The man who was shot last month during a standoff with police in the parking lot of a Target in Woodbury now faces multiple felony charges.

Donald Eugene Roche, 61, of Rockford, Minn., was charged Friday in Washington County District Court with two counts of second-degree assault, one count of financial transaction card fraud and one count of third-degree burglary in connection with the events that occurred on the morning of April 22.

Officers from the Woodbury Police Department and the Washington County SWAT team were involved in a shooting in a Woodbury retail area Monday morning, April 22, 2024. (Courtesy of Woodbury Public Safety)

Roche is accused of stealing a wallet from a lunch box in a break room at a construction site in Oakdale around 8:30 a.m. April 22, which he then allegedly used to make fraudulent purchases of more than $3,000 at the Home Depot and at the Target store in Valley Creek Plaza in Woodbury, according to the criminal complaint.

The purchases included four impact wrenches, an iPad, a package of socks, a $200 Visa gift card and two Tracfone minute cards, the complaint states.

Roche also allegedly attempted additional transactions — totaling more than $7,000 — that were declined, according to the complaint.

The owner of the wallet “began receiving text alerts that his credit cards and debit card had been used to make unauthorized purchases,” the complaint states.

Police were able to locate the Honda Odyssey van with Illinois plates that Roche was driving through a license-plate reader near the construction site, according to the complaint.

Police used license-plate readers and surveillance cameras to track Roche to Woodbury, the complaint states. The readers alerted police that the Honda Odyssey had been reported as stolen near St. Louis on March 22, according to the complaint.

Around 9:15 a.m. April 22, officers located the Honda Odyssey in the Target parking lot and discovered that the steering column appeared damaged, the complaint states. As officers waited for Roche to return, they received a photo of the suspect from officers in Missouri. “He appeared to be a 50-60 year old white man, thin build, wearing a black Carhartt long sleeve shirt,” the complaint states.

Roche barricaded himself in the stolen van in the parking lot when officers tried to arrest him. Law enforcement attempted to negotiate with Roche for more than an hour, according to the complaint.

Eventually, Roche exited the van with “a black revolver” in his hand, at which point law enforcement attempted to subdue him with less-than-lethal and nonlethal force, the complaint states.

Officers shot him when he continued to ignore commands to drop the gun and pointed “a 4.5-mm BB CO2-powered Crossman revolver that had the appearance of a firearm” at police.

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The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension determined the pistol-style BB gun used by Roche fires “projectiles capable of death or great bodily harm including permanent scarring, punctured skin, and permanent eye damage,” prosecutors said in a statement.

Roche is charged with two counts of second-degree assault and one count each of credit card fraud and third-degree burglary.

“These charges are limited to Roche’s actions, and the use of force by law enforcement remains under investigation,” according to the statement.

Roche was listed in stable condition at Regions Hospital in St. Paul on Friday. He will be transferred to police custody when he is released.

The officers who fired at Roche were Washington County sheriff’s deputy Brian Krook and Woodbury police officer James Stoffel. Both are on standard administrative leave, the BCA said.

“The BCA continues to investigate law enforcement’s use of force and will present findings without a charging recommendation once the investigation is complete,” according to the statement. “The Washington County Attorney’s Office will then review the findings and determine whether the use of force was justified.”

St. Cloud State University President Robbyn Wacker is stepping down from her post almost two months earlier than expected.

Robbyn Wacker was named president of St. Cloud State University on May 16, 2018. (Courtesy of Minnesota State)

“I am doing what I believe is the honorable thing to do,” Wacker told St. Cloud LIVE in an interview Thursday. “I’m on my way out, so I think the right thing to do is to just say, ‘Look, I’m, I’m winding up here, if there’s significant decisions that need to be made on behalf of the university, they should be made by the incoming president and the current leadership here.’ ”

Larry Lee, SCSU vice president for finance and administration, has been appointed acting president effective this Sunday.

Minnesota State Colleges and Universities Chancellor Scott Olson sent a letter to SCSU faculty and staff on Wednesday, saying the university is “facing financial pressures that will need to be addressed in the coming weeks.”

“President Wacker cares deeply for the SCSU community and has shared with me her concern that decisions about long-term operational changes should be made by leaders who will be there to manage the transition,” he wrote. “To ensure continuity of operations and leadership for the university, I have appointed Larry Lee as Acting President, effective May 5. With the campus leadership, she/he will usher the campus through the next two months and with Interim President-Designate Larry Dietz, lay the groundwork for the university’s sustainable future. Decisions regarding the FY2025 and FY2026 budget will be made by Acting President Lee in consultation with the SCSU leadership.”

Wacker was to leave the university at the end of her contract on June 30. Interim president Larry Dietz will start at SCSU beginning July 1.

Wacker said it is in the best interest of the university for someone who is staying long term to make financial decisions while the university is facing another round of budget cuts.

She said she will still attend signature functions for the university, but will step back from a decision-making role. Commencement ceremonies were held at St. Cloud State on Thursday and Friday.

In clarifying Wacker’s role going forward, Noelle Hawton, a spokesperson for Olson, told St. Cloud LIVE that “Dr. Wacker remains the president of SCSU through the end of her contract, but will be on personal leave much of May and June.”

Per publicly available state employee payroll data, Wacker’s salary as SCSU’s president was an estimated $349,000 in fiscal year 2022.

Challenges

Wacker said her focus is on what is in the best interest of St. Cloud State. That was one of the reasons she said she decided to leave SCSU after the 2023-24 academic year.

“I’ve accomplished what I came here to do,” she told St. Cloud LIVE. “St. Cloud State University was a discouraged campus when I first got here — there was a lot of turmoil. But I like to think that the SCSU community has more pride and hope now.”

Wacker said the campus in 2018 was reeling from budget cuts, low enrollment and the death of President Earl Potter, who was killed in a 2016 car crash on Interstate 694 in Brooklyn Center.

One of the greatest challenges Wacker faced was the university’s decreasing enrollment.

The university saw an uptick in enrollment in fall 2023 for the first time since 2015. The student headcount increased by about 70 to 10,130 in 2023. Except for in 2015 when enrollment increased by about 45 students, the number has been steadily decreasing since 2010.

“We started to see some improvement after I started, but then COVID hit and enrollment plummeted again,” Wacker said.

If the university wants to continue building on the growth it’s seen this academic year, it will need to continue adapting and meeting the needs of students, she said. This means expanding online programs and adapting to workforce demand and ever-evolving technology, according to Wacker.

However, Wacker’s decision-making has led to disagreements with some of the faculty.

Her tenure began with a round of layoffs in 2018, including the termination of tenured staff. More layoffs have followed since as a response to decreased support from the Minnesota State system and a $5 million budget deficit, Wacker said.

“These were not decisions I made lightly, but the health and well-being of the university is my north star,” she said. “I empathize with everyone involved.”

Another challenge Wacker tackled during her time at SCSU was a Title IX lawsuit she inherited from Potter’s time in office. The U.S. Court of Appeals and a lower court found the school in violation of the federal gender discrimination law, ruling that SCSU needed to offer two more sports programs.

However, the addition of new programs — the cost of travel, scholarships, equipment, etc. — was not in the budget, she said.

The programs would have cost the university $4 million amid a budget deficit, according to Wacker.

Instead, the SCSU football and men’s and women’s golf programs were eliminated.

“I believe in Title IX, and this is not about blaming Title IX,” she said. “However, it would have been unsustainable for the university to add the programs needed to be in compliance with the law, so we had to cut programs like football.”

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The first time Byron Buxton took off for second base during Wednesday’s game, he reported not feeling much of an issue with his knee. The second time, he felt it a little bit.

The third time, his knee “kind of locked up on him,” president of baseball operations Derek Falvey said, forcing him to shut things down.

Buxton ended up jogging to second, where he was tagged out easily. He didn’t slide and walked gingerly off the field, exiting the game.

The Twins wanted to wait to see how he came in feeling Friday before making any decisions, but after the center fielder reported he was still dealing with inflammation and soreness in his twice surgically-repaired right knee, the Twins put him on the 10-day injured list.

The good news for Buxton is that magnetic resonance imaging revealed no structural damage, and both Falvey and manager Rocco Baldelli expressed hope that Buxton would be able to come off the injured list within 10 days to two weeks.

“He complains about nothing. If it were up to him, he would never tell us that he wasn’t where he wants to be (physically),” Baldelli said. “He would just keep playing. He plays through everything. From what I heard, I am pretty optimistic that this is not something that is going to hold him down an overly long time.”

Buxton had returned to center field this season after spending all of last year serving as the team’s designated hitter because of the knee. He reported feeling much better when he arrived to spring training and appeared in 28 of the Twins’ first 30 games before landing on the injured list.

Baldelli said he didn’t expect Buxton’s usage to change much upon his return from the injured list beyond maybe “a game or two less here and there.”

In his absence, The Twins will primarily turn to Willi Castro and Austin Martin, who was recalled from Triple-A to take his spot on the roster, in center field.

Stewart to IL

The injury news didn’t end there for the Twins. They also lost one of their top arms on Friday, placing Brock Stewart on the 15-day injured list with right shoulder tendinitis and recalling Kody Funderburk from Triple-A.

Stewart, who had given up just one run in 13 1/3 innings this season (0.68 ERA), has a lengthy injury history. Last year, he missed three months with a nerve issue in his arm.

A couple of days earlier, Stewart said he felt good and credited his preparation as part of the reason why.

“I’m working hand in hand with the strength staff, the training staff. Not going to feel good all the time, but just control what you can control in the weight room, the training room, with your prep, and all sorts of things like that,” Stewart said. “Hopefully, hope for the best and stay healthy. That’s the name of the game.”

Topa update

Reliever Justin Topa will continue to build up at St. Paul as the Twins bring him back from patellar tendinitis in his left knee. Topa already has thrown in multiple rehab outings at Triple-A.

“He hasn’t felt at 100 percent yet,” Falvey said. “He hasn’t felt like he’s really where he needs to be, but he’s progressing well. We don’t want to rush that. We want to make sure he’s back and feeling good and feeling like he can execute the pitches he wants to execute. So we’re going to take a little more time with the rehab assignment.”

Sausagemania

There were plenty of references to the Twins’ lucky rally sausage planted throughout the clubhouse upon their return back to Minneapolis.

Players wore shirts that featured the outline of the state of Minnesota with a caricature of a sausage swinging a bat overlaid on it. The shirt read, “Home Run Sausage,” and “Twin Cities,” on it and was sent over by BreakingT.

Over in the coaches’ room, there was a large flag planted that read “Our sausage hits,” with a Sheboygan logo on it. On a table near the entrance, there was a big box of squishy toy hot dogs, also sent over by Sheboygan, the official sausage of the Minnesota Twins.

And in Baldelli’s office, someone had dropped off a packaged sausage. The actual one was in a refrigerator in the coaches’ room, Baldelli said.

“We keep it away from the players until the last possible second, when the game starts,” he said.

Briefly

— The Twins optioned Caleb Boushley to Triple-A and recalled reliever Jorge Alcala. Alcala had a 0.00 earned-run average in six games before being optioned to Triple-A in April.

— The Twins traded reliever Matt Bowman to Arizona for cash considerations Thursday. Bowman had been designated for assignment by the Twins earlier in the week

— Saturday will mark the Twins’ first Pablo Day. The special ticket package, which is for home games that Pablo López starts, includes a ticket to the game and a Venezuela-themed López jersey. A portion of the earnings from ticket sales will go towards three charities selected by López and his wife, Kaylee.