The Agape Movement, a group of violence interrupters rooted in George Floyd Square, has made it a mission to tap ex-gang members to try to pry young men from the Bloods gangs that have preyed on south Minneapolis.

But federal prosecutors are now claiming that active leaders from the same gang — one of several being targeted in a broad, ongoing crackdown — helped start the very community group meant to counter it.

They are also accusing Agape of paying "tens of thousands of dollars" from a City of Minneapolis contract to multiple active Bloods members, including one man since convicted of murder for a 2020 killing and now on the eve of trial on federal racketeering charges.

Though led and co-founded by former gang members, Agape's leadership swiftly rejected any claim that active Bloods leaders were among those responsible for launching the group amid the uprising over Floyd's murder by Minneapolis police officers four years ago.

"No member of Agape is an active gang member, period," said Reginald Ferguson, co-founder and executive director of the Agape Movement, in an interview with the Star Tribune at his office in the Square last week. "You just can't do that."

The U.S. Attorney's Office, in a recent memo previewing testimony expected in next month's trial of three alleged Bloods members, for the first time linked Agape to active members of the prominent street gang accused of rending the city with murders, shootings and drug trafficking.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Esther Soria Mignanelli wrote in the filing that a "cooperating defendant" will testify that "members, associates, and leaders" of the Bloods helped form the Agape Movement Co.. Citing "bank and check records," Mignanelli added that Agape has paid "tens of thousands of dollars" to multiple members of the Minneapolis Bloods with money from a contract with the City of Minneapolis for violence interruption and community outreach work.

That includes Desean Solomon, 34, of Richfield, whose trial on federal racketeering charges is scheduled to start Sept. 4. Solomon is also serving a state murder sentence linked to a north Minneapolis gun battle in June 2020.

Bridgette Stewart, communications director for Agape, said employment records showed Solomon was not paid under a city contract for violence prevention but instead through a smaller contract used to cover costs associated with Agape's work re-opening George Floyd square in June 2021.

Stewart identified Solomon as a subcontractor who helped direct traffic and keep open the streets surrounding the square in mid-June 2021. He received two paychecks covering about three weeks of work. She said no one from Agape's leadership knew Solomon, adding that "he was brought in and asked if he could interview. We interviewed, he filled out the paperwork."

U.S. Attorney Andrew Luger's office has not accused Agape or its leaders of criminal or civil wrongdoing in the memo, nor has it filed charges against the group. Luger's office declined to comment for this article, citing the pending trial, as did Solomon's attorney.

"No, the City was not aware of allegations of affiliation between Agape and active members of the Bloods," a Minneapolis spokesperson said in an email to the Star Tribune last week.

'We can't be both'

Community organizers and activists, including Agape's founders, stood up barricades and closed the intersection at what would become known as George Floyd Square in the days after Floyd's murder. They also proved pivotal in reopening the square a year later. The group had a $25,000 consultant contract with the Minneapolis Office of Violence Prevention and a separate contract of up to $359,000 aimed at providing a "number of community building, health and safety services associated with reopening of 38th and Chicago."

The Agape Movement is an offshoot of a Minneapolis nonprofit started in the 1980s by a veteran Minneapolis street outreach worker. In 2020, it helped the city of Minneapolis join others across the country in piloting "violence interruption" networks. Such groups have relied on ex-gang members and formerly incarcerated community members whose experiences added credibility to attempts to beat back rising crime.

According to Mignanelli, who is one of the prosecutors leading next month's federal trial against Solomon and two others, a second south Minneapolis nonprofit agreed to be a "fiscal agent" to facilitate a contract between Agape and the city for violence interruption and community outreach work in summer 2020.

That relationship lasted until April 2022. Mignanelli wrote that a member from the unnamed nonprofit is expected to testify that it and Agape had "conflicting organizational values" because Agape only cared about "presence in the Square" whereas the other group wanted "to serve all communities within south Minneapolis."

Stewart said the unnamed partner nonprofit referenced in the memo is the Central Area Neighborhood Development Organization (CANDO). Carmen Means, who led CANDO at the time of the contract, told the Star Tribune that she had a good experience working with Agape and did not agree that Agape cared about only one neighborhood.

"They protected the community, they protected us," Means said.

Stewart also denied that Agape was only interested in being active in the Square. Foot patrols and outreach on behalf of the group often extend down Cedar Avenue toward Nicollet, she said, and also cover a large swath of the Third Precinct nearly extending into the Fifth Precinct. She points to declining crime data in the neighborhood as evidence of Agape's success: for example, reports of shots fired in the Powderhorn Neighborhood that includes George Floyd Square dropped from 358 in 2020 to 126 last year.

"The frustration that we have is at times the community will say we are the police and then you see this where, dang, the police are saying we're gang members," Stewart said. "It's like come on you guys, we can't be both. How about we're neither? … We're just a group of people that have come together that have grown up in this community."

Stewart said Agape was unaware of the pending testimony in next month's trial, which is expected to last five weeks in St. Paul, until contacted by the Star Tribune last week.

Defining gang roles

Luger has made prosecuting members of multiple prominent street gangs a crucial part of his office's strategy to curb violent crime since he returned to office in 2022. To date, 80 people allegedly linked to gangs including the Bloods, Highs, Lows and 10z/20z have been charged.

These cases could test how modern-day gang membership and leadership is defined, and when one ceases to be considered an "active" member of such groups. In a rare move in some of the cases, Luger is also using federal racketeering conspiracy charges — including against Solomon — that were enacted in the 1970s to go after organized crime families.

In her brief previewing the government's case, Mignanelli described the Bloods as having two main sub-gangs: the Rollin' 30s Bloods and the Outlaw Bloods. She wrote that the gang's hierarchy "includes a head or leader of the gang, senior leaders, street-level leaders, and other members or associates." New recruits are called "YGs," or "young gangsters" who then move up to be "original young gangsters." The next up, she said, is "OGs" or original gangsters, who are well-respected members of the gang, and the highest level is "double OG." "OGs" are equal in rank and can give out orders to "enforcers" who then carry out "shots," often via assaults.

"Members of the Bloods move up within the gang by 'putting in the work,'" Mignanelli wrote, "which essentially means to fight, shoot, sell drugs, or commit other crimes with members."

Ferguson, a former leader of the Rollin' 30s Bloods, suggests it isn't that straightforward.

"Honestly I don't even think they have leaders anymore. I think it's just a group of people just running around," Ferguson said. "You used to be able to go to leaders back in the days and have conversations with leaders. ... These people don't even know how to solve problems. They're just randomly going around doing all kinds of crazy stuff."

When Solomon worked briefly to help Agape's street management in June 2021, he was out on bond awaiting trial on murder charges stemming from a shootout outside a north Minneapolis bar a year earlier.

Surveillance footage captured Solomon firing at a red Chevrolet Tahoe as it sped away from the scene. Minutes later, the Tahoe pulled up to Hennepin County Medical Center with Marcus Lashaun Banks Jr., 22, of Spring Lake Park, dead in a passenger seat.

A Hennepin County jury last year convicted Solomon of second-degree murder, riot and illegal gun possession. He was sentenced to more than 36 years in prison, one month before a federal grand jury indicted him in the racketeering case.