Minneapolis shooting leaves two dead including one teenager

A 24-year-old man who was released from the Hennepin County jail Monday afternoon reportedly shot and killed two family members later at a home in north Minneapolis, according to police.

The victims include a 14-year-old boy and a 23-year-old man, said Minneapolis police Sgt. Garrett Parten, the department’s chief spokesman. Parten said the suspect is a cousin of both victims.

The suspect was believed to have been later killed by Brooklyn Center police during an exchange of gunfire.

“This is an unimaginable loss for this family,” Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said Monday outside the home where the shooting took place, adding that the grandmother in the home had another family member who was murdered recently.

The suspect had been well-known to police and was in jail after being arrested last week under suspicion of fleeing police and being in possession of an illegally modified handgun, O’Hara said.

“Our investigators are obviously working to determine the sequence of events and trying to make some kind of sense of this absolutely senseless tragedy,” O’Hara said.

Around 6:30 p.m. Monday, police were still at the scene of the earlier shooting in the 4200 block of Irving Avenue N.

On Monday night, Sandra Freeman stood on the sidewalk across the street and cried. The two who were killed were brothers and she was their aunt, she said. She’s also the aunt of the shooter. Freeman was at work when she got the call about what happened.

“I’m hurt. I’m pissed off,” she said. “This is all family. Why?”

She also asked why the alleged shooter had been let out of jail. Freeman said she didn’t know what led up to the shootings.

“How are we supposed to get through this?” she asked, as a man in a grey coat hugged her.

Another armed man who showed up at the house after the shooting was arrested by police.

According to a news release from Brooklyn Center police, officers were dispatched to the 5500–5600 blocks of Brooklyn Boulevard in Brooklyn Center due to reports of a man waving a gun outside retail businesses. Police were confronted by a man with a handgun at the scene, and “gunfire was exchanged between the subject and officers and the subject was struck by the gunfire,” Brooklyn Center police said.

No officers were hit. The man was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital and a handgun was recovered from the scene. Brooklyn Center police officers have been placed on critical incident leave. Officers were wearing body cameras at the time of the shooting.

Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension personnel were out investigating the incident on Tuesday night. Investigators could be seen near 56th and Xerxes avenues N. in Brooklyn Center close to an IHOP restaurant.