3 dead and multiple injured, including police, in downtown Minneapolis shooting

Three people are dead and multiple, including three police officers, are injured after a shooting in an apartment building in downtown Minneapolis on Wednesday.

Among the dead is the suspected shooter, from unknown causes, according to city officials.

Minneapolis police Sgt. Garrett Parten said in a brief news conference that officers responded to reports of gunfire around 4:30 p.m. at 15 E. Grant St., a high-rise apartment building near Loring Park. Inside, police encountered victims and heard gunfire. They went to the upper floor of the building where they encountered “a haze” limiting their visibility.

Two officers were injured by gunfire and a third was injured by unspecified causes. Two of the officers were being treated at Hennepin Healthcare for injuries that were not life-threatening, and a third was in surgery. Multiple other people were also taken to the hospital, where one died.

“This is a tremendously tragic event,” Parten said. “Our thoughts and prayers are with the families and the loved ones of those who lost their lives.”

City officials are expected to provide more information later Wednesday.

For hours after the shooting, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey urged people to avoid the area while the city received support from other law enforcement agencies including state patrol, the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office and the Saint Paul Police Department.

Police have not offered a motive, but the shooting appears to have begun as a domestic violence incident.

A resident of the apartment complex, Shoreline Plaza, told the Star Tribune that the suspected shooter made earlier threats, saying earlier this week that he was going to shoot his ex-girlfriend and the two building property managers.

“He said, ‘I’m going to shoot people,’” resident Chris Miller told the paper.

Another bystander told FOX 9 the shooter grabbed her in the building and said he was going “kill my baby mama and you’re gonna witness it.”

“He had the look of doing what he was going to do in his face,” she said.

Gov. Tim Walz issued a statement thanking law enforcement for their work, saying “Minnesota is praying for our first responders.”

U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar and House Speaker Lisa Demuth, who are running for governor, also released statements praying for victims and thanking first responders.

The Minneapolis shooting comes less than two months after a man shot and killed three workers at an apartment building in St. Paul after arguing with apartment managers about his parking garage contract.

It was a chaotic scene outside the apartment building in Minneapolis on Wednesday with at least one police squad car significantly damaged, the back half ripped off from an apparent accident.

This is a developing story.