MINNEAPOLIMEDIA NEWS | Two Killed, Officers Wounded in Loring Park Mass Shooting as Investigation Turns to Gunman’s Prior Threats

Investigators returned Thursday to the downtown Minneapolis high-rise where a gunman killed two people and wounded five others, including two police officers. Court records show the suspected shooter, identified by law-enforcement sources as 35-year-old Carlton Neal Johnson II, was facing eviction following allegations that he assaulted a resident, displayed a firearm and told people at the building that he would kill someone.

MINNEAPOLIS, MN (September 3, 2026). Investigators returned Thursday to a downtown Minneapolis apartment building near Loring Park after a mass shooting killed two civilians, wounded five other people by gunfire, including two Minneapolis police officers, and left a third officer injured as police rushed into the high-rise while shots were still being fired.

The suspected gunman also died at the scene, bringing the total number of people killed in Wednesday afternoon's violence to three.

Law-enforcement sources have identified the suspected shooter as 35-year-old Carlton Neal Johnson II, a resident of the Shoreline Plaza apartment building at 15 E. Grant St., formerly known as Loring Towers.

The identification adds a significant new dimension to the investigation because court records show Johnson was already involved in an eviction dispute with the apartment complex following a series of allegations involving threatening behavior and a firearm.

Police have not publicly announced a motive for the shooting, and the existence of the eviction proceedings does not establish why Johnson allegedly opened fire Wednesday. But the records provide investigators with a documented history of escalating conflict at the building that preceded one of the most serious shootings in downtown Minneapolis this year.

The violence began shortly after 4:30 p.m. Wednesday.

Minneapolis police received the first 911 call at approximately 4:36 p.m. reporting that a person had been shot at the high-rise near the intersection of Grant Street and Nicollet Avenue, a densely populated area between Loring Park and the Minneapolis Convention Center.

Officers were dispatched immediately and arrived within approximately two minutes.

What they encountered quickly became much larger than the original report of a single shooting victim.

As officers entered the building, additional 911 calls reported more gunfire. Police found victims inside and could still hear shots coming from elsewhere in the high-rise.

Rather than waiting outside, responding officers moved toward the gunfire.

Interim Minneapolis Police Chief Bill Peterson said officers followed the sound of shots to an upper floor, where conditions became increasingly difficult.

Police encountered what authorities described as a haze that significantly reduced visibility.

Officers continued moving through the building while gunfire was still being heard.

Two Minneapolis officers were struck by bullets.

One officer suffered a gunshot wound to the leg. Another was shot twice in the abdomen and underwent surgery Wednesday evening.

A third officer suffered an injury that was not caused by gunfire.

Authorities said all three officers were expected to recover.

Four additional officers experienced adverse effects after exposure to an unidentified airborne substance inside the building, according to information released following the shooting.

Authorities have not yet publicly established what created the haze or identified the substance to which the officers were exposed.

The officers were not the only people injured.

Three civilians survived gunshot wounds and were transported for treatment.

Another person who had been shot died at the scene.

A second shooting victim was taken to Hennepin Healthcare but later died.

The names of the two people killed had not been publicly released by authorities as of Thursday's latest available information.

The suspected shooter was also found dead inside the building.

Minneapolis police initially declined to say how he died. Law-enforcement sources subsequently told local news organizations that Johnson suffered a self-inflicted gunshot wound, but investigators had not publicly completed or announced a final determination of his manner of death in the initial police briefings.

The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension was at Shoreline Plaza on Thursday as investigators continued processing what had become a large and complicated crime scene.

A mobile BCA crime-scene unit was among the law-enforcement resources at the building.

Federal authorities also responded Wednesday, including personnel from the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

The investigation now extends beyond reconstructing the shooting itself.

Court records connected to Johnson are receiving increased scrutiny because they describe a months-long dispute between him and the management of Shoreline Plaza.

Johnson had lived in a ninth-floor apartment at the complex since March 2025.

According to court records reported by multiple Twin Cities news organizations, attorneys representing the property sent Johnson a lease-termination notice on June 16.

The notice cited six alleged incidents between January and June.

Among them was an allegation that Johnson assaulted another resident at the property in March.

The records describe additional incidents involving a firearm in June.

On June 11, according to the eviction documents, Johnson allegedly walked around the property with a firearm openly displayed and entered the apartment management office while displaying the weapon.

The filing further alleged that Johnson made statements to other residents indicating that he had obtained a new firearm and would kill someone.

Two days later, the documents allege, he again displayed the firearm to people outside the building.

Johnson disputed allegations contained in the eviction proceedings.

That distinction is important. The claims in the landlord's filings had not been adjudicated as proven facts before Wednesday's shooting.

The dispute had continued through the court system, and a hearing was scheduled for September 11.

Law-enforcement sources have reported that Johnson had been evicted from his apartment Wednesday, hours before the shooting. The precise legal and physical status of that eviction, and whether it played any role in the violence, remain matters investigators will need to establish.

Police have not announced that the eviction was the motive.

Johnson's history also included previous encounters with the criminal justice system.

In a 2018 case, he was accused of assaulting a sibling and allegedly made statements suggesting that he possessed a firearm and was willing to use it.

Johnson ultimately pleaded guilty to property destruction rather than assault, served a short jail sentence and was placed on probation.

The newly uncovered history raises difficult questions about whether Wednesday's violence was preceded by warning signs that could have prompted a different intervention.

Those questions cannot yet be answered from the available records alone.

A threat alleged in an eviction filing is not equivalent to a criminal conviction, and investigators have not established publicly what information police, property managers, courts or other agencies possessed at various stages before the shooting.

The investigation will likely examine those contacts as authorities reconstruct Johnson's actions before Wednesday afternoon.

Residents have also begun describing encounters with the suspected gunman in the days and moments before the shooting.

Some residents told news organizations that Johnson had previously displayed a handgun at the building.

One resident said Johnson appeared angry in recent days and had made threatening statements involving other people.

Another resident described seeing the suspected shooter with a handgun Wednesday before shots erupted.

Those accounts provide potential leads for investigators but remain witness recollections rather than final police findings.

Authorities will need to compare them against surveillance footage, 911 recordings, physical evidence, body-camera video and other material collected from the building.

Wednesday's police response unfolded extraordinarily quickly.

The first call came at approximately 4:36 p.m., and officers were inside the high-rise within minutes.

Peterson credited the officers with moving toward continuing gunfire while residents and wounded people remained inside.

Their actions placed them directly in the path of the shooter.

Mayor Jacob Frey also praised the officers who entered the building, emphasizing that they moved toward danger while attempting to protect residents and reach victims.

The scale of the emergency response transformed a large section of downtown Minneapolis during the evening rush hour.

Authorities restricted access through an area extending from roughly 12th Street to Franklin Avenue and from Hennepin Avenue to Third Avenue South as police, firefighters, ambulances and other emergency vehicles converged on the neighborhood.

A reunification center was established at Central Lutheran Church for residents and families affected by the shooting.

The emergency response produced additional injuries away from the apartment building.

Two officers were injured when a police squad vehicle crashed on Nicollet Avenue near the downtown Target while responding to the shooting.

By Wednesday evening, authorities said the immediate threat had ended and the area was secure.

Thursday's work shifted from emergency response to the painstaking task of determining exactly what happened.

Investigators must establish where the first shots were fired, how the gunman moved through the building, who was targeted, whether the victims had any relationship to the shooter, how many shots were fired, what weapons were used and what produced the haze officers encountered on the upper floor.

They must also determine whether Johnson acted entirely alone.

Nothing released by authorities so far indicates that another shooter was involved.

The identities of the two civilians killed remain among the most significant pieces of information still awaiting official release.

Authorities have also not publicly identified the wounded civilians or the injured officers.

Their conditions could change as treatment continues, although officials have expressed confidence that the three injured Minneapolis officers will recover.

The shooting comes little more than a year after Minneapolis experienced the mass shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church and School, an attack that killed two children and wounded more than 20 children and adults in August 2025.

The circumstances of the two shootings are substantially different, and authorities have identified no connection between them.

Wednesday's violence nevertheless places Minneapolis once again in the position of confronting a mass shooting while investigators, victims' families and residents search for answers about how the attack developed and whether anything could have prevented it.

For residents of Shoreline Plaza, those questions are particularly immediate.

The building was not simply the location where police encountered a gunman. It was home to hundreds of people who suddenly found hallways, elevators and common areas transformed into a crime scene.

Some were unable to return immediately to their apartments as investigators secured and processed the property.

The investigation is being led with assistance from state and federal law-enforcement agencies.

Authorities have not announced when the building will be fully released from the crime scene or when additional information about the victims will be made public.

What is established is that an ordinary Wednesday afternoon near Loring Park turned into a rapidly unfolding mass shooting in which Minneapolis police entered a high-rise while shots were still being fired, two civilians lost their lives, five people were wounded by gunfire, three officers were injured during the response and the suspected gunman died.

What remains unresolved is equally important.

Police have not established a motive publicly. Investigators have not explained the unidentified haze encountered by officers. The victims have not been officially identified. And authorities have not yet provided a complete account of how the shooting began or whether the allegations documented months earlier in Johnson's eviction proceedings were connected to what happened Wednesday.

Those questions will determine the next phase of an investigation that has moved from an active-shooter response to an examination of the gunman, the building, his previous conduct and the events that preceded the first 911 call.

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