A 28-year-old Minneapolis police officer died, as did another person and the suspected shooter, after an exchange of gunfire with the suspect Thursday night in south Minneapolis, according to statements from police and public officials.
A second police officer, a firefighter and a bystander were also injured in the chaotic scene that unfolded in and around an apartment building in the 2200 block of Blaisdell Avenue in the Whittier neighborhood of Minneapolis, authorities said.
The deceased Fifth Precinct officer has been identified as 28-year-old Jamal Mitchell. In the one year he was on the force, he received a commendation for rescuing people from a fire.
Mitchell “is a courageous hero and today is a devastating day for the city of Minneapolis,” Mayor Jacob Frey said at a 10 p.m. news conference, joined by Gov. Tim Walz, police leaders and city council members.
Mitchell, a father and fiancé, was one of the first officers to arrive at the scene of the double shooting. He was trying to provide medical assistance outside the building to two people he believed were injured when one of them “ambushed” him, according to Drew Evans, superintendent of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.
“I’m using the term [ambush] for a reason,” Evans said. “I saw the video and he was ambushed.” He did not explain exactly what had happened.
Around 9 p.m., several hundred police officers from Minneapolis and law enforcement departments from across the metropolitan area gathered in front of HCMC in downtown Minneapolis, where Mitchell was taken. They stood vigil, saluting before his American flag-draped body as it was loaded into the Hennepin County coroner’s van.
Doctors and nurses, many dressed in uniforms, watched from the hospital above. Fifth Precinct Inspector Christie Nelson wiped her eyes. Police then headed to their squad cars for a procession to the medical examiner’s office in Minnetonka.
The area of the shooting remained cordoned off as the sun set amid an army of police officers, investigators and first responders from multiple agencies.
“The public is not in danger,” the police statement said. “Please continue to avoid the area.”
Details were still emerging Thursday night in what became the first line-of-duty shooting death of a Minneapolis police officer in more than 20 years.
Walz said State Patrol troopers were assisting Minneapolis police, and employees from the State Bureau of Criminal Apprehension were also on scene.
The police statement said officers “responded to a shooting” but offered no other details about what led to the shooting or how events unfolded.
A uniformed police officer was lying face down in the street among squad cars and fire trucks when at least 11 shots were fired, according to a man who witnessed part of the incident and showed cellphone video to a reporter.
When the shooting ended, a plainclothes figure could also be seen face down in the street.
Spill at HCMC
Upon hearing that the officers had fallen, dozens of uniformed and plainclothes officers rushed to HCMC in downtown Minneapolis, where they cried and consoled each other in an ambulance bay. Among them were Assistant Chief Katie Blackwell and Hennepin County Sheriff Dawanna Witt.
Chief Brian O’Hara was out of town for a conference but would be returning to Minneapolis.
The hospital’s 7th Street entrance was lined with squad cars and covered with yellow crime scene tape as a parade of squad cars from Metro departments arrived, with Minneapolis Park Police Chief Jason Ohotto directing traffic.
A woman stood at the intersection in front of the hospital holding a giant “Blue Lives Matter” flag, wiping tears from her eyes.
Frey also arrived at the scene, shoulder to shoulder with the police officers.
Members of the police officers’ families also arrived at HCMC, passing a line of more than a hundred uniformed officers standing at attention in the ambulance bay. They were escorted inside by members of the department’s honor guard.
Filming scene
The shooting appears to have started inside an apartment, according to a witness.
Reuben Molina said he was in his apartment when he heard four or five gunshots coming from a downstairs apartment. He and his girlfriend heard a woman tell the 911 dispatcher that two people had been shot in the head, including her boyfriend.
Molina saw two men walk out the back door of the complex and separate into the alley, heading in opposite directions. They looked, he said, like they were “trying to be nonchalant.”
Molina went outside to call officers to check out the shooting at the apartment when he began hearing more gunshots nearby, he said.
“I could hear the bullets ricocheting and bouncing off things as I tried to get someone to come in to check on the people who were shot,” he said. He saw an injured person being carried away.
Cory Jones, 36, was biking south on La Salle Avenue toward Franklin Avenue around 5:23 p.m. when he heard the gunshots.
“I heard boom-boom-bom and then I saw a police officer on the street,” he said.
Jones ran to the parking lot across the street from the Park Nicollet Clinic on Blaisdell Avenue, grabbed his phone and started recording. Several police officers huddled behind a fire truck parked on Blaisdell, facing south.
As Jones approached the group, he saw a police officer face down on the west side of the street and a plainclothes man lying on the east side as gunfire erupted around him — at least 11 shots, according to captured audio and video. on your phone.
Residents were left out
Minneapolis police sent out an alert just before 6 p.m., telling residents to avoid the area around 22nd Street and Blaisdell because of an active incident. About 40 people gathered nearby when several police cars from multiple agencies arrived. Police shouted at observers to return to the block and cordoned off the area, only allowing buses to pass through.
Several people who live in the building where the shooting occurred were still waiting at 8 p.m. to receive notices that they could go back inside. About a dozen apartment residents began arguing with two officers who told them that police were going from unit to unit, breaking down doors to check for more victims. Several said they were angry because police told them they would have to find another place to stay for the next few hours.
Thursday’s shooting was the second this year to result in the death of a Twin Cities police officer. In February, two police officers and a doctor were shot and killed in Burnsville.
The last Minneapolis police officer shot and killed in the line of duty was Melissa Schmidtwho was killed in a public housing complex in the Lyndale neighborhood in 2002.
Staff writers Josie Albertson-Grove, Eder Campuzano, Kim Hyatt and Paul Walsh contributed to this story.
