Two dead, three officers wounded in downtown Minneapolis high-rise shooting

The call came in at 4:36 p.m. on a Wednesday afternoon in downtown Minneapolis. Officers arrived within two minutes to find a high-rise apartment building at 15 East Grant Street transformed into an active shooting scene. By the time the gunfire stopped, two people lay dead, three police officers had been shot, and a fourth person would die at the hospital. The suspected shooter, identified by law enforcement sources as 35-year-old Carlton Neal Johnson, was also dead—from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

When Minneapolis police entered the building, they moved toward the sound of gunshots on an upper floor, but visibility collapsed almost immediately. A haze—later identified as an unknown airborne substance—reduced what officers could see to nearly nothing. They pushed forward anyway. Three officers were hit in the exchange of fire. One took two rounds to the stomach and was rushed into surgery that evening. Another was shot in the leg. A third officer sustained a non-life-threatening injury. Four additional officers were exposed to the same airborne substance and experienced adverse effects. Two more officers were hurt when a squad car crashed on Nicollet Avenue while responding to the scene.

The response that followed was extraordinary in its scale. Officers arrived from St. Louis Park, Edina, the University of Minnesota, the Minnesota State Patrol, transit police, and sheriff's deputies from surrounding counties. The ATF's St. Paul field division sent special agents. Two heavily armored SWAT vehicles took position at the intersection of Nicollet and Grant. Ambulances lined the streets. The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension opened an investigation. FBI Director Kash Patel announced he would provide "any and all resources necessary" to assist local authorities.

What triggered the violence remained unclear to officials, but the timeline suggested a connection to an eviction. Court documents showed that Johnson had been removed from his apartment earlier that same Wednesday. The eviction followed a pattern of escalating threats. On June 19, he had made verbal threats about using a gun and displayed one to a security officer. Days later, he allegedly threatened a resident with a firearm and walked the block with a gun visible. He carried a prior conviction for domestic violence.

Witnesses described a scene of sudden, overwhelming violence. Abdiwakil Mohamed, driving down La Salle Avenue, heard three gunshots that sounded like rifle fire. He watched a police officer slam on the gas after being shot, colliding with another vehicle. The shooter, positioned at a high vantage point in the building, continued firing at people on the ground below. Mohamed saw an officer pull off their bulletproof vest to check for chest wounds. Then, he said, "police came from every single side."

Inside the building, residents barricaded themselves in bathrooms and behind locked doors. Shawn Mosby was on the phone with his daughter, who was helping a friend move in, listening to her describe "banging, shooting" echoing through the halls. Chris Miller, a resident, managed to escape his unit and take the elevator down. What he found in the lobby and hallways was carnage—three bodies on the ground, blood everywhere. Miller believed the gunman had targeted a woman he knew and building employees.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey called the police response "heroic" at a late-evening press conference. Officers had rescued victims, brought people to safety, and transported roughly four people to the hospital—all while under fire. Minnesota Governor Tim Walz said all officers involved were "expected to make a full recovery." Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison called the shooting "horrifying" and pledged his office's full support for the investigation.

The building at 15 East Grant Street had seen deadly violence before. In late September of the previous year, a man had shot and killed two other men in the same complex. That shooter was arrested; police believed all three men involved knew each other. Now, less than a year later, the building had become the site of another mass shooting. Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty's office began working with the Minneapolis Police Department and the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension to piece together what had happened and why. The investigation would continue in the days ahead, but one fact was already clear: a single eviction notice had preceded an afternoon of violence that left two people dead and a community asking how such a place had become dangerous twice in twelve months.