Minnesota prosecutor provides most detailed account yet of shooting deaths of 3 first responders

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A Minnesota prosecutor says police investigating a potential sexual abuse case in a Minneapolis suburb found themselves in a gunbattle against a well-armed resident in a darkened home while trying to protect seven children inside. The February shooting left two officers and a paramedic dead. Dakota County Attorney Kathryn Keena made the revelation Tuesday (July 2, 2024) in a report. She concluded that the Burnsville officers who went to the home of Shannon Gooden were justified in using deadly force. Gooden was struck by one officer’s bullet. He died by suicide a few hours later. Seven children ages 5 to 15 were inside.

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Police investigating a potential sexual abuse case in a Minneapolis suburb found themselves in a gunbattle against a well-armed resident in a darkened home while trying to protect seven children inside, a prosecutor said Tuesday (July 2, 2024) in a report on the shootings that left two officers and a paramedic dead.

Dakota County Attorney Kathryn Keena made the revelation in a memo, based on an investigation by the state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, in which she concluded that the Burnsville officers who went to the home of Shannon Gooden on Feb. 18 were justified in using deadly force after he opened fire. While Gooden was struck in the leg by one officer’s bullet, he died by suicide a few hours later. Seven children ages 5 to 15 were inside.

Keena’s memo provided the most detailed explanation authorities have released so far about the confrontation. She wrote that Gooden’s girlfriend, Ashley Dyrdahl, called 911 around 1:50 a.m. and screamed, “Help me!” before Gooden disconnected the call. The county attorney also detailed the hours of negotiations that ended in the gunfire that mortally wounded Burnsville Police Officers Paul Elmstrand and Matthew Ruge and firefighter-paramedic Adam Finseth, and left Sgt. Adam Medlicott injured. Medlicott survived to speak at the memorial service for his three fallen comrades.

The county prosecutor concluded that actions by Medlicott and two other officers was warranted to protect their own lives, the lives of their fellow other officers and members of the public.

“Accordingly, all three were legally justified in using deadly force in this extremely harrowing incident,” Keena wrote.

Ruge took the lead in the negotiations around 2 a.m., the prosecutor wrote. Officers spotted that there were children upstairs with Gooden, so they decided to negotiate rather than rush up to arrest him. Gooden denied that he was armed but repeatedly told them that children were nearby and not to shoot because of the risk to them. Gooden expressed concern that he would be imprisoned and prevented from seeing them. He did not comply with repeated orders to come downstairs and surrender.

Gooden opened fire with multiple guns from the upstairs hallway shortly before 5:30 am., based on body camera video, Keena wrote. Debris from the building filled the air.

Medlicott was struck in the arm. He looked back and saw Elmstrand had been wounded in the head. Medlicott provided cover fire to protect other officers as they evacuated Elmstrand to an armored vehicle in the driveway. Ruge was struck in his armored vest.

Another officer could see Gooden’s legs at the top of the stairs and could hear him reloading. The officer fired several shots, one of which struck Gooden in the thigh. The officer heard him grunting in pain.

As the paramedic was attending to Elmstrand at the armored vehicle, Gooden opened fire again from an upstairs window at 5:31 a.m., striking both Ruge and Finseth, who by that time were outside by the armored vehicle. Gunfire from both sides continued for about 13 minutes as an ambulance took the four injured to a hospital, As Gooden leaned out a window firing at officers who were taking cover behind the armored vehicle, a police sniper fired one round at Gooden, who retreated inside and stopped shooting. At least 41 shots struck the vehicle.

Around 6:50 a.m. officers heard a single gunshot from inside. One of the children inside then called 911 to report that Gooden had killed himself. The children were told to get dressed, and they safely exited at 7 a.m.

Dyrdahl told one of the officers dispatched to the home, which she shared with Gooden and the children, about possible sexual abuse. She also told them that Gooden was heavily armed and had previously threatened to “take everybody out with him.”

Gooden was a convicted felon who wasn’t allowed to have firearms. Dyrdahl was later charged in federal court with buying the high-powered firearms that Gooden used in the shootings despite knowing that he couldn’t possess them.

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Investigators have revealed that the man who killed two Minnesota police officers and a firefighter-paramedic opened fire on officers without warning while they were inside his house. And they were shot after he claimed he was unarmed, and after they had been negotiating with him for around 3 1/2 hours early Sunday (Feb. 18, 2024). Officers inside the home in the Minneapolis suburb of Burnsville returned fire and wounded the man before making it outside. Authorities also say the man shot more than 100 rounds. The firefighter was shot while aiding the wounded officers. The statement from the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension on Thursday was its first detailed update on the case since Sunday.

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — The man who killed two Minnesota police officers and a firefighter-paramedic opened fire on officers without warning while they were inside his house, after they had been negotiating with him for around 3 1/2 hours, investigators revealed Thursday (Feb. 22, 2024).

Officers inside the home in the Minneapolis suburb of Burnsville returned fire and wounded the man before making it outside. The firefighter was shot while aiding the wounded officers, the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension said in a statement. In all, the man fired more than 100 rounds at police and first responders, the agency said.

Police were dispatched to the home for what investigators have described as a domestic incident around 1:50 a.m. Sunday. The arriving officers spoke with Shannon Gooden, 38, who refused to leave the home but said he was unarmed and that he had children inside, the BCA said in its first detailed update on the case since Sunday.

“The officers entered the home and negotiated with Gooden for about three and a half hours in an effort to get him to surrender peacefully,” the BCA statement said. “At about 5:26 a.m., Gooden opened fire on the officers inside the home without warning.”

Officers Paul Elmstrand and Matthew Ruge, both 27, and Sgt. Adam Medlicott, 38, are believed to have been first shot inside the home, the BCA said. Medlicott and another officer, who was not injured, returned fire from inside the home, wounding Gooden in the leg, the statement said.

“Both Ruge and Medlicott were shot a second time as officers were moving from the home to an armored vehicle in the driveway,” the statement said. Adam Finseth, 40, a firefighter and paramedic who was assigned to the city’s SWAT team, was shot while trying to aid the officers.

Elmstrand, Ruge and Finseth were pronounced dead at a hospital. Medlicott survived and is recovering at home.

“Gooden continued to fire shots out of the home at officers and the armored vehicle that had personnel inside,” the BCA said.

At one point, while Gooden was shooting out of an upstairs window, another officer returned fire with his sniper rifle. The standoff ended when Gooden killed himself.

“The SWAT team found his body when they cleared the house at 10:15 a.m.,” the statement said.

Crime scene personnel recovered “several firearms and a large amount of ammunition” at the scene, as well as “numerous” cartridge casings, it said.

According to a transcript of the initial 911 call, obtained by local media outlets, the caller asked for police to come “right now.” The person said “my husband is” but the next words were redacted. Then the caller said, “Help me,” before cursing and screaming from someone followed. The call then ended abruptly. The dispatcher tried to call back four times without success.

A search warrant application released Wednesday, which was filed by a BCA agent, said the 911 call was “regarding an alleged sexual assault allegation,” without elaborating. The Thursday update provided no details about the call.

The search warrant application said police using a drone found Gooden dead in the bedroom. The medical examiner confirmed he died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.

The BCA filed for the warrant to search the phone of Gooden’s ex-girlfriend, Noemi Torres, the mother of three of the seven children who were inside home but were unharmed by the gunfire. The agent wanted access to text messages between Torres and Gooden’s current girlfriend that they exchanged during and after the incident.

The agent, who took Torres’ phone into evidence, also wanted to see messages between Gooden and Torres from last week, which Torres told the agent was the last time they communicated, as well as any other communications, photos or other information on the phone that could be useful to the investigation.

Court records show Gooden wasn’t legally allowed to have guns because of his criminal record and had been entangled in a yearslong dispute over the custody and financial support of his three oldest children. The children in the house were ages 2 to 15 years. Authorities have not said how he obtained the weapons.

Thor Eells, executive director of the National Tactical Officers Association, said that even with the new details, it’s too early to evaluate the police response, given the still-limited information that has been made public.

“There’s still not a lot of information there that would be needed, really, to sort of provide any kind of meaningful feedback as to the actual tactics and the things that were done there,” Eells said.

It’s still not clear, he said, whether the officers inside the house were among the first to arrive or if they were sent later to negotiate. And it’s still not clear when the SWAT team was called in, and why or when the armored vehicle arrived. He said it is also unclear how the presence of children inside affected decisions made at the scene.

“Lots of questions, and really not enough information to provide any objective answers at this point,” said Eells, a retired Colorado Springs, Colorado, police commander who formerly led that department’s SWAT team.

Once the investigation is complete, the BCA said, it will forward its findings without a charging decision to the Dakota County prosecutor’s office without any charging recommendations.

A public memorial service for Elmstrand, Ruge and Finseth will be held at 11 a.m. Feb. 28 at Grace Church in suburban Eden Prairie.

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — It started out as a 911 call about a domestic incident in a Minneapolis suburb. It ended with two police officers, a firefighter and the suspect dead and a third officer wounded. A medical examiner says Officers Paul Elmstrand and Matthew Ruge, and Firefighter Adam Finseth died of gunshot wounds at a Minneapolis hospital Sunday morning (Feb. 18, 2024). The Bureau of Criminal Apprehension named the man who killed them as Shannon Gooden. A medical examiner said Tuesday that he shot himself in the head. Court records show Gooden wasn’t legally allowed to have guns and had been entangled in a yearslong dispute over the custody and financial support of his three oldest children.

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — It started out as a 911 call about a domestic incident. It ended with two police officers, a firefighter and the suspect dead, a third officer wounded, and a mostly affluent suburb of Minneapolis badly shaken and waiting for answers.

Agents with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension were still conducting their preliminary investigation into Sunday’s (Feb. 18, 2024) shooting, spokesperson Bonney Bowman said Monday. They planned to share more information once that was complete.

That meant that several key questions remained unanswered. While the BCA named the suspect Monday evening, it has not said what prompted the 911 call early Sunday from a home in a wooded, well-to-do neighborhood of single-family homes on curvy streets in Burnsville, a city of around 64,000 located about 15 miles (24 kilometers) south of downtown Minneapolis.

The Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office said Monday afternoon that Officers Paul Elmstrand and Matthew Ruge, both 27, and Adam Finseth, 40, a firefighter and paramedic who was assigned to the city’s SWAT team, died of gunshot wounds in the emergency room at Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis shortly after 6:30 a.m. Sunday.

The BCA said Monday that the man who killed them was Shannon Gooden, 38, of Burnsville. The medical examiner said Tuesday that he died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. Court records show that Gooden wasn’t legally allowed to have guns and had been entangled in a yearslong dispute over the custody and financial support of his three oldest children.

A procession of emergency vehicles escorted Finseth’s body from the medical examiner’s office in Minnetonka to a funeral home in Jordan on Monday afternoon, passing under several bridges where firefighters stood on their parked engines and flew American flags in tribute.

BCA Superintendent Drew Evans said Sunday that Burnsville police were called to the home around 1:50 a.m. Sunday about a “domestic situation where a man was reported to be armed and barricaded with family members in the home.” That included seven children ages 2 to 15 years. Evans declined to say which resident called. Arriving officers “spent quite a bit of time” negotiating with Gooden, he said.

At some point — he declined to specify when — Gooden opened fire, killing the two officers and the firefighter. Another officer, Sgt. Adam Medlicott, survived with injuries that were not life-threatening. He was released from a hospital and was recovering at home Monday, the city said.

Elmstrand’s wife, Cindy Elmstrand-Castruita, told WCCO-TV that her husband “had to do what he thought was right to protect those little lives, even if it meant putting his at risk and it breaks my heart because now he’s gone. But I know that he thought what he did was right.”

Elmstrand joined the police department in 2017 and was a member of its mobile command staff. Ruge, hired in 2020, was on the department’s crisis negotiations team and was a physical evidence officer. Finseth, who had been with the fire department since 2019, was shot while aiding the first officer who was injured, Evans said. Medlicott, who joined the police department in 2014, supervises community service officers and is a drug recognition expert.

“Several officers” returned fire during the exchange, Evans said. Gooden fired from multiple places on both floors of the home. At least one officer was shot inside. An armored SWAT team vehicle sustained bullet damage to its windshield.

Evans said Gooden was armed with “several guns and large amounts of ammunition,” though he declined to provide details.

Neighbors were startled awake by loud pops about an hour before sunrise. Alicia McCullum, who lives two houses down from the source of the commotion, told The Associated Press that she and her family dropped to the floor.

“I didn’t think it was a gunshot at first, but then we opened the windows and we saw police everywhere and police hiding in our neighbors’ yards,” McCullum said. “Then there were three more gunshots.”

The man was “reported to be deceased in the home” around 8 a.m., Evans said, and the children and other family members were later able to escape. McCullum said she saw a woman and a few children escorted out of the home.

The superintendent declined to say how long officers negotiated with Gooden, but the Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association said the standoff lasted for four hours before the SWAT team entered the home.

Investigators will review body camera and other videos, conduct interviews and gather all available evidence as they determine what happened, he said.

“I know everybody wants to know exactly what occurred and really what led up to these really terrible events that occurred today,” Evans told reporters. “But I ask that you have patience as we work though that to piece together everything so that we can to provide the answers in due time.”

Gov. Tim Walz ordered that flags be flown at half-staff at all state-owned buildings. Members of the Minnesota House and Senate stood with bowed heads for moments of silence Monday.

“Our police officers and medics and fire, they come to work every day,” said Rep. Jeff Witte, of Lakeville, who served in the Burnsville Police Department for 27 years. “They do it willingly to protect and serve our communities, knowing that they may have to give up their life for a partner or the community. And if you’re not in the profession, you can’t understand: the goal is to go home to their families.”

FEBRUARY 19, 2024:

BURNSVILLE, Minn. (AP) — A suburban Minneapolis community was in mourning after authorities said two police officers and a firefighter were killed by a heavily armed man who shot at them from inside a home that was filled with children. Officials say the suspect in the shooting also died. The shooting in Burnsville also wounded a third officer. Seven children were inside the home, but officials say the family was able to leave the home safely. Hundreds of people gathered in front of Burnsville City Hall on Sunday night (Feb. 18, 2024) for a candlelit vigil to remember the victims.

BURNSVILLE, Minn. (AP) — A suburban Minneapolis community was in mourning on Monday after authorities said two police officers and a firefighter were killed by a heavily armed man who shot at them from inside a home that was filled with children.

The shooting on Sunday (Feb. 18, 2024) in a tree-lined neighborhood of Burnsville, Minnesota, left a third officer wounded. The suspect, who officials said had multiple guns and large amounts of ammunition, also died.

Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension Superintendent Drew Evans said there was an exchange of gunfire, and authorities were still piecing together details of what he described as a “terrible day.”

The firefighter, who also works as a paramedic, was shot while providing aid to an injured officer, Evans said. He told reporters the paramedic was a part of a SWAT team that had been called to a domestic situation at the home.

Inside, an armed man had barricaded himself with his family, including seven children ranging in age from 2 to 15, Evans said.

He said negotiations lasted for hours before the suspect opened fire. He wasn’t specific on the exact amount of time, but the Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association said the standoff lasted four hours before a SWAT team entered the home.

Evans said the suspect had several guns and large amounts of ammunition and shot at the police officers from multiple positions within the home, including the upper and lower floors. Evans said at least one officer was shot inside the home.

“We still don’t know the exact exchange of gunfire that occurred,” Evans said. “Certainly several officers did return fire.”

He said that around 8 a.m. the suspect was found dead and the family and children were released from the home. None of them were hurt.

City officials identified the slain officers as Paul Elmstrand and Matthew Ruge, both 27. Adam Finseth, 40, a firefighter and paramedic for the city since 2019, also was killed.

Elmstrand, a member of the department’s mobile command staff, joined the department in 2017. Ruge was hired in 2020 and was part of the department’s crisis negotiations team and was a physical evidence officer.

Another police officer, Sgt. Adam Medlicott, was injured and being treated at a hospital with what are believed to be non-life-threatening injuries, the city said.

As the bodies of the dead left a hospital, officers saluted, before they were taken in a convoy to the medical examiner’s office. Medical staff watched in scrubs.

“We’re hurting,” said Police Chief Tanya Schwartz. “Today, three members of our team made the ultimate sacrifice for this community. They are heroes.”

Neighbors were startled awake by loud pops about an hour before sunrise.

Alicia McCullum said she and her family dropped to the floor, uncertain whether the noise was gunshots. She and her husband peered out of their sunroom and saw squad cars and a phalanx of police officers.

“I didn’t think it was a gunshot at first, but then we opened the windows and we saw police everywhere and police hiding in our neighbors’ yards,” said McCullum, who lives two houses down from the source of the commotion.

“Then there were three more gunshots,” she said. “It was like a bunch of fireworks.” That’s when she and her husband and two children sought safety in a bathroom and dropped to the floor. They prayed.

McCullum said she was relieved to see a woman and children escorted out of their home. “We’re so thankful for those police officers that risked their lives to save those kids,” McCullum said.“And my heart goes out to that mother.”

Fire Chief BJ Jungmann said the community was grieving and asked for privacy for the families. None of the relatives of the officers or the firefighter immediately returned phone messages from The Associated Press seeking comment.

Evans said the medical examiner would identify the suspect and said autopsies were planned for Monday. There was no indication the home had been a source of troubles in the past.

“There have not been many calls for service at all,” Evans said.

As the investigation unfolded, the neighborhood was ringed with police cars to keep reporters and the public away. A police armored vehicle had bullet damage to its windshield, and Evans confirmed it sustained the damage in the gunfight.

Police scanner recordings on Broadcastify.com capture a rattled man saying, “I need any ambulance,” as he struggled to catch his breath. Someone later could be heard talking about three being loaded into ambulances, uttering the word “critical.”

As news spread, other law enforcement agencies immediately began posting messages of condolence on social media, including images of badges with blue bars through them. It is a mark of solidarity in mourning.

“In times like these, it is essential to come together as a community and support one another through the uncertainty and grief,” said Marty Kelly, the sheriff in neighboring Goodhue County.

Flags also were lowered to half-staff, with Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz urging those who walked past them to take a moment and think about the first responders who lost their lives.

“Minnesota mourns with you,” he said. “The state stands ready to assist in any way possible.”

Hundreds of people gathered in front of Burnsville City Hall on Sunday night for a candlelit vigil to remember the victims. Several uniformed officers from other departments also attended.

A fire truck and police car were in front of the building. The police vehicle had bouquets of flowers on the hood and handwritten signs tucked under the windshield wipers, one of which read: “We are praying for you.” Those gathered joined together in prayer and sang “Amazing Grace.”

“Right now is a time to grieve, to come together and grieve our community’s loss, and to support the families,” said U.S. Rep. Angie Craig.

“I can’t imagine the pain that you’re all going through,” Craig continued, “but what I can say is that to all our officers out there, the paramedics, our firefighters, thank you for what you do.” The crowd applauded.

“It’s an important community,” said area resident Kris Martin, “and we feel very saddened by what happened.”

Burnsville, a city of around 64,000, is located about 15 miles (24 kilometers) south of downtown Minneapolis.