Minneapolis police release body camera videos from mass shooting at apartment complex
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Videos released Wednesday show the moment two Minneapolis police officers were shot after racing to an upper floor of an apartment complex earlier this month in pursuit of a man who killed two people and wounded three others, including the mother of his child.
The videos released by the city of Minneapolis provide a clearer picture of how the man opened fire at officers on Sept. 2 as they worked to secure the apartment building with residents trapped inside, while 911 transcripts also released Wednesday show just how terrified victims and residents were as they lay wounded on the ground, or hid and begged for help.
In the end, Carlton Johnson killed two of his neighbors and injured five more people — two police officers, an ex-girlfriend and two building employees — before he was fatally shot by police.
In the videos, officers can be seen walking toward a victim sprawled on the ground of an adjacent hallway when Johnson suddenly emerges from behind a corner and draws a handgun. He hits Officer Joseph Michnowski, who races away, past the victim, as more gunshots ring out.
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Body camera video from Minneapolis police, showing encounter with armed suspect (warning — contains graphic content)
“Shooter’s on the ninth floor. I took some rounds,” Michnowski says into his radio. He lifts up his left hand, which is shaking and appears slightly damp.
The other officers, now separated from him, begin yelling from the landing of a stairwell, “Joe, are you OK?”
Moments later, the sound of more shots can be heard from another officer, Yahye Mahmed Ahmed, as he stands at the stairwell landing, pointing his gun into the hallway. Suddenly, yellow smoke fills the doorway and the officers race back down the stairs.
“Oh, I got hit,” he yells.
The shooting began when Johnson shot and wounded a woman believed to be the mother of his child, Drew Evans, superintendent of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, has said. The child was not injured.
A flurry of frantic 911 calls started coming in just after 4:30 p.m. One unnamed victim told the operator that she just got shot in the legs and couldn’t move, according to 911 call logs.
“Okay, we’re getting a lot of help out to you right now,” the operator tells her.
“HELP!” she says, explaining that her child is with her.
In another call, a woman who says she works in the office and is hiding in its storage room tells the dispatcher that Johnson is in the front lobby.
“Are you safe in the storage room?” the dispatcher asks.
“I’m not safe right now. I don’t know if he’s still out there still shooting or not,” she says. “And I’m not gonna leave here until I know the police is here.”
After Johnson shot and injured two building employees, he took an elevator to the ninth floor where he killed two building residents before police killed him. Evans said it was unclear if Johnson was targeting the residents or had simply encountered them in the hallway.
Authorities identified the two residents who died as Dale Henry Spry, 63, and Muse A. Afrah, 61.
Fundraisers have been established to help the victims of the shooting, or their families.
The building’s owners were trying to evict Johnson. He had threatened his neighbors and warned he was planning to shoot people, according to building residents, court documents and law enforcement officials.
At least one person had asked for a restraining order to be placed on him. The police investigated him in June for displaying a weapon, but the county attorney’s office decided not to file any charges.
MPR News contributed to this report.
