paul officials pursued similar temporary injunctions in 2009 and 2015 to limit violence and other gang-related activity during the city’s Cinco de Mayo festivals. No apparent gang-related violence occurred at the 2009 festival, while gunshots were fired during the 2015 event and a juvenile suspect was arrested.
Fletcher said the Sheriff’s Office plans to deploy more than 30 deputies at the 2026 State Fair, with many assigned to the Midway, where disturbances have historically occurred. The department’s bike team will patrol the fair’s perimeter, while its SWAT unit will remain ready to respond.
Fletcher told Sahan Journal that six of his deputies have spent more than two years investigating the Muddy and Ville gangs and are highly familiar with the people allegedly involved and their conduct. Though the injunctions identify only 10 gang-affiliated individuals by name, law enforcement intends to take a broader approach, showing little tolerance for attendees who gather in large groups or run toward other fairgoers in an attempt 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.”
