Gunfire tore through downtown Minneapolis on Wednesday afternoon, leaving six people shot, including two police officers, near the Loring Towers apartment high-rise just south of Loring Park. One officer was shot in the stomach and the other in the leg, and a law enforcement source says multiple civilians are dead. A suspect has been taken into custody.
The shooting was first reported by callers around 4:50 p.m. near Nicollet Avenue and East Grant Street, according to KSTP-TV. Police maintained a massive presence near 15 East Grant Street, an address that corresponds to Loring Towers, a 230-unit high-rise affordable housing complex on the southern edge of downtown near Loring Park, as reported by Bring Me The News. The incident occurred near multiple apartment buildings and the Minneapolis Convention Center, and authorities asked people to avoid the area stretching from 12th Street to Franklin Avenue and from Hennepin Avenue to Third Avenue South.
Minneapolis police said they were still working to determine what happened and had no confirmed information at the time the department first addressed the incident. The Hyatt Regency Minneapolis, which sits on Nicollet Mall roughly three blocks from the Loring Towers scene, went into lockdown as the response unfolded, according to the same Bring Me The News account.
Suspect Located After University Alert, Secondary Crash Near Target
An emergency alert from the University of St. Thomas notified community members that a shooter had been located and that one person was taken into custody, according to KARE 11. Aerial imagery captured during the response also showed a secondary police scene near the Nicollet Mall Target less than a mile away, showing a damaged civilian sedan alongside a Minneapolis police squad car with extensive rear-end damage, per the same Bring Me The News report. It remains unclear whether that crash was directly tied to the suspect's apprehension, and the precise sequence of events leading up to the gunfire inside or outside the high-rise has not been confirmed.
Governor Tim Walz said state officials are working to investigate the shooting and that state personnel are on the ground supporting local law enforcement, with officials pledging to share more information as it becomes available. Under Minnesota procedure, officer-involved shootings resulting in severe injury or death are independently investigated by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension's Force Investigations Unit rather than the local department involved, according to the Minnesota Department of Public Safety.
A Department Still Marking the Loss of Officer Jamal Mitchell
Wednesday's shooting of two Minneapolis officers came roughly two years after MPD Officer Jamal Mitchell was ambushed and killed on May 30, 2024, while trying to render aid to a gunshot victim on Blaisdell Avenue, according to the City of Minneapolis. Under Minnesota Statute § 609.221, using or attempting to use deadly force against a peace officer is charged as first-degree assault, carrying a mandatory minimum of 10 years and up to 20 years in prison, per Sieben Cotter Law.
Downtown Minneapolis has seen other high-profile law enforcement friction in recent months. In June, a shooting near Cowboy Jack's led to a police officer being assaulted while trying to control a gathering crowd, as Hoodline previously reported. In March, MPD's major crimes division established a specialized Firearm Assault Shoot Team to treat non-fatal shootings as failed homicides in an effort to raise case clearance rates.
Even so, the shooting arrives against a backdrop of overall improvement in citywide violence. Council on Criminal Justice data cited by Bring Me The News showed Minneapolis homicides had dropped roughly 30% in the first half of 2026 compared with the same period a year earlier. Wednesday's shooting, with its toll of six people struck including two officers and a law enforcement source's account of multiple civilian deaths, stands as a stark exception to that trend.
Minneapolis police have not released the identities of the victims or the suspect, and the exact breakdown of civilian versus officer conditions has not been fully confirmed. State officials and KSTP both said they would share more information as it becomes available.
