A Gun Permit and 6 Warnings, Then 2 Dead in Minneapolis

Newly released video and Minneapolis police body camera footage do not change what happened at Shoreline Plaza on Sept. 2, 2026 — they fix it in place, minute by minute, inside a record that had been warning for years. ¹ What looks in the clips like a sudden rampage at a downtown high-rise was the end of a long file: a reissued gun permit, a summer gun display that produced no charge, six alleged lease violations, a granted restraining order, and an eviction trial still nine days away when two neighbors were killed in their own hallway. ⁵⁷

The shooting began as a child custody exchange outside Shoreline Plaza, the subsidized downtown tower formerly known as Loring Towers at 15 E. Grant St. near Nicollet and the convention center. ⁴⁶ Around 4:30 p.m., Carlton Neal Johnson II, 35, who lived on the building's ninth floor, met the mother of his child outside and shot her in the leg with a handgun. ⁶⁸ The child was present and was physically unharmed, aside from the trauma of witnessing it. ⁸⁹ Mayor Jacob Frey said officers applied a tourniquet to the woman within minutes and likely saved her life. ⁹¹⁰

Johnson then walked inside and shot two building employees, one woman at close range and one man. ⁸¹⁹ The woman was building manager Jan Elaine Peterson, 56, of Blaine, described as seriously wounded. ¹⁹³ He took the elevator to the ninth floor and fatally shot two residents in the hallway there: Dale Henry Spry, 63, a Marine veteran whose family described post-service PTSD, and Muse Abdi Afrah, 61. ³¹¹ One died at the scene and one at a hospital, and investigators could not yet say they were specifically targeted. ³⁸

The reconciled toll is two residents killed, plus the suspect killed separately by police fire, and five people shot and wounded. ²³ The wounded are the child's mother, the two building employees, and two Minneapolis police officers, Joseph Michnowski and Yahye Ahmed. ³⁸ Michnowski, an officer since 2021 assigned to the First Precinct, took two shots to the abdomen and required surgery. ³¹¹ Ahmed, who joined the department in November 2024 after service with Richfield and Metro Transit, was shot in the leg and was released from the hospital Thursday. ³¹¹ A third officer, Ernest Boateng, was injured without being shot, cut by glass when he broke a lock on a squad window to shut off a siren. ⁸¹⁰ Two officers were also hurt in a crash while responding, and four more were affected by haze from a fire extinguisher struck by gunfire. ⁸¹⁰ Roughly 160 officers responded. ⁸⁹

Police were inside in under three minutes after the 4:36 p.m. 911 call, following the sound of gunfire upstairs into the haze. ⁸¹⁰ They exchanged fire with Johnson twice on the ninth floor. ⁸⁹ Officers Ahmed and Liban Mohamed Ibrahim fired; whether Michnowski fired is still under review by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, which leads the officer-involved shooting investigation under Superintendent Drew Evans. ²⁸ A preliminary autopsy found Johnson died of multiple gunshot wounds with the manner ruled homicide, in an exchange with officers, not by suicide. ²⁹

What makes the case more than a response story is what did not happen before Sept. 2. Johnson was an affirmatively permitted carrier, not merely someone not barred from guns. ⁵¹⁴ The Hennepin County Sheriff's Office reissued him a permit to carry on April 9, 2026, less than five months before the rampage. ⁵¹⁴ On June 25, 2026, Minneapolis police responded to a report that Johnson displayed a firearm to another person at the building and concluded he had a legal permit and the gun never left his waistband. ⁵¹⁴ The case was assigned to a civilian investigator and submitted to the Hennepin County Attorney's office on Aug. 20. ¹⁴¹⁶

Neighbor statements in the eviction file were stronger than what police documented for charging purposes, alleging Johnson brandished the gun and said he would kill someone. ⁷²⁰ Moriarty has since publicly questioned why the permit was not revoked. ¹⁴⁵ The earlier record included a 2012 guilty plea for violating a domestic-abuse no-contact order and a 2018-19 case in which a domestic-assault charge was dropped and he pleaded to misdemeanor property damage after his sister said he threw her around while drunk and said he was not afraid to shoot people in the face. ²⁰²³ A domestic-assault conviction would have barred him from firearms; that plea did not. ¹²²⁰

In 2023 a harassment restraining order was granted after a woman with whom he had a child alleged sexual assault and 120 texts containing death threats sent from multiple numbers, including one impersonating a detective; referee Tiffany Sedillos granted the order. ²⁰¹² At the time of the shooting Johnson was in an ongoing child-protection case concerning his 4-year-old daughter with that same woman. ¹²²⁰ Neither the 2023 order nor the child-protection matter restricted his possession of firearms. ¹²¹⁴ It remains unresolved whether the woman who obtained the 2023 order is the same woman shot outside the building on Sept. 2. ²⁰¹² A separate neighbor petitioned for a restraining order after the June 25 incident. ²⁰⁷

Johnson was also a tenant being evicted, not a former tenant already removed. ⁷¹³ His lease ran from March 2025, and the eviction case was pending trial set for Sept. 11, 2026, with a calendar call at 8:30 a.m. that day, nine days after the shooting. ⁷¹⁸ The landlord, represented by attorney Laurel Pugh, alleged six lease breaches between Jan. 16 and June 13, 2026, including an assault of a resident on March 23 and June gun displays. ⁷¹⁵ On June 16 the landlord issued a 10-day termination notice effective June 29, with a last chance after Johnson asked to stay: keep any firearm concealed and follow carry law. ⁷¹⁸ The landlord then alleged further breaches on June 19 and June 25, when he walked the building with the gun visible, threatened one resident, brandished it at another and accosted staff about who had called police. ⁷²⁰ The complaint was filed June 29, Johnson answered Aug. 3 denying the threats and citing Minnesota law barring landlords from restricting lawful carry, and the hearing was continued from Aug. 14 to Sept. 11. ⁷¹⁸

Residents described a building under pressure. Police had been called to Shoreline Plaza hundreds of times over two years, and new ownership had filed about 20 evictions in 2026 in a push against problem tenants. ⁷¹⁸ Resident Chris Miller said Johnson had said over the prior weekend that he would shoot his ex and two property managers. ²⁰¹² Interim Chief Bill Peterson and Frey praised the officers' response, with Frey returning to the tourniquet that kept the first victim alive long enough to reach care. ¹⁰⁹