Police were still searching for a shooting victim Monday, more than a full day after witnesses reported seeing a woman with a gun shot wound during a disturbance in Mankato.

Hospital staff are required to contact police when they treat someone for a gun injury. Mankato police have notified area hospitals that they’re looking for a shooting victim, but hadn’t located anyone Monday afternoon, said Matt DuRose, Mankato Police Department detective commander.

“It’s baffling,” he said. “To be shot with a high caliber weapon and not be in a hospital is baffling to me.”

The man investigators believe fired the gun, 23-year-old Mohamed Ahmed Ali, has been arrested and is in the Blue Earth County Jail pending charges. A weapon had not been found as of Monday afternoon, DuRose said, but police executed a search warrant at Ali’s residence at 1302 Eastport Drive Sunday.

Some clothing, a gun case, a shipping container for a Hi-Point .45 caliber handgun and a permit to carry a handgun that had been issued to Ali were taken by police during the search.

Police were called to the Eastport apartment complex at 12:28 a.m. Sunday after several people called 911 to report screaming and gunshots in the parking lot. Some of the callers reported a woman had been shot in the back.

About 40 people were still in the parking lot when the first officers arrived. The officers attempted to locate the shooting victim, but witnesses said both the gunman and the victim had left the area.

There were people DuRose described as “good witnesses” who saw a woman bleeding. The application for the search warrant said an officer spoke to one witness who saw a woman bleeding from her lower back inside a residence at 1305 Eastport Drive.

Ali apparently came out of his apartment to complain about a large party in the area, DuRose said. Witnesses reported that, after a verbal confrontation, he went into his residence and came back out with a handgun.

One man told police he saw a man firing a gun.

“The witness stated that he was part of a fight and that he observed a black, Somali male pull a black handgun from his rear waistband and fire three rounds in his direction,” the search warrant application said. “The witness stated that there were several people in the area and that he later heard that an unknown female had been shot.”

Abdullahi Ahmed Ali, a 17-year-old male with the same address as Mohamed Ali, was arrested Thursday after an assault involving a knife.

Quyumba Wilson, a student at Minnesota State University, reported he was getting off a bus near the Crawford Complex on campus when Abdullahi Ali waived what appeared to be a switchblade knife at the van. Abdullahi Ali left the scene, but was later arrested on Stoltzman Road. He was a passenger in a car that had been stopped for speeding and matched the description, including clothing, provided by witnesses.

DuRose said there is no evidence the two incidents are related. He also said large disturbances reported at Eastport and neighboring apartment complexes earlier this year were not related to the shooting.

Anyone with information about the shooting or the female victim is being asked to call DuRose at 387-8770.