She was shot six times at work in downtown Minneapolis. Her husband is now opening up about her miraculous survival and how warning signs that could have stopped the violence were ignored for months.
Bob Peterson joined Liz Collin on her podcast. It was on Sept. 2 when his wife, Jan Peterson, was shot at her job in downtown Minneapolis at Loring Towers, where she worked as a property manager.
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Investigators say the mass shooting started during a child custody exchange. The suspect, Carlton Johnson II, shot the woman who appears to be the mother of his child first. He then entered the lobby of Loring Towers where he lived and shot two staff members, including Jan Peterson.
Johnson then took an elevator up to the ninth floor and killed two of his neighbors in a hallway. In all, he shot and killed two people and shot five others, including two Minneapolis police officers. Johnson was ultimately killed by police.
Miraculously, Jan survived after being shot six times and she just went home from the hospital this week.
“Today is the best she’s been since this happened. Obviously, it was horrible in the hospital and the long recovery and all the surgeries … she’s doing amazing considering,” her husband said.
Jan is able to talk now and she’s walking with a cane.
“It’s a long haul … it’s just unbelievable that she can live. She isn’t paralyzed. She might lose movement in her left hand, but that’s still a ways to go. It’s all in the cast,” Peterson said.
“He walked up to her before walking away. I imagine to make sure she was dead and he put the barrel basically right up to her stomach and then shot her and then went upstairs and shot a couple other people,” he added.
Peterson said his wife knew the shooter well, as she’d been trying to evict him for months.
“She had all the stuff written up on him … He just seemed like it was getting worse and worse — threatening other residents and supposedly showing his gun, all that stuff,” Peterson explained.
“And all I know is that Hennepin County was notified about what he was doing and saying, but I guess they didn’t seem to do anything. It just doesn’t make any sense,” he continued.
Peterson called out the messaging coming from elected officials on public safety in Minneapolis: “You know, like how they say, Minneapolis is so safe. You should have seen the night we went down to the hospital. It was crazy. There’s no way I wanted to be down there. You’re in fear for your life being down in that place.”
He also told Collin about some of his own safety concerns. “I warned my wife about it. I just told her she has to deal with all these residents and security and sometimes security guards don’t show up and she has to go down there in the middle of the night, water leaks this or that. I just said, I just thought something’s going to happen,” Peterson said.
“I mean, she loved her job, but I just feared that this was going to happen someday. Thank God she lived through it,” he said.
As for elected officials like Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty who continue to say that crime is down and Minneapolis is safe, Peterson offered a different perspective.
“It’s just pure lies all the time. Like I said after it happened, I’ll meet Mayor Frey down there and we’ll go walk around about one in the morning and make sure we don’t have any guards or guns with us and take a stroll around … and see how much they think it’s safe, because it’s just not true. And I’ve heard it from many people,” Peterson commented.
Moriarty recently criticized what she called “fear mongering” about crime and public safety. However, taxpayers have spent more than $500,000 on security for her, which has been paid to a private security company.
While some of the bigger issues with public safety have become impossible for Peterson and his family to ignore, the timing of the situation has been even more personal and difficult as Peterson’s mother passed away just days before Jan was shot.
Peterson said his mother “was fighting cancer. We’ve been going through that battle all summer … but then she got really bad. We did have her funeral on Thursday and then unfortunately Jan got shot Wednesday.”
He explained how the tragic events unfolded for him — and how he sensed that Jan was involved.
“I was watching the news and I saw the shooting. I called her cellphone right immediately and she didn’t answer. I knew right then that I had that feeling that it was her,” Peterson said.
“I just immediately started praying to my mom to please save her and I believe she did a hundred percent because there’s no other explanation,” he added. “I mean, you just don’t get shot like that and not be crippled dead, whatever. It’s just, I’ve never heard a story like that. It’s just, it’s a miracle. And I truly believe it was because of my mother that saved her life.”
A GoFundMe account has been established to help support Jan and her family as she faces what is expected to be a long recovery.
Liz Collin
Liz Collin is a multi-Emmy-Award-winning investigative reporter, news anchor, and producer who cares about Minnesota. She is the producer of The Fall of Minneapolis and Minnesota v We the People documentary films, and author of the Amazon best-selling book, They’re Lying: The Media, the Left, and The Death of George Floyd. Her work has prompted important state laws. Yet perhaps most of all, Liz has been giving a voice to the truth—and helping others tell their stories—for more than 20 years.
Dr. JC Chaix
Dr. JC Chaix is an editor, educator, and an expert in media studies. He wrote and directed the Alpha News documentary "The Fall of Minneapolis" and "Minnesota v We the People."
