Confusion usually follows chaos. When the sirens finally stopped screaming in the Whittier neighborhood of Minneapolis on May 30, 2024, the neighborhood was left with a jagged hole where safety used to be. People wanted answers immediately. One of the biggest questions that tore through social media and local news circles was simple and grim: did the Minneapolis shooter kill himself?
He didn't.
That’s the short answer, but the reality is much more violent and complicated than a single sentence can capture. Mustafa Ahmed Mohamed, the 35-year-old man identified as the gunman, died during a chaotic exchange of gunfire with Minneapolis police officers. He didn't take his own life in the traditional sense of a self-inflicted wound after the fact. He was shot by police who were responding to what they thought was a standard "shots fired" call.
What actually happened on Blaisdell Avenue?
The timeline of that afternoon is a nightmare. It started around 5:15 p.m. Officers responded to a report of a double shooting inside an apartment building. While they were heading to the scene, Officer Jamal Mitchell—a man who had been on the force for only about a year and was already being hailed as a hero for previous actions—spotted two men injured in the street.
Mitchell did what any "good" cop would do. He stopped. He thought he was helping victims.
One of those men was Mohamed. As Mitchell approached to provide medical aid, Mohamed pulled a gun and shot the officer at close range. It was an ambush. Pure and simple. There was no provocation, no warning, and no chance for Mitchell to defend himself in those initial seconds.
The final moments of Mustafa Ahmed Mohamed
When people ask if the shooter killed himself, they might be thinking of the standoff situations that usually end in a tactical team finding a body in a back room. This wasn't that. After shooting Mitchell, Mohamed continued to fire as other officers arrived.
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Two other officers, along with a firefighter and a bystander, were caught in the crossfire. According to the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA), which handles these investigations to keep things transparent, Officer Byron Wilson and Officer Anthony Rice arrived and engaged Mohamed.
It was a gunfight in the middle of a residential street.
The BCA confirmed that Mohamed died from multiple gunshot wounds sustained during that exchange with police. While you could argue that his actions were "suicide by cop"—a term people use when someone intentionally forces the police to use lethal force—legally and medically, it was a homicide. The police killed him to stop the threat.
Why the "suicide" rumors started
Honestly, rumors fly because the initial reports from active shooter scenes are almost always a mess. People hear "the shooter is dead" and their brains fill in the blanks. In many high-profile mass shootings in the U.S., the perpetrator does end their own life before the police can breach the door.
But Minneapolis was different. This was an active, rolling engagement.
- Social Media Speed: Within twenty minutes of the first shot, Twitter (X) was flooded with "reports" that the shooter had turned the gun on himself.
- Police Radio Confusion: Sometimes, listeners on police scanners hear "suspect down" and assume it was self-inflicted.
- The Apartment Connection: Because there were deceased victims found inside the nearby apartment (including 32-year-old Mohamed Aden), people conflated the different crime scenes.
The medical examiner’s report eventually cleared everything up. Mohamed died from "multiple gunshot wounds" and the manner of death was listed as homicide. In forensic terms, homicide just means "death at the hands of another." It doesn't inherently mean a crime was committed by the officers; it just describes the physical reality of how the life ended.
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The heavy cost of that day
We can't talk about whether the shooter died by his own hand without talking about who he took with him. Officer Jamal Mitchell died at the hospital. He was 36. He had a fiancé and children. He had moved from the East Coast to Minneapolis because he wanted to make a difference in a city that had been through the wringer since 2020.
Then there was the civilian victim, Mohamed Aden, found dead inside the apartment. Another person in the apartment was critically injured. A bystander who was just sitting in his car got shot. A firefighter got hit.
It was a massacre that lasted only a few minutes but broke a hundred lives.
The background of Mustafa Ahmed Mohamed
The shooter wasn't a ghost. He had a history. He had a previous felony conviction for first-degree burglary back in 2006, which meant he wasn't even supposed to have a gun. There was also an active warrant for his arrest involving a different incident where he was allegedly carrying a firearm without a permit.
This brings up the frustrating "what ifs." If the system had caught up to him on that warrant earlier, would Jamal Mitchell still be alive? It’s a question that haunts the MPD.
Understanding the legal aftermath
When an officer-involved shooting happens in Minnesota, the BCA takes over. They don't let the local department investigate themselves because, well, that's a massive conflict of interest.
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The investigation into the death of the Minneapolis shooter was focused on whether the use of force by Officers Wilson and Rice was "objectively reasonable" under the law. Given that Mohamed had already executed one officer and was actively firing at others, the legal threshold for lethal force was clearly met.
- Scene Processing: Investigators recovered a handgun with an extended magazine near Mohamed's body.
- Body Camera Footage: The BCA reviewed footage that showed the moment Mitchell was ambushed and the subsequent shootout.
- Ballistics: They matched the casings to ensure they knew exactly which bullets came from where.
It was a "clean" investigation in a very dirty situation. There was no evidence—zero—that Mohamed fired a shot into his own head or chest. Every wound that contributed to his death came from police service weapons.
The impact on Minneapolis
Minneapolis is a city that stays on edge. Ever since 2020, the relationship between the community and the police has been... let's call it fragile. But this event was different. The city rallied around Mitchell.
He was the first Minneapolis officer killed in the line of duty in over twenty years.
The fact that the shooter didn't kill himself, but was stopped by other officers, changed the narrative slightly. It highlighted the immediate danger officers face when they respond to "help" calls. Mitchell wasn't there to bust a door down; he was there to put a bandage on a man he thought was bleeding out.
Actionable steps for following high-profile cases
When a tragedy like this happens, the urge to find out did the Minneapolis shooter kill himself or what his "manifesto" was can lead you down a rabbit hole of misinformation. Here is how to navigate these stories without getting lost in the noise:
- Wait for the ME: The Medical Examiner is the only person who can officially say how a person died. Ignore "witness accounts" of the death until the autopsy report is summarized by the BCA or local news.
- Check the BCA Website: In Minnesota, the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension posts formal press releases on officer-involved shootings. They are dry, boring, and factual—which is exactly what you want.
- Distinguish between "Homicide" and "Murder": Remember that if a report says the shooter’s death was a "homicide," it likely means the police shot him. If it was "suicide," the report will explicitly state "self-inflicted wound."
- Verify the Source: Local outlets like the Star Tribune or MPR News usually have reporters on the ground who are talking to neighbors and confirming details that national outlets might gloss over or get wrong in the rush to be first.
The death of Mustafa Ahmed Mohamed didn't bring much closure to the families involved. Whether he died by his own hand or a police bullet doesn't change the fact that a hero officer and an innocent civilian are gone. But for the sake of the record, the police ended the threat that day on Blaisdell Avenue. Mohamed did not kill himself. He was stopped by the very force he sought to destroy.