Minneapolis Apartment Shooting: Eviction Threats and a Deadly Rampage

On the afternoon of September 3, 2026, the quiet routine of Shoreline Plaza – a modest apartment complex in Minneapolis – was shattered by a hail of gunfire. Police later identified the shooter as 35‑year‑old Carlton Johnson II, a tenant who had been served an eviction notice just days earlier.

Friends and neighbors said Johnson had been increasingly volatile in the weeks leading up to the attack. One resident, Chris Miller, recalled a heated conversation where Johnson, apparently drunk, warned, “I’m going to shoot people.” Another longtime neighbor, Derrick Thompson, remembered hearing that Johnson “fought with people every damn day.” Those remarks now seem ominously prescient.

The eviction notice, delivered on June 16, listed seven alleged lease violations – from disturbing the peace in January to openly brandishing a firearm in June and even admitting a stranger into the building without signing in. The notice gave Johnson until noon on June 29 to vacate, with a court hearing originally slated for August that was later moved up to September 11.

Behind the property disputes, a tangled personal history emerged. Johnson was embroiled in a child‑custody battle, his car had recently been repossessed, and court records showed a prior domestic‑violence order from 2012 that he had violated. In 2018, he was charged with domestic assault after allegedly throwing his sister around their home while intoxicated, threatening she’d “see a bullet in her face.” That charge was later reduced to a misdemeanor property‑damage offense.

According to the Minnesota Star Tribune, Johnson had previously threatened to gun down his ex‑girlfriend and two property managers. Those threats, combined with the eviction battle, painted a picture of a man who felt his world was slipping away.

When officers responded to reports of gunfire around 4:30 p.m., they first secured the building’s lobby, where two victims lay dead – one later pronounced dead at Hennepin County Medical Center, the other on scene. Six more people, including three police officers, were wounded; two officers sustained gunshot wounds, one to the abdomen and another to the leg, while the third suffered a non‑life‑threatening injury.

After the barrage subsided, investigators found Johnson’s body in an upstairs unit, evidence that he had taken his own life as police closed in. While the department has not formally named him as the shooter, multiple sources familiar with the case confirmed his identity.

The tragedy has left the community reeling and raised fresh questions about how warning signs – eviction notices, repeated threats, a history of violence – are handled by landlords, courts, and law‑enforcement agencies.

As families mourn the loss of the two victims and tend to the injured, Minneapolis officials say they will review the incident to determine whether earlier intervention might have averted the bloodshed.