Minneapolis police videos show officer gunned down on ninth floor

Two Minneapolis police officers were wounded by gunfire on the ninth floor of an apartment building on Sept. 2 while responding to a shooting that left two residents dead and three others injured, videos released Wednesday by the City of Minneapolis show. The man authorities identified as the shooter, Carlton Johnson, was fatally shot by police during the encounter.

The videos, along with 911 transcripts released the same day, detail how officers secured the building as residents hid and begged for help. In the footage, officers approach a victim on the ground in an adjacent hallway when Johnson emerges from behind a corner with a handgun and fires at Officer Joseph Michnowski, who runs past the victim as more shots ring out.

“Shooter’s on the ninth floor. I took some rounds,” Michnowski says into his radio, lifting a shaking left hand. Other officers yell from a stairwell landing: “Joe, are you OK?”

Moments later, more shots are heard from Officer Yahye Mahmed Ahmed, who is pointing his gun into the hallway from the stairwell landing. Yellow smoke fills the doorway and officers race back down the stairs.

“Oh, I got hit,” Ahmed yells.

Johnson wounded two police officers, an ex-girlfriend and two building employees, authorities said. The shooting began when Johnson shot and wounded a woman believed to be the mother of his child, according to Drew Evans, superintendent of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. The child was not injured.

Frantic 911 calls started coming in just after 4:30 p.m. One unnamed victim told an operator she had been shot in the legs and could not move.

“Okay, we’re getting a lot of help out to you right now,” the operator tells her.

“HELP!” she says, telling the operator her child is with her.

In another call, a woman who says she works in the building’s 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 the two building employees, he took an elevator to the ninth floor, where he killed two residents before police fatally shot him. Evans said it was unclear whether Johnson was targeting the residents or had simply encountered them in the hallway.

The building’s owners were trying to evict Johnson, according to building residents, court documents and law enforcement officials. Johnson had threatened his neighbors and warned he was planning to shoot people.

At least one person had asked for a restraining order against him. Police investigated him in June for displaying a weapon, but the county attorney’s office decided not to file charges.