Police find body near downtown Rosemount

A man's body was found Monday afternoon in a shed near downtown Rosemount.

Police were called to a small outbuilding owned by the Canadian Pacific Railway at 12:15 p.m. Officers found the body inside, not far from railroad tracks, according to Rosemount Police Chief Mitchell Scott.

The man's identity is being withheld until his family can be notified. Police do not believe anyone else is involved, and authorities say there is no threat to public safety.

The body is at the Hennepin County medical examiner's office, where it was to be examined on Tuesday, said Scott.

The chief said it was difficult to tell how long the body had been there.

Scott, who has only been chief in Rosemount for six weeks, said that, when he started on the job, having come over from Apple Valley, he asked about "people getting hit by trains and things like that. It doesn't happen a lot," he said. "I'm not saying that's what happened on this one."

Whatever the cause of death, finding a dead body is a rare occurrence in Rosemount.

"No one can really ring a bell with it, when was the last time [a body was found]," Scott said.

The area where the body was found is "not at all a secluded area," said Amy Weber, who was bartending inside the Rosemount American Legion post on Monday.

Around noon, at least four officers arrived and put up police tape. Everyone was curious what had happened, but "they haven't told us anything," she added.

Weber said she wasn't frightened.

"I think it's just a freak thing," she said. "I mean, that doesn't usually happen in Rosemount."

Erin Adler • 952-746-3283