A 45-year-old woman — a mother cross country skiing through Minneapolis’ Powderhorn Park with her two children — was sexually assaulted Wednesday night by a group of armed teenage boys, police said Friday. Less than three hours later, police said, they found some of the same boys from the park sexually assaulting two teenage girls.

The assaults took place at 6:30 and 9:15 p.m. about two blocks apart, according to Minneapolis police spokesman Sgt. William Palmer. Three boys — ages 14, 15 and 16 — were arrested on suspicion of criminal sexual conduct, aggravated robbery and false imprisonment.

Police were still searching for two other suspects.

Area residents say the South Minneapolis park — home to a popular May Day celebration and an August art fair — is safe and should not be avoided because of the attacks.

“It’s still a good neighborhood — crap happens everywhere,” said Roscoe Bendtsen, 21, who grew up a block from the park and was back in the area for Thanksgiving. “What worries me is that it’s going to scare all the good people away.”

Elizabeth Glidden, the city council member for Minneapolis’ 8th Ward, which includes the park, called the crimes “very concerning and horrific.”

But, she said, three of the five suspects have been arrested and “my belief is (the police) have good leads for the other two, as well.”

She and Gary Schiff — council member for the neighboring 9th Ward, where the two girls were assaulted — are planning a community meeting about the crimes as soon as possible, Glidden said.

“I know that people are very concerned and upset,” she said.

The first of the assaults started as a robbery and escalated into rape, according to police.

A mother was skiing through the snowy park with her 13-year-old daughter and 10-year-old son when five juvenile males accosted them.

One was armed with a handgun, Palmer said.

Two of the boys raped the mother and threatened to rape the daughter, but the mother “basically says that’s not going to happen,” Palmer said.

The boys then ran off.

Minneapolis police and park police responding to the scene followed the boys’ footprints for almost three hours before coming to a house in the 3200 block of Bloomington Avenue South.

Behind the house, officers found three of the boys from the park in the midst of sexually assaulting two girls, ages 16 and 18.

The girls had been near East 33rd Street and Bloomington earlier when the boys confronted them and forced them, at gunpoint, into a garage, Palmer said.

Police arrested the three boys and recovered a handgun, Palmer said. Investigators then began looking for the two other suspects.

The Hennepin County attorney’s office was closed for the holiday weekend Friday, so any charges wouldn’t be forthcoming until next week.

Less than 48 hours after the attacks, adults and children used the steep east-facing slopes of Powderhorn Park to sled. One man skied along the perimeter of the grounds while a couple of people, including nearby resident Janie Winter Dawson, walked around crescent-shaped Powderhorn Lake.

Winter Dawson, 32, said she made sure to time her daily walk through the park during daylight hours because of the evening attacks. She hoped other people would continue using the park, despite the assaults.

“This kind of thing can generate a lot of fear,” Winter Dawson said. “I think the more people that walk around Powderhorn, the more populated we can keep it, the better.

“There’s definitely strength in numbers.”

John Brewer can be reached at 651-228-2093.