Walter Nathaniel Haynes, a 30-year-old Black man, was out in the bright churn of downtown Minneapolis nightlife when the night turned sudden and violent. In the early hours of January 7, 2017, gunfire erupted near the corner of 3rd Street North and 1st Avenue North, and officers arriving to the scene found him suffering from gunshot wounds. 
As the first minutes unfolded, police and paramedics worked to keep people alive in the street and then in emergency rooms across the city.
Haynes was rushed to Hennepin County Medical Center in critical condition, while a woman wounded in the same shooting was treated there for injuries described as non-life-threatening. A third person, discovered only after the initial chaos, had already made it to North Memorial Medical Center and was treated and released for what was described as a graze wound. 
In the days that followed, the outlines of what led to the gunfire began to surface through those who said they were there. Friends said Haynes had been trying to break up a fight that began inside a club and then spilled out into the street corner where bullets started flying, striking him and two others who ultimately survived. Two days after the shooting, on January 9, 2017, he died at Hennepin County Medical Center. 
Public reporting around the case described the investigation as ongoing in the immediate aftermath, without naming any suspect or announcing an arrest in connection with the shooting. Police statements carried by local outlets at the time emphasized that detectives were still working to determine what happened and who fired the shots.
