A man was shot and killed outside his south Minneapolis workplace Thursday morning after interrupting an attempted theft from a car, police said.

Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O'Hara said the shooting happened around 6:30 a.m. on the 2600 block of 32nd Avenue South. He said the victim — identified by the Hennepin County Medical Examiner's Office as 46-year-old Roger William Martin — confronted a would-be thief in the parking lot and after a brief struggle, the suspect shot the victim.

O'Hara called it "an incredibly petty and minor offense for someone to lose their life over."

About 20 minutes after the shooting, a coworker found Martin and called 911. Officers arrived shortly after 7 a.m. and tried to save his life, but he died at the scene, O'Hara said.

Police are asking anyone with information about the shooting or other car thefts in the area to contact law enforcement. Investigators are reviewing surveillance footage and interviewing witnesses, but have not yet identified the suspect.

"It's obviously a bit of a surprise. It's a very tragic instance," Pierre Van Wyk, who works next door, said. "I didn't know anything was going on until the police arrived."

Van Wyk said police asked him about any other thefts in the area.

"I did mention the trailer theft, that we had some fittings were stolen out of the back of a trailer," he said.

Paul McKinney is often out walking his dog and has lived in the nearby neighborhood for decades.

"That end of the block is sort of this light industrial area," McKinney said. "It's still pretty active, you know, there's a lot of people coming and going from down there."