BURNSVILLE, Minn. (AP) — A desperate call for help from a home in a Minneapolis suburb turned deadly for two police officers and a paramedic, who were shot and killed at the scene, according to officials. A suspect in the shooting also died, officials said.
The neighborhood in Burnsville was ringed with police cars that kept the press and public away from the scene where the shootings took place early Sunday. The three deaths were confirmed by the Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association.
The association also said negotiations with a suspect went on for four hours before a SWAT team entered the home in the Minneapolis suburb of Burnsville. Seven children were inside the home. It wasn’t immediately known if any of the children were harmed.
Details on how the suspect died were not immediately released.
City officials identified the slain officers as Paul Elmstrand and Matthew Ruge, both 27, and the paramedic/firefighter as Adam Finseth, 40. Another police officer, Sgt. Adam Medlicott, was being treated at a hospital for what are believed to be non-life-threatening injuries, the city said.
A shelter-in-place order was transmitted to residents around 5:30 a.m., witnesses said. The order remained in place for about five hours.
“We are heartbroken. Our law enforcement community is heartbroken. We’re just devastated at the horrific loss,” Brian Peters, executive director of the association that represents public safety professionals in the state, said in a statement.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said in a post on Facebook that in addition to those killed, other officers were injured.
The slain police officers were with the Burnsville department, and the paramedic worked for the city’s fire department.
No other details were immediately released about what led up to the shooting in a tree-lined neighborhood of modest split-level homes on large unfenced lots.
In its aftermath, the street was lined with SWAT vehicles, police cars, firefighters and ambulances. A police armored vehicle had bullet damage to its windshield, but there was no confirmation on whether that was the result of the incident.
Burnsville police, fire and city officials, including the mayor, didn’t immediately return phone or email messages from The Associated Press seeking comment.
Burnsville, a city of around 64,000, is about 15 miles south of downtown Minneapolis.