The husband of the property manager shot six times during Wednesday’s mass shooting at Loring Towers says his wife remains critically injured but alive after undergoing multiple surgeries — something he believes is nothing short of a miracle.
“How do you get shot six times and you’re still alive?” Bob Peterson told Alpha News in an exclusive interview Friday.
Jan Peterson, 56, the longtime property manager at the taxpayer-subsidized downtown Minneapolis apartment building, was among those shot when authorities say 35-year-old Carlton Neal Johnson II opened fire inside Loring Towers — recently renamed Shoreline Plaza — Wednesday afternoon.
The two people killed in the shooting were identified as apartment building residents Muse Abdi Afrah, 61, and Dale Henry Spry, 63.
Two police officers were injured by gunfire and are expected to make full recoveries.
Johnson also died after exchanging gunfire with police.
But Bob Peterson says what happened to his wife was particularly chilling.
According to Peterson, another Loring Towers employee relayed to him what a coworker who witnessed the shooting said happened to Jan.
The witness reportedly saw Peterson raise her hands as the gunfire began.
Then she fell.
What Bob Peterson says happened next has been difficult for him to comprehend.
“He walked right up to her, put the barrel right by her belly and shot again, and then walked away,” he said.
Bob said his wife was shot approximately six times. He said she suffered multiple wounds to her abdomen, a bullet was found in her pelvic area and a gunshot shattered her arm.
“She’s in bad shape,” he said.
Doctors have kept Peterson sedated as they perform a series of surgeries, according to her husband. Surgeons operated for approximately four hours Thursday and planned to take her back into surgery Friday.
“They just got to get her through this critical spot,” he said, adding that doctors do expect her to survive.
There is a fund set up to help her family: https://t.co/0SXHdmLzhR
— Liz Collin (@lizcollin) September 4, 2026
‘Everybody she meets loves her’
Jan Peterson has worked at Loring Towers for roughly six years, according to her husband, while also managing other properties.
Bob described his wife as a “caring and loving person” who is deeply devoted to her work.
“Everybody she meets loves her,” he said.
The couple has been married for 27 years and has three adult children. Bob said his wife is a “workaholic” who regularly puts in extra hours, including Saturdays. That job also meant dealing with some of the most difficult problems inside the subsidized apartment building.
Bob said his wife regularly encountered residents struggling with drugs and alcohol and dealt with behavioral problems, lease violations and other issues that fall to property management. Her responsibilities sometimes required her to confront residents about their conduct or send notices when rules were violated.
Bob said he had worried about the dangers that came with that responsibility.
“I warned her,” he said, recalling previous conversations with his wife about safety at the property. “I said, ‘One of these days …’ And, you know, exactly what happened happened.”
Suspect had allegedly displayed gun in management office
The shooting came after months of documented concerns involving Johnson, who was in the process of being evicted from Loring Towers, where he was obligated to pay just $105 a month in rent at the taxpayer-subsidized building.
As Crime Watch and Alpha News previously reported, court documents show Johnson’s lease was being terminated over a series of alleged incidents, including assaulting a resident and repeatedly displaying a firearm.
Perhaps most notably, the eviction filing alleged Johnson entered the Loring Towers management office June 11 while openly carrying a firearm and displayed it to multiple members of management.
The same filing alleged Johnson told other residents he had obtained a new gun and “would kill someone.”
A June 16 letter ordered Johnson to leave the apartment by June 29. However, the eviction case remained unresolved months later, with another court hearing scheduled for Sept. 11 — nine days after the shooting.
Bob said Johnson would have known his wife because she was the building’s property manager.
“He’s a resident. All the residents know her there,” he said. “They come to her with all the problems.”
However, Bob said he does not know whether his wife personally handled Johnson’s eviction or whether Johnson specifically sought her out Wednesday.
“I don’t think he walked in the building to go in her office and kill her, but who knows?” he said.
What role, if any, Peterson’s position as property manager played in the shooting remains unknown.
A husband’s worst feeling
Bob said he first learned something was happening at Loring Towers from the news.
He immediately tried calling his wife.
“As soon as I saw it [on television], I picked up the phone to call Jan, and she didn’t answer, and I just got a horrible feeling,” he recalled.
He called one of their daughters and asked whether she had heard from her mother.
Then came the call confirming his fear: Jan had been shot.
The nightmare unfolded during what was already one of the most painful periods of Bob’s life.
His mother had just died. So, after spending the night at the hospital with his critically wounded wife, Bob left to attend his mother’s funeral. Then he went straight back to the hospital.
Amid it all, Bob said he has found himself thinking about faith.
His mother was a devout Catholic, he said, and had passed away shortly before Jan was shot. So, when Bob learned his wife had been shot, he immediately thought of his late mother.
“I prayed, ‘Ma, I know you’re an angel now,’” he recalled. “‘Please, save Jan, please.’”
Jan survived, and for Bob, after learning that his wife had been shot repeatedly — and that the gunman allegedly fired at her again at close range after she had fallen — there is little question that it was divine intervention.
“I believe it, 100%,” Bob said.
A GoFundMe account has been established to help support Peterson and her family as she faces what is expected to be a long recovery.
Jenna Gloeb
Jenna Gloeb is an Edward R. Murrow Award-winning journalist, media producer, public speaker, and screenwriter. Most recently, she worked as a reporter and on-air host for CCX Media. Jenna is a Minnesota native and resides in the Twin Cities with her husband, son, daughter, and two dogs.
