A Minn. community reels after officers, firefighter killed

Records reveal suspect barred from having guns

MINNEAPOLIS — 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 and did not plan to release any updates Monday, spokesperson Bonney Bowman said. They planned to share more information once that was complete, she added.

That meant several key questions remained unanswered a day later. Authorities have not released the name of the suspect or 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 south of downtown Minneapolis.

An order by Governor Tim Walz took effect at sunrise Monday for flags to fly at half-staff at all state-owned buildings, On Sunday, Walz urged Minnesotans who drive by these flags “to maybe pause and think about these first responders, these public safety officials. They’re moms and dads, brothers and sisters, sons and daughters. They’re the world to a lot of people.” 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. Evans declined to say which resident called. Arriving officers “spent quite a bit of time” negotiating with the suspect, he said.

At some point — he declined to specify when — the suspect opened fire, killing 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. Another officer, Sergeant Adam Medlicott, survived with injuries that were not life-threatening. He was released from a hospital, the city said.

Elmstrand’s wife, Cindy Elmstrand-Castruita, told WCCOTV: “He 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. The man 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.

Minnesota authorities said the medical examiner identified the gunman as Shannon Gooden, 38, of Burnsville. It said the medical examiner will release his cause and manner of death at a later date. 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.

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

Investigators plan to review body camera and other videos of the incident, 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 that we can to provide the answers in due time.”