Two residents of a downtown Minneapolis apartment high-rise were killed and six other people were wounded, including two police officers, when a gunman opened fire during a child custody exchange on Wednesday, September 2, 2026, before officers killed him in an exchange of gunfire on the building’s ninth floor, the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) said.
The BCA identified the residents killed as Muse Afrah, 61, and Dale Henry Spry, 63, who both lived at the Shoreline Plaza apartment complex at 15 East Grant Street. The gunman was identified as Carlton Neal Johnson II, 35, who rented a ninth-floor unit and lived there alone. A preliminary autopsy by the Hennepin County Medical Examiner determined Johnson died of multiple gunshot wounds, with the manner of death ruled homicide.
Drew Evans, superintendent of the BCA, said he did not know who fired first when officers confronted Johnson. Investigators have characterized the case as one of domestic violence.
How the Attack Unfolded
The violence began outside Shoreline Plaza — formerly known as Loring Towers, in the Loring Park area near Nicollet Avenue and the Minneapolis Convention Center — at about 4:30 p.m., when Johnson met the mother of his child for a custody exchange, the BCA said. Johnson shot the woman in the leg, Evans said, and the child ran to safety with people in the area and was not physically harmed.
Johnson then walked into the building and shot two employees of the complex on the first floor — a woman left in critical condition and a man with less serious wounds who was expected to recover. He took an elevator to the ninth floor, where he shot Afrah and Spry, the BCA said. One of the two men died at the scene, and the other was pronounced dead at a hospital. Evans said investigators found nothing to suggest Johnson had singled out the employees or either resident.
Evans urged the public to reckon with the role domestic violence plays in mass-casualty shootings. “We have multiple people shot here in a situation where domestic violence led up to this point,” Evans said.
Two Officers Shot, One Cut by Glass
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said a squad was en route 44 seconds after the first 911 call and that officers were inside the building 1 minute and 42 seconds after that call. The Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) said the first officers entered the tower at about 4:39 p.m., finding multiple victims on the ground and hearing gunfire from the upper levels. They followed the shots up the stairwell, met Johnson in a hallway and killed him during two exchanges of gunfire, Evans said. Officers also pushed through a smoke-like haze that sharply cut their visibility; Frey said on Thursday, September 3, that an exploded fire extinguisher was the likely cause, while the BCA said it was still investigating.
Officer Joseph Michnowski, with MPD since 2021, was shot twice in the stomach and underwent surgery the day of the attack. He remained hospitalized as of Thursday, September 3, and is expected to survive. Officer Yahye Ahmed, who joined the department in November 2024, was shot in the leg and left the hospital that same day. A third officer was cut by glass after breaking a locked squad car’s window to silence its siren; he was released the night of the shooting.
The BCA said Officer Liban Ibrahim, with the department since September 2024, fired his weapon during the incident. Ibrahim is listed among the first responders to the Annunciation mass shooting, in which two children were killed. Interim Minneapolis Police Chief Bill Peterson said records show at least 157 officers were assigned to the response, which drew SWAT teams, squad cars and officers from other agencies and cities within minutes. Frey said an officer likely saved the life of the woman wounded outside by applying a tourniquet and getting her rushed to a hospital.
Eviction Case and Earlier Police Calls
Police said Johnson was known to them. Court filings show his landlord was moving to evict him for breaking the terms of his lease, among them an assault he allegedly committed against another resident on March 23. Attorney Laurel Pugh wrote in a filing that Johnson walked through the building with a gun on June 11 and displayed the weapon to staff inside the management office. A trial in the eviction case had been scheduled for September 11.
Officers responded to a June 25 report of Johnson displaying a firearm to another person and determined he held a legal permit to carry; they did not take the gun from his waistband. The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office said prosecutors later found insufficient evidence to charge him or to pursue an extreme risk protection order tied to that call. “Based on the information we had, we were taking the right steps, I believe, to prevent something like this from happening,” Peterson said. He said Johnson’s earlier record consisted largely of driving violations and parking citations.
Chris Miller, a Shoreline Plaza resident, told the Minnesota Star Tribune that Johnson had said days earlier that he intended to shoot his ex-girlfriend and two of the building’s property managers, and that Johnson had shown him a handgun and a concealed carry permit on a couple of occasions. Police were called to Shoreline Plaza 438 times in the two years before the shooting. Spry served in the U.S. Army, according to his family, and relatives have spoken publicly since his death.
Authorities have not released the names of the woman who shares a child with Johnson or of the two building employees who were wounded, though relatives identified the building manager to the Minnesota Star Tribune as Jan Elaine Peterson, 56, of Blaine, who was shot multiple times and remains in critical but stable condition after several surgeries. As of September 4, investigators were still determining whether any other officers fired their weapons during the response.