Man shot by Stillwater police wasn't a stranger

A 57-year-old man who was shot and killed Friday by Stillwater police as he held his 7-year-old granddaughter at knifepoint was the subject of four police calls in recent weeks, each having to do with his mental health struggles, police said Saturday.

The Ramsey County medical examiner's office on Saturday night identified the man as David M. Daniels.

Stillwater police said that in each of those earlier calls dating to Dec. 11, officers responded to a home in the 900 block of W. Myrtle Street where Daniels' wife lives and where the fatal shooting occurred.

Police said the two officers who fired the fatal shots are Sgt. Nate Meredith, a nine-year member of the Stillwater police force, and officer Kyle Sykes, a six-year member. Both are on paid administrative leave, as is standard in officer-involved shootings.

How soon they return to duty will depend primarily on when they feel they are ready, police said Saturday.

"Obviously, they're not happy about what had to happen," Sgt. Jeff Stender said of the shooting. "But they understand they did their job."

At a news conference Saturday, police gave this account of what happened, although they declined to identify Daniels by name:

The woman then got her father, and they fled through a back door. The girl apparently was on the second floor.

Meredith and Sykes arrived minutes after the 911 call. They saw or heard the man go upstairs and went after him.

They spotted him in a small room, holding a knife to the girl's side. He would not let her go and did not drop the knife, as he was asked to do. Fearing the girl was in immediate danger, the officers opened fire.

The man could not be revived, and he was pronounced dead at the scene. No one else was injured, police said.

Police said they don't know what might have prompted the incident Friday. In two of the earlier calls to the home, the man was found to be in an agitated and confused state, and he was taken to Regions Hospital in St. Paul. He recently had been admitted to a treatment center, but did not return there after being granted a furlough, police said.

The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension is now leading the investigation, which is common in instances of officer-involved shootings.

Stillwater police said that the city rarely has violent crime and that they're not aware of any other police-involved shooting in the past several decades.