Outside the Shoreline Plaza building —now a crime scene —we met with Sarah Parsons and her son, Anthony Milton.

They received several phone calls Wednesday night from the medical examiner’s office and the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension that a family member had been shot and killed inside the building.  

READ MORE: Deadly downtown Minneapolis shooting started as a custody exchange — here’s what else we know

“It’s like gun violence is so bad,” Milton said. “Now, there’s people dead. Families are mourning.”

Parsons confirmed her father, Dale Henry Spry, 63, was one of two men gunned down by the suspect in the case, Carlton Neal Johnson II.

“I was speechless for a minute,” she said. “I didn’t know how to register it. He hasn’t been a part of my life for so long.”

Parsons says Spry, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran, had been estranged from the family for at least three decades.

She says he struggled with PTSD and alcohol abuse.

Still, Parsons says, Spry was her dad and his violent death is still difficult to accept.

“It’s scary. It’s honestly scary,” she said. “I mean, just going up into the building was like, I was still shaking about it. I can’t believe it just happened.”

Police haven’t said why Johnson opened fire on Spry and another Shoreline Plaza tenant.

Parsons says she and Milton were allowed inside her father’s apartment for a short time.

“What hit for my son was the dinner still on the stove and stuff like that,” she recalled.

This latest shooting is not the first time police had to respond to Shoreline Plaza, among more than 400 calls to police over the last two years before Wednesday.

READ MORE: Police called to Shoreline Plaza 438 times in 2 years before mass shooting

There was a deadly exchange of gunfire in the same building in September 2025, which has the mother and son concerned.

“They probably should have buffed up security before that happened,” Milton said. “You know, after the first one, I don’t know what happened.”

He says he wonders what might have been if he had been able to meet his grandfather.

“If I had the chance to meet him, I think I definitely would,” Milton declares. “Now it’s gone. You know, the guy took his life. I won’t ever have the opportunity to meet the guy.”

Parsons says she wanted to say one thing to the other families feeling the loss of a loved one because of the shooting.   

“I’m very sorry for your loss,” she said quietly. “It’s hard. It’s very hard.”

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