As Oakdale officers converged on Devione Leeante Malone, he told a woman who was with him and her young granddaughter that he would rather die than go back to prison.
Malone soon fired a shot at an officer’s squad outside the woman’s house, then several more from a window of the home, according to Wednesday’s criminal complaint charging the 25-year-old from St. Paul with two counts of first-degree attempted murder of a peace officer, four counts of first-degree assault and possessing a firearm after being convicted of a crime of violence.
Devione Leeante Malone (Courtesy of the Washington County Sheriff’s Office)
At least one Oakdale officer exchanged gunfire with Malone, who barricaded himself in a house before law enforcement took him into custody early Tuesday, police said. No injuries were reported.
The incident happened just under a month after two Burnsville police officers and a firefighter/paramedic were shot and killed. The Burnsville officers were responding to a 911 call about a domestic dispute when a gunman barricaded himself in a home with seven children on Feb. 18.
Malone has an open first-degree burglary case and a court order prohibiting him from having contact with the woman, the charges say.
He remains jailed ahead of a first hearing in Washington County District Court on Thursday.
‘I’ll die before I go back’
According to the complaint, dispatch received a 911 call just before 10 p.m. Monday from a man who said his friend needed help. He said she was a passenger in a car with her 1½-year-old granddaughter near some businesses at Bergen Plaza by Hadley Avenue and 10th Street.
Four Oakdale squad cars responded to the area and attempted to surround the car in the parking lot. Malone sped off, and evaded officers before turning south onto Hadley Avenue North.
Officers determined that Malone was likely driving back to the woman’s home in the 100 block of Greystone Avenue, so two of them broke off and tried to get ahead of him.
As Malone pulled into the driveway, he got out and fired a shot at an officer who was behind him. The bullet hit the squad car’s right front fender and ricocheted into the passenger mirror, the complaint says.
Malone ran inside the house. The woman got out of the car and “frantically got her grandchild out of the backseat of the car before running towards officers,” the complaint says.
All four officers lined up their squad cars in front of the home, using them for cover.
Squad camera footage shows a center window opening from the home. About seven seconds later, Malone fired three shots at the officers from the window. One shot hit the top of an officer’s squad car windshield on the driver’s side just to the right of where he was standing.
The Washington County SWAT team responded with an armored vehicle and eventually took Malone into custody after a several-hour standoff. No other people were inside the home, where officers recovered a black .22-caliber handgun and spent shell casings.
Officers interviewed the woman, who said Malone went to her home earlier that day. She said Malone’s mood was fine, until it changed. She said she knew he was carrying a gun and that “she had to get her granddaughter away” from him, the complaint says. She sent a text message to a friend asking him to get help.
When Malone saw squad cars pull up to Bergen Plaza, he told the woman, “I’ll die before I go back to prison.”
Once in custody, Malone admitted the handgun was his and said he always carried it with him, the complaint says. He said he assumed he was going to jail on the no-contact order violation, and claimed he did not remember shooting at officers.
Teen record
Malone has several prior convictions for crimes of violence going back to his teenage years.
When he was 16, he was charged with first-degree arson and, when he was 17, he was sent to the Minnesota Correctional Facility in Red Wing in the case, court records show.
He was subsequently charged in assaults involving two correctional officers at Red Wing in 2016, six at the Lino Lakes prison in 2016 and four at the Oak Park Heights prison in 2018. In one case, a correctional officer sustained a brain bleed and facial fractures. He was convicted of assaulting another inmate at the St. Cloud prison in 2017.
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