Authorities investigating shooting incidents involving deputies in Wright County, St. Paul

A Wright County deputy fatally shot a motorist holding a weapon early Saturday morning during a confrontation after a traffic stop in a quiet St. Michael cul-de-sac, authorities said.

The shooting came only hours after a Ramsey County deputy was hit by shrapnel from a bullet fired from a vehicle he was pursuing Friday night on St. Paul’s East Side. The deputy was treated at the hospital and released, but no arrests had been reported as of Saturday evening.

The unrelated incidents occurred two weeks after a domestic abuse call led Burnsville first responders to a fatal encounter that left two officers and a paramedic dead. Investigators say the gunman died after turning his gun on himself.

Brian Peters, executive director of the Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association, issued a statement Saturday saying that “increased violence against law enforcement is at a crisis level,” calling it “a war on police in Minnesota.”

“Anti-police proposals only fuel the fire of the war on law and order,” Peters said. “It’s time for leaders to support law enforcement and stop providing aid and comfort to lawlessness.”

According to data analysis by the Star Tribune, reported assaults against Minnesota police are up 160% compared to a decade ago. About a third of those assaults involved domestic disturbances.

The St. Michael incident began about 4:45 a.m. Saturday, when the deputy stopped the motorist’s vehicle on Ivory Avenue NE., according to the Wright County Sheriff’s Office. The motorist, who was alone, got out of his vehicle with the weapon, confronted the deputy and refused to comply with his demands. Authorities did not identify the kind of weapon he had.

The deputy fired his gun, hitting the motorist. During an emergency dispatch, a deputy on the scene was heard to yell: “Shots fired! Shots fired! Knife pulled.”

Lifesaving efforts were started on the man, who was shot twice in the torso, but he had no pulse when a deputy checked him just before 5 a.m. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

One neighbor estimated that more than a dozen responders’ vehicle arrived at the scene. Jennifer and Mark Carbert awoke to the sound of four to five gunshots and peered into the darkness at the lights of a Wright County deputy’s car. Within minutes, Jennifer Carbert said, the couple’s home was “completely lit up with blue and red” as police cars and emergency vehicles swarmed their ordinarily quiet street.

“We saw the ambulance come in, but then we saw the ambulance leave without lights on. It wasn’t in a rush,” Carbert said. “We just assumed somebody was [injured] because we heard the gunshots ... it’s just an awful situation all around.”

Another neighbor, Matt Smith, said he was in Minnetonka when news of the shooting reached him but soon learned that his home was just a few hundred yards from the crime scene.

“Shocking that it’s so close,” Smith said. “This could happen anywhere, I think. Someone was having a bad day and ended up here — wrong place, wrong time.”

The Wright County Sheriff’s Office identified neither the motorist nor the deputy, who was placed on administrative leave. The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension was investigating.

The St. Paul incident began about 10:45 p.m. Friday, when police spotted a dark Honda Accord speeding through stop signs near Payne and Jessamine avenues. They tried to stop the car, but it accelerated and the officers chose not to chase it.

When Ramsey County Deputy Joe Kill spotted the vehicle near Payne and Minnehaha avenues, he attempted to stop it with sirens and lights, according to a post on Sheriff Bob Fletcher’s “Live on Patrol” Facebook page. Kill gave chase when the vehicle failed to stop.

During the chase, according to Fletcher’s post, a passenger in the suspect vehicle leaned out the car window and began shooting at Kill’s squad car with what appeared to be an AR-style rifle. Gunfire hit Kill’s car, with one bullet passing through the hood of the vehicle and the dashboard and sending a fragment into the strap of Kill’s ballistic vest near his collarbone.

St. Paul Police Sgt. Mike Ernster said Kill’s vest was struck “by debris or possibly shrapnel from the bullets coming into his vehicle.” The deputy was taken to a hospital, checked for injuries and released.

Investigators recovered two rifle casings at the scene, according to Fletcher’s post, and St. Paul police found the suspect’s vehicle about six blocks away in the 1000 block of Pacific Street. St. Paul police were investigating the shooting to avoid any potential conflict of interest.