MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – A hostage situation ended with one person dead in the Cedar-Riverside area of Minneapolis late Friday evening.

At approximately 10:30 p.m., gunshots rang out in an apartment at Riverside Plaza, prompting police to evacuate at least 50 residents after the alleged gunman took a woman hostage.

Minneapolis Police Inspector Bryan Schafer says the gunman was not a resident of the building.

“The suspect did not live at this location, so we’re just not sure how this thing unfolded,” Schafer said.

According to witnesses, the gunman first fired at another man who was left with non-life threatening injuries. The female victim was then forced into another apartment unit and held at gunpoint.

The ensuing standoff brought out the Minneapolis Police SWAT team. Two-and-a-half hours later hostage negotiators were successful in getting the gunman to let the woman leave with minor injuries.

But when the gunman refused to surrender his weapon and come out, a SWAT robot was remotely controlled to breach the apartment door.

Once inside, police discovered that the man had taken his own life.

“It searched the rooms and found the suspect was deceased in one of the bedrooms,” he said.

Instead of sleeping, some 50 Riverside Plaza residents were funneled to the nearby Brian Coyle Center. By 5:00 a.m. Saturday the evacuees were given the all clear and allowed to return to their apartments.

Property manager Eduardo Christ says the evacuation and re-entry went smoothly.

“People are amazing and they dealt with the situation and they’re all back to their apartments. We talked to them this morning, for most of them, and everybody’s back to normal,” Christ said.

The Hennepin County Medical Examiner has not yet released the man’s name and official cause of death.