Prosecutors want a Ramsey County judge to keep 10 people they identify as members of two rival gangs out of the Minnesota State Fairgrounds and the surrounding blocks for all 12 days of this year’s fair, citing brawls at the last two fairs and Instagram posts they say advertise a fight on the fair’s third day.
Ramsey County Attorney John Choi and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison filed a pair of civil complaints Wednesday evening, one against a group called Muddy and one against a group called The Ville, asking the court to declare each a criminal gang and a public nuisance under Minnesota’s civil gang injunction law. Each filing came with a motion for a temporary injunction, a memorandum of law and sworn declarations from law enforcement.
The requested restrictions would run from 8 a.m. Aug. 27, opening day, to 6 a.m. Sept. 8, the morning after the fair closes on Labor Day.
Minnesota State Fair Police Chief Ron Knafla, who also holds the rank of commander with the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office, laid out the proposed boundaries in a declaration filed in both cases. The “Safety Zone” would cover the entire 322-acre fairgrounds plus a buffer running out to Cleveland Avenue North and Hamline Avenue North, about three blocks north of Larpenteur Avenue West and about three blocks south of Energy Park Drive.
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Inside that zone, the named members couldn’t associate with one another or with other known members of their gang anywhere in public view or open to the public. That covers standing, sitting, walking, driving, bicycling or gathering together. The filings carve out one exception. The restriction wouldn’t apply inside a church.
The proposed order would also bar them from confronting, intimidating, harassing, threatening, provoking, assaulting or battering anyone known to be a witness to, a victim of, or a complainant about the gang’s activities.
Much of the urgency in the filings comes from two Instagram stories posted July 25. One, from an account tied to Ville activity, ran under the heading “State fair bumps,” which prosecutors describe as slang for violent altercations. The other was styled like a boxing promotion, with the tagline “THE BIGGEST BATTLE OF THE SUMMER” and the line “August 29th LIVE AT THE MINNESOTA STATE FAIR.” Both posts name Muddy and The Ville alongside other groups. Aug. 29 is a Saturday, the third day of the fair.
Knafla wrote that he is aware of information gathered by the sheriff’s office indicating “Muddy, the Ville, and potentially other groups have identified this year’s State Fair as a destination for more inter-gang violence and reprisals.”
His declaration also walks through what fair police have already handled. A brawl involving dozens of people broke out during the final weekend of last year’s fair, he wrote, and he understands through other law enforcement that it involved Muddy and Ville members and was driven by a desire to inflict retribution and demonstrate superiority between the gangs. Smaller brawls have been broken up at fairs over the last several years.
During last year’s brawl, according to Knafla, “innocent bystanders had to run quickly out of the way to safety.” Families got separated in the crowd. Some suspects ran into businesses to escape, disrupting the operations and customers inside.
The declaration lists three firearms incidents. In 2024, a fairgoer on the grounds was hit and slightly injured by a shot fired from a point outside the perimeter. Also in 2024, a shooting happened close to the fair after one of the suspects was captured on security video following the victim through the fairgrounds. After his arrest, Knafla wrote, that suspect admitted he had been communicating with other shooting suspects who planned to carry out the shooting outside the main gate on Snelling Avenue, but backed off because of the police presence there. They followed the victim and shot him a couple of blocks away instead.
In 2022, one person suffered a minor injury in a shooting inside the fairgrounds near the Midway carnival area, about 20 minutes after a large fight near the french fry stand at the Midway entrance.
The State Fair Police Department keeps 20 officers year-round and brings on 140 to 190 more detailed from other departments during the fair, working alongside roughly 25 partner public safety agencies. The fair drew 1.9 million visitors in 2025, averaging more than 160,000 a day.
The Muddy filing describes a shooting on Sept. 2, 2024, the last evening of that year’s fair, in which three people were shot and wounded in a parking lot about a block from the grounds as they tried to get into their car after leaving. Prosecutors say the shooter and at least three others had organized to hunt down Muddy members. Officers recovered 53 shell casings.
The Muddy complaint also cites a June 28, 2025 assault on rivals inside Qamiria Coffee, where chairs were thrown and the business was damaged. Members were arrested and charged with offenses including third-degree riot. On June 6, 2025, according to the filings, Muddy members were arrested in connection with gunshots fired at rivals at a Burnsville High School graduation.
On June 27 of this year, prosecutors say, Muddy members were stopped at a Somali Independence Day community festival for carrying handguns with extended magazines. They had been seen circling the perimeter of the event, the filings say, as if conducting surveillance rather than attending.
Both cases describe the May shooting after a Metro State graduation in Saint Paul. According to the memoranda, a man threw disrespectful gang signs at Ville associates from across the street, tensions escalated into a fist fight, and then a gunfight. Everyone charged was associated with Muddy or The Ville. Charges against the Muddy members include first-degree assault, second-degree assault and second-degree riot.
The Ville complaint points to video from the 2025 fair showing members fighting rivals near the Midway, an area packed with carnival games and rides. A second video, prosecutors say, shows Ville members throwing gang signs and taunting rivals before a fight broke out, then chasing rivals to assault them.
Both groups have existed since at least December 2022, according to a sworn declaration from Ramsey County sheriff’s Deputy Benjamin Seidl, a gang investigator the county is offering to the court as an expert. Neither has a formal hierarchy, Seidl wrote, and neither identifies itself through clothing or tattoos. The Ville uses a “V” formed with the ring and pinky fingers. Muddy uses a “W,” with the thumb tucked into the palm, the pinky and index fingers extended and the middle and ring fingers crossed. Muddy members turn a rival’s sign upside down as a show of disrespect. Seidl’s declaration lists two primary Ville rivals, Muddy and a group called SLP.
Minnesota passed its civil gang injunction law in 2007. Saint Paul used it in 2009 to head off violence at the Cinco de Mayo Festival on the West Side and at Rondo Days, and again in 2015 at Rondo Days. Prosecutors note in their memoranda that no gang violence occurred at those events in the years the injunctions were in place.
The county argues the 12-day window is far narrower than what courts elsewhere have approved. A California case upheld an injunction against 38 named members covering four square blocks in San Jose. A Texas court also upheld a permanent injunction against 21 members covering more than a square mile in Wichita Falls.
Prosecutors also argue trespass laws aren’t enough on their own, because enforcing them requires an officer or witness to see something happen and doesn’t stop the harm before it starts.
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Exhibit A to each complaint names the people prosecutors want covered by the order. Listed as members of Muddy are Nasrudin Abdirashid Warsame, 19; Omar Abdulawahab Mohamed, 20; Mustafe Yusuf Omar, 19; Hamza Munye Haji-Sufi, 18; Imran Abdi Habib, 21; and Bilal Abdi Farah, 19. Listed as members of The Ville are Jamarion Gregory Lee, 21; Raheem Kiprono Ruto, 21; Salim Booste Awil, 21; and David Mariam-Brandon Meghie, 24.
These are civil filings, not criminal charges. Neither complaint alleges that any of the 10 has been convicted in connection with the incidents described.
The cases were brought jointly by the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office, the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office, the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office and the State Fair Police Department. The sheriff’s office says it will continue outreach in the East African community aimed at preventing gang involvement.
The summonses give the defendants 20 days to file a written answer. If they don’t, the court can enter a default judgment granting what prosecutors asked for.
Both motions are set to go before Ramsey County District Court Chief Judge Sarah Grewing at the courthouse on West Kellogg Boulevard. The hearing dates and times were left blank on the filings.
