Neighbors remember chaos during Minneapolis mass shooting

MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) – As the community prepares to bid a solemn farewell to Minneapolis police officer Jamal Mitchell next week, those who witnessed and survived the tragic events are picking up the pieces and trying to return to some sense of normalcy – including many of them living in the Blaisdell Avenue building where the initial double shooting took place and that's where a frantic search for a possible second shooter unfolded.

“This lady comes out screaming, 'Two people were shot upstairs,'” Ravelle Dixon told FOX 9. “And I said, 'What?' Two people were shot upstairs.”

Dixon had just returned home last Thursday when fear and panic exploded around him. He was immediately evacuated and rushed outside when he heard a deafening barrage of gunfire nearby.

“It scared me a little bit, scared everyone, you know? And I said, 'Oh, my God, I hope no one's hurt,'” Dixon said.

Dixon was stunned when he realized the initial double shooting that set off the tragic sequence of events that unfolded upstairs, in the unit directly above his own, in Apartment No. 18.

“The bullet came from above to here,” he said, pointing to what appeared to be a new bullet hole in the ceiling of his entryway. “I said, 'Oh, man, I'm glad I'm not here.'”

In addition to the bullet hole, Dixon discovered that his front door and bedroom doors had been kicked in or broken down by law enforcement during a frantic operation to clear out the building of any other potential suspects.

Newly released emergency dispatch records detail the chaos at Dixon's apartment building at 2221 Blaisdell Avenue – from a call reporting two gunshots inside apartment #18, to an update informing just after 5:34 p.m., “someone died.”

A few minutes later, we note, the corridor was arranged so that emergency services could evacuate the victims from the rear of the building.

And then around 7:55 p.m., more than two hours later, a Saint Paul police SWAT team announced they were forcing entry into Dixon's apartment with a follow-up moments later, “all clear.” .

Dixon is still shaken by this close call and is saddened to learn that Agent Mitchell was ambushed and killed.

“I hate to see that. I hate to see someone's innocent life taken away for no reason,” Dixon said. “He didn't deserve this. He didn't deserve it at all.”

According to public records released by the city of Minneapolis, crews were called to close 16 doors, including two metal ones, inside the 2221 Blaisdell Avenue apartment complex.

Dixon told FOX 9 he didn't know the tenants in Apartment No. 18 above him, only that he believed they had moved in in just the last few months.