MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Dramatic video released Wednesday shows the moment two Minneapolis officers were shot after racing to an upper floor of an apartment building in pursuit of a shooter who had also killed two people and wounded three others, one the mother of his child.
The videos released by the City of Minneapolis provide a clearer picture of how the man fired at officers earlier this month as they worked to secure the apartment building with residents
trapped inside.
In the videos, officers can be seen walking toward a victim sprawled on the ground of an adjacent hallway when shooter Carlton 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.
“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.
Johnson was killed by police during the shooting.
The shooting began just outside the building’s entrance during an arranged custody handoff, Drew Evans, superintendent of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, has said. Johnson shot and wounded the woman believed to be the mother of his child. The child was not injured.
Johnson then shot and injured two building employees and 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.
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.
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Golden reported from Seattle.
