Neighbors startled awake by gunfire in Minneapolis apartment building; police say it could have been much worse
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Kelly Meyer fell asleep in her room on the second floor of her home in the Hiawatha neighborhood, with her windows wide open.
“It was a nice night,” said Meyer. “I woke up about 4:30ish, hearing some really loud sounds.”
She thought it was just a random sound Saturday morning. But then, she kept hearing the loud booms.
And they were coming from the apartment building across the street at Minnehaha Avenue and East 41st Street.
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“I thought, ‘OK, this is really weird.’ And so then at that point, I got up and looked out the window, and I heard some more sounds, and I couldn't tell what they were. But I've never seen so many police cars and Hennepin County sheriffs with their weapons drawn, hiding behind their vehicles. So I knew something active was going on."
Residents of the building who called 911 at around 4:30 a.m. on Saturday reported hearing gun shots, knocks on their doors and glass shattering.
Minneapolis police shot and injured a 40-year-old man who was wearing a military-style flak jacket and was armed with a shotgun, AK-47 style rifle and pistol, according to police. Responders had cornered him in a stairwell and evacuated people from the building.
Meyer watched as residents were evacuated. Some of them were children.
"They would come out in their blankets, and they looked, I felt really bad for them coming out and realizing that they, you know, what the trauma that they were enduring of not knowing what was going on and getting evacuated from their building and you know, who knows?"
Minneapolis police Chief Brian O'Hara said the man is believed to be a resident of the building and was not immediately known to his department.
"He also had a backpack with him while he was shooting as well as several additional magazines of ammunition,” O’Hara said. “It was very concerning to me. We actually had the bomb squad come out to check the backpack, because I was concerned it could be a booby trap for first responders."
As of Saturday afternoon, police say the man was in stable condition at HCMC. Police and the BCA have not yet released names of the man or the officers.
Keith Gruye lives two houses down from the apartment building. He says he heard six gunshots, and had trouble sleeping after that. He wondered if it were “someone that’s trying to make a statement,” since the suspect didn’t shoot anyone.
Gruye has been living in the area for 15 years. He says a shooting like this is unusual.
The incident remains under investigation.
