MINNEAPOLIMEDIA NEWS | Two Victims Identified in Loring Park Mass Shooting as Investigation Turns to Long Trail of Warning Signs

Court records show alleged gun threats, an eviction case, a harassment order and a recent charging review preceded Wednesday's attack at Shoreline Plaza.

MINNEAPOLIS, MN (September 4, 2026). Investigators have identified the two residents killed in Wednesday's mass shooting at Shoreline Plaza in downtown Minneapolis as authorities examine a documented series of threats, legal disputes and alleged violent behavior involving the man police say carried out the attack.

The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension identified the victims as Dale Henry Spry, 63, and Muse Abdi Afrah, 61, both residents of the apartment building near Loring Park.

The suspected gunman, Carlton Neal Johnson II, 35, also died. The Hennepin County Medical Examiner determined that Johnson died from multiple gunshot wounds after exchanging gunfire with Minneapolis police officers inside the building.

Authorities say the violence began Wednesday afternoon during a child-custody exchange outside Shoreline Plaza. Johnson allegedly shot a woman with whom he had previously been in a relationship, entered the building and shot two employees before moving to the ninth floor, where Spry and Afrah were fatally shot.

Minneapolis officers arrived within minutes and encountered Johnson on the ninth floor.

Officers Joseph Michnowski and Yahye Ahmed were wounded by gunfire. Ahmed was struck in the leg, while Michnowski suffered two gunshot wounds to the abdomen and required surgery. Authorities have said both officers are expected to recover. Officer Liban Mohamed Ibrahim also fired his weapon during the encounter, according to the BCA.

The emerging question now extends beyond the sequence of Wednesday's attack.

Court records and interviews reviewed by multiple news organizations show Johnson had been the subject of allegations involving threats, firearms, domestic conflict and violence before the mass shooting.

Shoreline Plaza management had been seeking to evict him. Court records show the landlord alleged six lease violations between January and June, including an assault on another resident and incidents in which Johnson allegedly displayed a firearm and threatened people in the building. The eviction case had been scheduled for trial September 11.

Johnson was also the subject of a harassment restraining order stemming from allegations made by a woman who said he had sexually assaulted her and threatened her life. He was involved in a child-protection case concerning his young daughter.

Neither proceeding resulted in a court order prohibiting him from possessing a firearm, according to the Minnesota Star Tribune.

Another resident filed for a harassment restraining order in August after alleging Johnson had assaulted him and threatened him with a handgun.

That episode had also reached the Hennepin County Attorney's Office.

County Attorney Mary Moriarty said Thursday that prosecutors received a criminal case on August 20 involving allegations that Johnson had threatened another Shoreline Plaza resident while displaying a gun. An attorney reviewing the evidence concluded there was likely insufficient evidence to prove a criminal charge beyond a reasonable doubt.

According to Moriarty, evidence showed Johnson displayed the firearm but did not remove it from his waistband.

The BCA has said investigators are examining Johnson's legal eligibility to possess firearms and his permit status.

That distinction matters.

The existence of complaints, disturbing behavior, civil proceedings or even certain criminal allegations does not automatically establish that a person is legally prohibited from possessing a firearm. Investigators will therefore need to determine not simply whether warning signs existed, but whether any existing legal mechanism could or should have resulted in Johnson losing access to a gun before Wednesday.

Associated Press reporting describes a broader pattern of alarming conduct, including repeated threats and openly displaying a firearm. The AP reported that police, prosecutors and courts had encountered portions of Johnson's history before the attack but that none of those interventions ultimately removed his access to a firearm.

Interim Minneapolis Police Chief Bill Peterson has defended the department's handling of earlier contacts while acknowledging the seriousness of questions now being raised.

The BCA investigation remains active and will include the police use of force as well as the events leading to the shooting.

What happened at Shoreline Plaza is therefore becoming two investigations at once.

One concerns the immediate facts of a mass shooting that killed Spry and Afrah, injured several other civilians and wounded responding police officers.

The other concerns the months before the first shot was fired and whether Minnesota's fragmented systems for responding to threats, domestic disputes, housing conflicts and firearms warnings had information that, taken together, should have produced a different intervention.

Those questions cannot yet be answered definitively.

But after the identification of the victims and disclosure of the court history surrounding Johnson, they can no longer be avoided.

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