What you need to know about the fatal shooting of a Minneapolis police officer that police call an 'ambush'

MINNEAPOLIS– Minnesota law enforcement on Saturday identified the man they say fatally shot a Minneapolis police officer in what police are calling an ambush.

Minnesota Department of Public Safety spokesperson Bonney Bowman named Mustafa Mohamed, 35, as the suspected shooter. He was then shot and killed by another responding officer.

Minneapolis Officer Jamal Mitchell was responding to a call about a double shooting Thursday when he stopped to help Mohamed, who he believed to be injured, police said.

Mohamed then shot Mitchell several times, killing him, police said. A local coroner identified Osman Said Jimale, 32, as the third man who died in the shooting. Four others were injured.

Aside from the identities of the men killed, few details have been revealed since the shooting. Many questions remain, but here are a few things to know.

Officers responded to a call about a double shooting at an apartment complex in the Whittier neighborhood of south Minneapolis.

While Mitchell was about two blocks from the complex, he noticed injured people. He got out of his car to help Mohamed, who then shot the officer, according to police.

“I saw the video and he was ambushed,” Drew Evans, superintendent of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, said at a news conference Thursday. “I use that term for a reason.”

Another officer arrived and exchanged gunfire with Mohamed, who died despite officers' rescue efforts, Minneapolis Deputy Police Chief Katie Blackwell said.

This officer had non-life-threatening injuries. Another person, believed to be an innocent bystander, was shot and taken to a hospital in critical condition, Evans said.

When other officers went to the apartment, they found two people inside who had been shot. One was dead and the other was hospitalized in critical condition, Evans said.

So far, police have provided little information about the suspected shooter, Mohamed, and the other man who died, Jimale.

Mitchell was a father who was engaged. He had only been with the ministry for about 18 months.

The Minneapolis Police Department posted on Facebook last year that Mitchell and another officer saved an elderly couple from a house fire.

On Feb. 7, 2023, Mitchell's third day on the job, he and Officer Zachery Randall responded to a call and found a house on fire, the post states. Police ran inside and got the couple out before the house was completely engulfed in flames and destroyed.

“I told him, ‘You’re one of the good ones, Jamal,’” close friend Allison Seed told the Minnesota Star Tribune. “They really needed him.”

It is still unclear exactly what led to the shooting and the shooter's motivations.

Evans said he believed the shooting was limited to the two locations and that the people in the apartment “knew each other to some extent.”

The connection between the two filming scenes was not immediately clear. Police said there was no danger to the public.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said authorities were still investigating and asked people to “be patient with us because we don't know all the facts yet.” We want to make sure that the investigation is completed and that we conduct it in the right way.