Prosecutors allege resident fatally shot 2 in Loring Park apartment building ambush

A man retrieved a shotgun from his Loring Park apartment in Minneapolis and ambushed and fatally shot two fellow building residents, according to charges filed Tuesday.

Robert Cardell Warren, 51, who lives in Loring Towers at 15 E. Grant St., was charged in Hennepin County District Court with two counts each of second-degree murder and illegal gun possession in connection with the Saturday afternoon shooting.

As of Tuesday afternoon, neither the Medical Examiner’s Office nor police have provided the Minnesota Star Tribune with the victims’ identities.

Warren remains jailed in lieu of $5 million ahead of a court appearance Wednesday. Court records do not list an attorney for him.

According to the criminal complaint:

Police were alerted about 1:50 p.m. to fighting in the apartment building and then that shots had been fired.

Officers arrived and were directed by witnesses to Warren, who was standing in a doorway. He went to the floor without being ordered by police, who confirmed his identity. The officers found a small knife and shotgun shells in his pants pocket. Officers saw a case for a long gun in Warren’s second-floor apartment.

Someone who reported the shooting to police told officers that Warren and one of his victims were in a fight in the building’s entryway. The witness said he separated the two and heard gunfire while calling 911.

Apartment surveillance video shows that as the two men exited a second-floor elevator, Warren “ambushed them from behind with his shotgun drawn and trained upon them,” the charges read. “[One victim] immediately retreated into the open elevator he had just departed. [Warren] stood outside the elevator car and fired one shot into [the victim’s] neck.”

Warren walked toward the other man and shot him as well.