An hours-long armed standoff in Minneapolis that began when a man opened fire on police has ended peacefully, with no one hurt. The incident unfolded over much of the day, with a large law enforcement presence locking down the area and a city street blocked off for around seven hours before the suspect finally surrendered. Authorities described it as a potentially extraordinarily dangerous situation, and expressed relief that it was brought to a close without anyone being injured.
The standoff started when sheriff's deputies went to an apartment to serve an arrest warrant at around half past eleven in the morning. As they attempted to carry it out, a man inside the apartment opened fire on them. That gunfire turned the attempt to serve a warrant into a prolonged siege, drawing officers to the building and shutting down the surrounding street for hours as the situation played out. Police later said the warrant was considered high-risk because of the man's history, and that the shots fired from the apartment, which they believed came from an AR-15 style weapon, appeared to have been aimed at the deputies.
A woman and a child were inside the apartment with the suspect when the shooting began. For a time, their safety was one of the central concerns for the officers at the scene, given that they were trapped alongside an armed man who had already fired at police. Both were eventually released from the apartment unharmed, removing the most immediate danger as the standoff continued around them. Police said the two were known to the suspect.
The threat extended beyond the apartment itself. In a nearby barbershop, a man who was in the middle of getting a haircut described the moment the situation erupted. He said there were 14 people inside when a sheriff drew a weapon and told them to get down. The group instinctively dropped to the floor and moved toward the back of the shop, with some hiding in the bathroom and others taking cover as far back as they could.
As the standoff dragged on, police turned to specialised tactics to get a view inside the apartment. At one point officers used a Bobcat fitted with a long pole to break out a window on the third floor and send a drone inside. The suspect responded by shooting the drone down. Even after that, officers kept working to resolve the situation rather than force their way in, a process that stretched out over several more hours. A large amount of gas was deployed into the building during the operation, and bomb technicians were sent in at one point to check a report of a possible grenade.
In the end, after roughly seven hours, the suspect surrendered to police peacefully. The long ordeal closed with no casualties on any side. No civilians were injured, no law enforcement officers were hurt, and the suspect himself was not injured either, an outcome that stood in sharp contrast to how the day had begun, with rounds being fired directly at officers attempting to do their jobs.
Authorities praised the way the incident was handled. One official noted that a person shooting quite a few rounds at law enforcement could easily have killed a civilian or an innocent bystander, and said the fact that everyone was brought out safely was deeply impressive. The official credited the professionalism of the officers for the safe ending, stressing that it could have turned out very differently. Police, who had evacuated the building during the standoff, said residents would be allowed back inside, and officers were seen documenting the scene from the apartment window once the street reopened.