A recently evicted tenant with a lengthy criminal record and a documented history of gun threats opened fire inside a downtown Minneapolis high-rise Wednesday afternoon, killing two people and wounding three police officers before taking his own life, the second deadly shooting at the same building in roughly a year.

Officers responded to 15 East Grant Street, a high-rise apartment complex known as Shoreline Plaza, at 4:36 p.m. on August 31, 2026, after 911 calls reported gunfire. They arrived within two minutes and found one person shot at the building. Once inside, they heard more gunfire and moved toward it, climbing to an upper floor where a thick haze cut visibility. Three officers were struck, one twice in the stomach, one in the leg, and a third with a non-life-threatening wound.

The suspected gunman, identified by multiple law enforcement sources as 35-year-old Carlton Neal Johnson II, had been evicted from his apartment earlier that same day. He died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Two civilians were killed, one at the scene, one at a nearby hospital, and four others were taken for treatment. Interim Minneapolis Police Chief Bill Peterson confirmed at a Wednesday night press conference that officers were already familiar with the suspect, though he did not name him publicly.

Court records show weeks of gun threats before the eviction

The shooting did not come without warning. Court documents tied to the eviction case show Johnson had been making threats involving firearms for weeks. On June 19, he made verbal threats about using a gun and displayed a firearm to a building security officer. Days later, he allegedly threatened a resident with a gun and walked around the block with a weapon visible.

Fox News reported that Johnson had been a resident of Shoreline Plaza since March 2025 and had told residents he "would kill someone." He carried a record of 34 criminal cases in the Twin Cities, including two assault charges, two misdemeanor drug cases, and a 2012 guilty plea for violating a domestic abuse contact order. Court documents also note a past conviction for domestic violence.

A neighbor told the New York Post that Johnson had warned days before the shooting that he intended to shoot his ex-girlfriend and two building property managers. Resident Chris Miller, who escaped his unit during the attack by taking the elevator down, said he had heard about a tenant making violent threats in recent weeks. Miller said he believed the gunman targeted a woman he knew and building employees, though officials have not confirmed that account.

The question that hangs over this case is straightforward: a man with 34 criminal cases, documented gun threats, and a domestic violence conviction was living in an apartment building and making open promises to shoot people. He was evicted. He came back and did exactly what he said he would do. How many warnings does a system need?

Witness heard rifle-like shots from a high vantage point

Abdiwakil Mohamed was driving down La Salle Avenue when he heard three gunshots that sounded like a rifle. He said the shooter fired from a high vantage point in a nearby building and continued firing at people on the ground. Police, Mohamed said, came "everywhere, they came from every single side."

Mohamed described seeing an officer pull off a bulletproof vest to check for a chest wound. He also witnessed a police officer who had been shot inside a squad car slam the gas and collide with another vehicle. That crash, which occurred on Nicollet Avenue outside a Target store, injured two additional officers. In all, nine officers were hurt, three by gunfire, four after exposure to an unknown airborne substance inside the building, and two in the squad car collision.

Minneapolis Police spokesperson Garrett Parten told CBS News that officers on the upper floor had run into conditions no one expected:

"Inside, officers encountered victims and heard additional gunfire. Officers followed the sound of gunfire to the upper floor of the building and on that floor, officers encountered a haze that significantly limited their visibility."

Officials have not identified the substance that caused the haze or explained whether it was connected to the airborne irritant that sickened four officers. That gap matters. If the shooter deployed a chemical agent to slow police response, it changes the nature of the attack. If it was incidental, smoke, fire suppression discharge, that is a different problem. Neither answer has been given.

The incident drew officers from the Minnesota State Patrol, St. Louis Park Police, Edina Police, University of Minnesota Police, transit police, and sheriff's deputies from surrounding jurisdictions. Two heavily armored SWAT vehicles staged at the intersection of Nicollet and Grant. The sheer scale of the response, much like the multi-agency mobilization after a recent Seattle food festival shooting, reflected the severity of what officers found inside.

Frey credits officers; Peterson says the toll could have been worse

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey held a press conference late Wednesday evening and praised the officers who entered the building under fire:

"They rescued victims, brought people to safety, helped get approximately four people to the hospital, all while getting shot at themselves. We're all standing with the victims and families impacted by this senseless act."

Frey said the death toll would have been "far higher" without what he called the "heroic work" of responding officers. Interim Chief Peterson, who did not hold back, said he was "truly sickened by this level of violence." Governor Tim Walz said all officers involved are "expected to make a full recovery."

FBI Director Kash Patel said he was aware of the shooting and would offer "any and all resources necessary to assist local authorities." ATF special agents from the St. Paul field division also responded to the scene. The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension is investigating alongside the Minneapolis Police Department.

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison called the shooting "horrifying" and issued a statement:

"My deepest thoughts are with those killed and hurt, including the police officers injured. I pray for their quick recovery. I fully support responding law enforcement and my office will help in all the ways possible."

Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said her office is working with police and state investigators to gather more information and encouraged anyone with details to contact law enforcement.

Shoreline Plaza saw a deadly shooting roughly one year earlier

Wednesday's attack was not the first fatal shooting at 15 East Grant Street. Approximately one year prior, in late September, a man shot and killed two other men at the same apartment building. That shooter was arrested. Police said at the time that all three men knew each other.

The pattern raises hard questions about security at the complex, and about whether the building's management, local law enforcement, or the courts acted with sufficient urgency after Johnson's documented threats. A man who showed a gun to a security guard on June 19, who allegedly threatened a resident with a firearm days later, and who openly told neighbors he planned to kill people was handled through a civil eviction process. The eviction went through on the same day he carried out the attack.

Shawn Mosby, whose daughter was helping a friend move into the building when the shooting erupted, spent the ordeal on the phone with her as she barricaded a door and hid in a bathroom. She and other residents inside could hear "banging, shooting." Mosby described the experience bluntly: "It's been really crazy."

Chris Miller, the resident who rode the elevator down during the chaos, described what he saw when the doors opened:

"I could hear sirens and police and got in the elevator and went down and witnessed three different bodies lying down with all kinds of blood."

The Associated Press confirmed the toll: two dead, the suspect dead, and multiple wounded. The identities of the two slain civilians have not been released.

Unanswered questions pile up as the investigation begins

Several critical details remain unresolved. Officials have not identified the unknown airborne substance that affected four officers or explained how it relates to the haze encountered on the upper floor. The specific floor and unit where the shooting took place have not been disclosed. The condition of the officer who was shot twice in the stomach and taken into surgery has not been updated publicly beyond the governor's general assurance of recovery.

It is also unclear what, if any, steps were taken between the documented June 19 gun threats and the August 31 eviction to restrict Johnson's access to firearms. With a domestic violence conviction on his record, federal law already barred him from possessing a gun, the same prohibition that applies under the federal firearms ban. Whether anyone pursued enforcement of that prohibition is an open question. The broader national conversation about protecting officers from violent offenders makes the gap all the more glaring.

And the timeline itself demands scrutiny. Johnson was evicted earlier on Wednesday. By 4:36 p.m. that same day, he was shooting people inside the building he had just been ordered to leave. Whether the eviction process accounted for the known threat he posed, or whether it simply moved paper while a violent man with a gun remained in the building, is a question Minneapolis officials will have to answer.

Mass shootings in American cities keep producing the same grim arithmetic: a suspect with a long record, warnings that went unheeded, and a body count that didn't have to happen. Events like a recent Pennsylvania Walmart shooting and the fallout from the Seattle festival attack follow the same pattern, violence that was foreseeable, met by systems that moved too slowly to prevent it.

When a man tells you he is going to shoot people, shows you the gun, and has a criminal record that stretches across 34 cases, the failure is not a lack of information. It is a lack of will to act on it.