A ‘life or death situation’: Charging docs reveal additional details of active shooter incident in Minneapolis

A man involved in an active shooter incident on the 4000 block of Minnehaha Avenue has been charged.

40-year-old Nathan Mellstrom Matz faces three counts of second-degree assault in connection with shots being fired at an apartment building on Saturday.

As he is still in the hospital, he was charged via warrant.

The incident reportedly began around 10:30 p.m. on Friday. Police responded to a call of a man walking around Minnehaha Avenue with a shotgun but couldn’t find him.

As previously reported, Minneapolis police again responded to the area around 4:30 a.m. Saturday, but this time, there were several calls of an active shooter.

When they got to the scene, officers heard multiple gunshots. They continued hearing gunshots as they started to evacuate residents, according to a criminal complaint.

Officers found Matz in a stairwell on the second floor holding an AK-47. Court documents state that police tried to get him to drop the rifle for approximately one minute and 20 seconds, but he refused.

Sergeant Ben Bauer shot Matz in the jaw and is on standard “critical incident leave.”

The complaint adds that Matz is still hospitalized but expected to survive.

Agents from the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension interviewed residents of the building, as well as a nearby house.

A man who lives on the third floor of the building said he was in his apartment when he started to hear loud noises. Court documents state that the man stepped outside his apartment, saw Matz crouched down and holding a long gun, and then went back into his apartment. He then heard a gunshot in the hallway.

The man said he armed himself with a butcher knife and iron skillet as he called 911. Authorities later found a bullet hole close to where the man was standing when he stepped outside his apartment.

Another man who lives on the third floor awoke to the sound of gunfire and realized it was coming through the floor. There was a hole in the floor. The man got dressed and heard gunfire in other parts of the apartment.

The man told BCA agents that it felt like a “life or death situation.”

The woman who owns the house across the street from the apartment building said she heard about five shots. Her house was hit by bullets and she believed it was the target of the shooting.

RELATED: Neighbors recall hearing active shooter on Minnehaha Avenue, suspect in hospital

Court documents state that prosecutors may seek an aggravated sentence based on several factors, including the fact that the shots were fired in a highly populated residential area.