Minneapolis mass shooting: Community remembers tragic events

MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - As investigators unwind the series of events of a mass shooting in Minneapolis that ended with three deaths and at least four more injuries, neighbors are starting to put the pieces of their lives back together.

They say they're just trying to breathe again after a terrible, chaotic night. A lot of them are in mourning for the victims and expressing it with memorials.

READ MORE: Minneapolis mass shooting: What we know so far

In the aftermath of a tragedy, a community leans into its new normal, starting with familiar symbols of loss and remembrance.

"I came down here to really pay my respects to the officer, Jamal Mitchell," said activist Jonathan Mason.

Mason started rebuilding this neighborhood’s psyche with flower bouquets and petals spread across the corner nearest where Officer Mitchell was killed.

"We're seeing that horrible image of the officer laying in the street and you know, ideally we would have, would love for it to be in the street just to show our respects," Mason said.

The trouble started in an apartment building on Blaisdell Avenue South, where some residents and neighbors tell us they’ve complained to landlords about illegal activities for months.

Their worst fears became real Thursday.

Investigators say one person died in the initial shooting in the apartment. Then the violence moved outside and down the block.

Investigators still aren’t giving a lot of specifics, but they’ve seen body camera video and say the gunman shot Mitchell in what authorities are calling an ambush. 

"What I can tell you is that Officer Mitchell was attempting to assist the individual that shot him and that it happened very fast, and he ambushed him," said Drew Evans, superintendent of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA).

A firefighter and a police officer who were injured have gotten out of the hospital, but a bystander and another person in the initial apartment are still getting treatment as of Friday night. A civilian was also killed in the shooting.