Investigators: Gunman who killed 3 responders fired without warning
The man who killed two Minnesota police officers and a firefighterparamedic 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.
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.
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.