On a tragic afternoon in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the life of 61-year-old Muse Abdi Afrah was cut short in a senseless act of violence. On September 2, 2026, a neighbor, Carlton Johnson II, 35, embarked on a shooting rampage that would end with the deaths of three people, including himself, and leave several others wounded. The horrific events began to unfold in the lobby of their apartment building in downtown Minneapolis. The catalyst for the violence was a domestic dispute, during which Johnson shot his ex-girlfriend in the leg during a custody exchange in front of their five-year-old daughter. The child was not physically harmed, and the mother survived the shooting.
After the initial confrontation, Johnson's violence escalated as he moved through the apartment building. He shot the property manager and a maintenance worker before proceeding to his floor. It was there, in a seemingly random act of violence, that he fatally shot Muse Abdi Afrah and another resident, 63-year-old Dale Henry Spry. According to the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, neither Afrah nor Spry were targeted by Johnson; he appeared to be shooting at anyone he encountered. This tragic event marked the 15th and 16th confirmed domestic-related homicides in Minnesota for the year 2026. Family and community members were left to mourn the loss of Afrah, a man described as well-known and nice.
The rampage concluded when Johnson was killed in an exchange of gunfire with police. This brought an end to the immediate threat, but not to the questions and grief that followed. It was later revealed that Johnson had a history of threatening and assaultive behavior. He had been in the process of being evicted from the apartment building due to a series of incidents that included threatening other residents with a firearm. Furthermore, hours before the shooting, a building employee had reported to police that Johnson had sent an email threatening to shoot the staff. This history of violence and prior warnings paints a grim picture of the events leading up to the tragic deaths of Muse Abdi Afrah and Dale Henry Spry. With the suspect deceased, the case against the perpetrator concluded with his death, leaving a community to grapple with the aftermath of a violent outburst that took innocent lives.
