Updated: 8h23
Two people died and the deputy sheriff was hospitalized after a traffic stop attempt ended in a gunfight on Saturday night in Wadena County.
The Minnesota Criminal Seizure Department is investigating the incident – the third fatal police shooting in the state in less than a week.
According to the Wadena County Sheriff’s Office, a policeman tried to stop a vehicle for a traffic violation shortly after 8:45 pm on Saturday on a municipal road about 11 kilometers east of Sebeka.
The vehicle stopped after about a kilometer, near the intersection of 205th Street and 270th Avenue. The sheriff’s office made the following account of what happened next:
“There was a fight between the deputy and the driver. A second driver then arrived at the scene and, shortly afterwards, a Sebeka policeman arrived and the fight continued. Shortly afterwards, at least one of the drivers started shooting at officers. of the officers responded to the fire. All four were shot. “
One of the drivers died on the spot; the other died later in the hospital in Wadena.
The injured deputy was taken to the hospital in Park Rapids, then transferred to North Memorial Health Hospital in Robbinsdale, with what officials said were serious but not fatal injuries.
Sebeka’s policeman was hit in his bulletproof vest, but did not need medical treatment.
It was not clear from the sheriff’s testimony why the second driver stopped at the scene and whether they tried to help the policeman or the first driver.
Authorities did not release the names of the two people who died, or of the officers involved in the shooting.
Few other details were available on Sunday morning, although the sheriff’s office said “there is no continuing threat to the public”.
Local and state investigators remained at the scene of the shooting on Sunday morning, with authorities asking people to stay away from the area.
Saturday’s shooting follows the fatal shot of a man after a long standoff with police in Duluth on Friday. This nearly 20-hour stalemate started with a domestic assault call and also resulted in the death of a police dog.
And a man was shot dead by police last Sunday, February 21, near Braham, after a car theft in Blaine and a chase north of Isanti County. A police dog was injured in the exchange of fire.
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