Mary Moriarty's Office Declined To Charge Or Seek Red Flag Order Against Deadly Shooter

MINNEAPOLIS, MN — Prosecutors declined twice to intervene against the man who carried out Wednesday's deadly shooting at a downtown Minneapolis apartment building, once on a criminal charge and again on a request for a red flag order, Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty's office said Thursday.

According to a statement from Moriarty's office, Minneapolis police responded June 25 to a call about Carlton Neal Johnson II displaying a firearm to another person at Shoreline Plaza. Officers determined Johnson, who held a legal permit to carry, had displayed the weapon but that it never left his waistband.

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Police submitted the case to the Hennepin County Attorney's Office on Aug. 20, and an attorney reviewed it under standard protocol.

The office determined the case likely could not be charged due to insufficient evidence to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

The same June 25 incident was also flagged for screening for an Extreme Risk Protection Order, Minnesota's red flag law, which can temporarily bar someone from possessing firearms.

Moriarty's office said additional review found insufficient evidence to petition for that order as well.

Johnson, 35, died at the scene Wednesday in an exchange of gunfire with police, according to Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension Superintendent Drew Evans.

A preliminary autopsy by the Hennepin County Medical Examiner's Office found Johnson died of multiple gunshot wounds, and his death was ruled a homicide, according to the BCA.

Evans said the shooting began just outside the building's entrance during an arranged custody exchange, when Johnson shot and wounded a woman believed to be the mother of his child.

The woman was shot in the leg; the child was not injured. Evans said Johnson then shot two people who worked in the building.

Two men who lived on the same floor as Johnson were killed in the shooting: Dale Henry Spry, 63, and Muse Abdi Afrah, 61, according to the BCA.

Two Minneapolis police officers were shot and injured: Officer Joseph Michnowski, with the department since 2021, and Officer Yahye Ahmed, with the department since November 2024. Both remained hospitalized Thursday in stable condition.

The BCA identified Officer Liban Mohamed Ibrahim, with the department since September 2024, as having discharged his firearm during the incident. Investigators are still determining whether any other officers fired their weapons.

Johnson had been fighting eviction from Shoreline Plaza, formerly known as Loring Towers, over a series of escalating incidents involving a firearm, according to court records. The case had been continued to a trial date of Sept. 11 at the time of the shooting.