After an hours-long standoff Thursday in West St. Paul, with the suspect shooting at police, he took aim at officers with a long gun and a SWAT officer returned fire, according to police.
The man was taken to the hospital and pronounced dead.
The incident began when St. Paul officers were searching for a man wanted for multiple felony warrants, West St. Paul police said in a statement Thursday night. Officers found a motorcycle associated with the man in the 1200 block of Ottawa Avenue in West St. Paul just after 11 a.m.
St. Paul officers surrounded a residence and evacuated people, who confirmed the man with warrants was inside.
The South Metro SWAT took over about 2:15 p.m. “The suspect fired shots striking the armored SWAT vehicles and an officer’s handheld ballistic shield over the course of the next four hours,” according to the police statement.
The SWAT team threw a cellphone into the home, and used drones and robotics “in an attempt to negotiate with and obtain a visual of the suspect,” the statement said. “Officers used chemical irritants in an attempt to subdue the suspect. After multiple rounds of chemical irritants, the suspect continued firing at officers through multiple windows.”
The suspect “took aim at officers” about 6:40 p.m. and a South Metro SWAT officer returned fire and shot the man, the statement said.
During the incident, a “shelter in place” was issued for the area.
West St. Paul police said Thursday afternoon that a lockdown at St. Joseph Catholic school was “a precautionary measure to ensure students remain away from an ongoing incident occurring a few blocks. … The active scene is not related to the school. Any rumors of danger to the school are untrue.”
A day earlier, at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis, two children were killed and another 18 people were injured as a assailant opened fire from outside the church during morning Mass.
The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension is investigating the shooting in West St. Paul, and the agency said it will release more information after the preliminary investigation is complete.
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