Suspect who shot Minneapolis officer Mitchell kept shooting as police came to help

It began with a call about people who had been shot in south Minneapolis. Officer Jamal Mitchell was responding to the emergency on May 30, 2024, when he encountered something that appeared to be completely different from what he expected. Two people were lying near the roadway, and Mitchell believed he was looking at victims who needed immediate help. He stopped his squad car and moved toward them without hesitation. WHAT HE DIDN'T KNOW WAS THAT THE MAN HE WAS APPROACHING WAS THE SHOOTER.

Body-camera footage later released by Minneapolis officials showed Mitchell getting out of his vehicle and preparing to help. He approached the person on the ground as a police officer responding to a shooting call would normally do. There was no obvious indication that the person in front of him was about to become the source of another attack.

Mitchell moved closer.

He was trying to help.

Then the gun came out.

The suspect suddenly opened fire on the officer, striking Mitchell. The attack happened with almost no warning, transforming a rescue attempt into a deadly ambush. According to police officials, the suspect continued shooting even after Mitchell had fallen.

THE OFFICER WHO HAD ARRIVED TO SAVE SOMEONE ELSE WAS NOW THE VICTIM.

The sound of gunfire immediately changed the response. Other officers were nearby and began moving toward the scene. But the danger had not stopped. The suspect was still armed and continued firing as officers came to help Mitchell.

This was no longer simply a response to a shooting.

It had become another shooting involving a police officer.

The arriving officers had to make an impossible calculation in a matter of seconds. Their colleague was down. An armed suspect was still nearby. Every step toward Mitchell also meant moving closer to the person who had just opened fire.

But they could not simply stay back.

Mitchell needed help.

THE OFFICERS MOVED TOWARD THE GUNFIRE.

The body-camera footage captures the confusion and urgency of those moments. Officers were attempting to locate the shooter while also trying to reach their wounded colleague. The suspect continued firing, forcing officers to respond to the immediate threat before they could safely provide aid.

That is what makes the footage so difficult to watch.

Mitchell had approached believing he was helping an injured person.

Now other officers were approaching knowing that the same person had attacked him.

The situation had completely reversed.

The suspect had used the appearance of being a victim to create an opportunity.

And Mitchell had responded exactly as officers are trained to respond when they believe someone needs immediate assistance.

EVERYTHING CHANGED IN SECONDS.

The arriving officers returned fire. The confrontation became a gun battle as police attempted to stop the suspect and protect the officers who were already exposed.

The suspect was no longer simply lying on the ground.

He was an active threat.

And the officers had to stop him.

According to authorities, officers eventually shot the suspect, Mustafa Ahmed Mohamed, who died at the scene. Officials said Mohamed was the person who had shot Mitchell.

Only after the threat was stopped could officers fully focus on the wounded officer.

The emergency scene had now expanded.

There was an officer down.

The suspect was down.

Other people at the scene had also been wounded.

And officers had to secure the area while emergency personnel worked to help those who had survived.

THE ORIGINAL CALL HAD BECOME A MASS CASUALTY SCENE.

What makes Officer Mitchell's story especially striking is why he stopped in the first place.

He did not stop because he knew who was responsible.

He stopped because he believed someone needed help.

Minneapolis officials later said Mitchell responded without hesitation and stopped roughly two blocks from the reported shooting location when he saw people lying in the road. He approached because he believed they were victims.

That decision placed him directly in front of the gunman.

There was no opportunity to prepare.

No time to establish a perimeter.

No chance to wait for additional officers.

Mitchell saw someone who appeared to be injured and moved toward him.

THE FIRST DECISION WAS TO HELP.

The suspect's decision turned that act of assistance into an ambush.

And once the first shots were fired, everything depended on the officers who arrived next.

They had to locate the threat.

They had to protect themselves.

They had to protect civilians.

And they had to reach their colleague.

All of those priorities collided in the same few seconds.

The footage shows why police shootings are so difficult to understand from a short clip. The viewer already knows what is about to happen. The officer does not.

The viewer knows the person on the ground is dangerous.

Mitchell did not.

The viewer knows the gun is coming out.

Mitchell had only fractions of a second to react.

THAT DIFFERENCE IS EVERYTHING.

When Mitchell approached, his attention was on the person he believed needed assistance.

He was not expecting to be attacked.

He was not expecting the person to suddenly produce a firearm.

And he certainly could not have known that other officers would soon have to fight their way toward him.

The body-camera footage preserves those moments.

It shows the approach.

It shows the sudden attack.

It shows the response from other officers.

And it shows the devastating consequences of a decision made in a matter of seconds.

For the officers who arrived after the shooting began, there was no time to understand the entire story.

They did not need to know why the suspect had fired.

They needed to know where he was.

They needed to stop him.

And they needed to reach Mitchell.

EVERY SECOND DELAYED THE RESCUE.

The suspect continued shooting as officers moved toward the scene, according to officials and the released footage.

Eventually, police returned fire and the threat was stopped.

The gunfire ended.

But the consequences were irreversible.

Officer Jamal Mitchell died from the attack.

The suspect also died after being shot by police.

Other civilians were injured in the broader incident, and another officer and a firefighter sustained non-life-threatening injuries.

The scene that began with a call for help had become a tragedy involving multiple victims and a police officer who had simply stopped to help someone he believed was wounded.

That is the part of the story that stays with people.

Mitchell did not know he was walking toward the suspect.

He thought he was walking toward someone who needed him.

THE MAN ON THE GROUND LOOKED LIKE A VICTIM.

That appearance changed everything.

It created a situation in which an officer's instinct to help became the opening for an attack.

But Mitchell's actions also explain why he was remembered so strongly by his colleagues and the community.

He responded.

He stopped.

He approached.

He tried to help.

And he did it without knowing what was waiting for him.

Minneapolis officials later honored Mitchell's memory, describing his response as an example of his character and commitment to helping others.

The investigation afterward had to reconstruct the entire sequence.

What happened at the first shooting location?

Who was actually a victim?

When did Mitchell arrive?

Why did the suspect attack him?

How many shots were fired?

Where were the other officers positioned?

And how did the final exchange unfold?

Body-camera footage became critical evidence because it captured the encounter from the officers' perspective.

THE CAMERA PRESERVED THE MOMENT THAT CHANGED EVERYTHING.

It also revealed something that a written report cannot fully communicate: the uncertainty.

Mitchell did not have the information investigators had afterward.

He did not know the man's identity.

He did not know what the man had done.

He did not know that approaching him would put his life in immediate danger.

He simply saw someone who appeared to need assistance.

That is why the first seconds of the footage are so important.

They show the difference between what Mitchell believed was happening and what was actually happening.

He believed he was approaching a victim.

He was actually approaching the person responsible for the attack.

And when the gun appeared, there was almost no time left to change course.

THE TRAGEDY WAS CREATED BY THAT GAP BETWEEN APPEARANCE AND REALITY.

Once Mitchell was shot, the officers who arrived behind him faced a different problem.

They knew there was a gunman.

They knew their colleague was down.

And they knew the gunman was still firing.

The response had to be immediate.

Officers returned fire.

The suspect was eventually stopped.

And the scene finally became quiet.

But that silence came too late for Mitchell.

The officer who had stopped to help never made it home.

His final act was an attempt to save someone he believed was already injured.

That is the heartbreaking irony at the center of the case.

THE OFFICER ARRIVED AS A HELPER. HE BECAME THE TARGET.

The incident also demonstrates how quickly a police response can change.

A call about two people being shot.

An officer arriving to help.

A suspect opening fire.

Other officers rushing toward the gunfire.

A second exchange of shots.

And finally, a scene filled with investigators, emergency personnel, and grieving colleagues.

All of it happened because one officer saw what looked like a person in need.

For Mitchell, helping people was not something he did only when the circumstances were safe.

He saw a potential victim and acted.

That decision cost him his life.

But it also explains why his colleagues remembered him as someone who did not hesitate when another person needed assistance.

The footage therefore tells two stories at once.

One is the story of a deadly ambush.

The other is the story of an officer whose final moments were shaped by an instinct to help.

The suspect kept shooting as other officers came to the scene.

Those officers returned fire and stopped the threat.

But the most important moment happened before any of that.

It happened when Mitchell saw someone lying on the road and decided to stop.

HE DIDN'T KNOW WHO WAS WAITING FOR HIM.

He only knew someone appeared to need help.

And he went toward them.

That decision is the reason the footage is remembered today—not simply because it shows a police shooting, but because it shows how an ordinary act of assistance can become a deadly confrontation in seconds.

The body camera captured the approach.

It captured the ambush.

It captured the officers responding.

And it preserved the final moments of an officer who had arrived believing he was going to save someone else.

Jamal Mitchell's story ultimately became a story about courage, uncertainty, and the terrible consequences of a split-second decision.

The suspect was stopped.

The scene was secured.

The investigation followed.

But the question that remains is the simplest one:

WHAT IF MITCHELL HAD KEPT DRIVING?

He might have survived.

But then the people lying on the road would still have been there.