A 28-year-old Minneapolis police officer is dead, as are another person and the suspected shooter, after an exchange of gunfire with the suspect Thursday evening in south Minneapolis, according to statements from police and public officials.
A second police officer, a firefighter and a bystander also were wounded in the chaotic scene that unfolded in and around an apartment building in the 2200 block of Blaisdell Avenue, in Minneapolis’ Whittier neighborhood, officials said.
The deceased Fifth Precinct officer was identified as Jamal Mitchell, 28. In the single year he had been 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,” said Mayor Jacob Frey at a 10 p.m. news conference, flanked by Gov. Tim Walz, police leaders and City Council members.
Mitchell, a father and fiancé, was among the first officers who arrived at the scene of a double shooting. He was attempting to give medical assistance outside the building to two people he believed had been wounded 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’ve seen the video, and he was ambushed.” He didn’t explain exactly what had transpired.
Around 9 p.m., several hundred officers from Minneapolis and law enforcement departments across the metro area gathered outside 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 Medical Examiner’s van.
Doctors and nurses, many dressed in scrubs, watched from the hospital skyway above. Fifth Precinct Inspector Christie Nelson wiped her eyes. Police then headed for 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, investigators and first responders from numerous agencies.
“The public is not in danger,” the police statement said. “Please continue to avoid the area.”
Details were still emerging Thursday evening in what became the first shooting death of a Minneapolis police officer in the line of duty in more than 20 years.
Walz said State Patrol troopers were assisting Minneapolis police, and officials with the state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension were also on the scene.
The police statement said the officers “responded to a shooting” but offered no other details on what led up to the shooting or how events unfolded.
One uniformed officer was face down on the street among squad cars and fire trucks as at least 11 shots rang out, according to a man who witnessed part of the incident and showed his cellphone video to a reporter.
By the time the gunfire ended, a figure in plainclothes could be seen face down on the street as well.
Outpouring at HCMC
Upon hearing that officers were down, dozens of uniformed and plainclothes officers rushed to HCMC in downtown Minneapolis, where they wept and comforted 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 was said to be headed back to Minneapolis.
The hospital entrance on 7th Street was lined with squad cars and covered with yellow crime scene tape as a parade of squad cars from departments across the metro rolled in, with Minneapolis Park Police Chief Jason Ohotto directing traffic.
A woman stood at the intersection outside the hospital holding a giant “Blue Lives Matter” flag, wiping tears from her eyes.
Frey arrived on the scene as well, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with officers.
Members of the officers’ families also arrived at HCMC, walking through 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.
Shooting scene
The shooting appears to have begun inside an apartment, according to one witness.
Reuben Molina said he was in his apartment when he heard four or five shots from an apartment on the floor below him. He and his girlfriend heard a woman tell a 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 split up in the alleyway, going in opposite directions. They looked, he said, like they were “trying to be nonchalant.”
Molina went outside to get officers to check on the apartment shooting when he began hearing more shots nearby, he said.
“I could hear the bullets ricocheting and bouncing off stuff as I’m trying to get somebody to come inside to check on the people who were shot,” he said. He saw one wounded person being carried away.
Cory Jones, 36, was biking south on La Salle Avenue toward Franklin Avenue at about 5:23 p.m. when he heard the gunshots.
“I heard boom-boom-boom, and then I see a cop on the street,” he said.
Jones dashed to the parking lot across the street from the Park Nicollet Clinic on Blaisdell Avenue, pulled out his phone and began recording. Several police officers huddled behind a fire truck parked on Blaisdell facing south.
As Jones approached the group, he saw an officer face down on the west side of the street and a man in plain clothes laying on the east side as pops of gunfire erupted around him — at least 11 shots, according to the audio and video captured on his phone.
Residents kept 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 as numerous police cars from several agencies arrived. Police yelled to observers to move back down the block and taped off the area, allowing only buses to go through.
Several people who live in the apartment building where the shooting took place were still waiting at 8 p.m. to get word they could go back inside. About a dozen apartment residents began arguing with two officers who told them that police were going unit to unit, kicking doors in to check for additional victims. Several said they were annoyed that police told them they would have to find somewhere else to stay for the next few hours.
The shooting Thursday was the second this year to result in the death of a Twin Cities police officer. In February, two police officers and a medic were shot and killed in Burnsville.
The last Minneapolis police officer shot and killed in the line of duty was Melissa Schmidt, who 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.
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