St. Croix district attorney: Deadly force justified in shooting of Minnesota corrections officer

Law enforcement officers were justified in using deadly force against Minnesota corrections officer Tyler Abel when they shot him last month at his Star Prairie, Wis., house after a 16-minute standoff, the St. Croix County District Attorney has found.

Abel, arguing with officers who had been called for a domestic incident, shouted "Let's get this over with" before walking out of his garage pointing a rifle at the officers, District Attorney Karl E. Anderson wrote in an opinion released Tuesday.

A St. Croix County Sheriff's sergeant and a New Richmond, Wis., police officer fired a total of four rounds from their service rifles, striking Abel, who was pronounced dead at the scene. No one else was injured.

Abel, 42, had a wife and two young sons, according to a GoFundMe page set up to support the family.

He worked at the Stillwater prison for a little more than a year after a midlife career change that saw him leave a manufacturing job he held for 20 years at SMC Ltd. in Somerset, Wis., according to a statement from Corrections Department Commissioner Paul Schnell. Abel was a Hudson High School graduate.

A Polk County Sheriff's Office investigation of Abel's death found that at 10:46 p.m. June 3, a woman called 911 from a house on the 1900 block of County Road CC in Star Prairie, about 30 minutes northeast of Stillwater, and said her husband, Abel, was out of control and threatening to "bring out his 'AR.'" Asked if he had been drinking, the woman said she didn't know "what he was on" and that the argument had gotten physical.

The dispatcher could hear Abel in the background expressing disbelief that the woman had called authorities, saying "I'm going to bring my AR out and I'm going to get shot." While on the phone, the woman said she was able to take an AR-15 away from Abel. She also tried to get her two children, who were sleeping upstairs, but was unable to before she was forced to flee, authorities said.

As police officers arrived at the house, they negotiated with Abel by speaking through the open garage door. Abel was eventually spotted just inside the residence, pointing a rifle at the garage service door as he shouted profanities and said multiple times that police would have to kill him.

Negotiations continued until Abel said "Let's get this over with" and came through the service door into the rear of the garage. As he walked toward New Richmond police officer Katie Chevrier and St. Croix County Sheriff Sgt. Chase DuRand, Abel refused commands to drop his weapon. He then pointed his rifle at the officers, and they both fired.

District Attorney Anderson said the officers' weapons and slings blocked the view of their body cameras at the moment Abel was shot. Anderson said he interviewed both of the veteran officers and believed their statements that Abel pointed his rifle at them. Abel's rifle is also visible in the bodycam video moments after the shooting.

Abel was holding a .22 caliber pellet rifle when he was shot. The rifle is potentially lethal, and doesn't change the analysis that the officers believed Abel was holding a firearm and planned to use lethal force against them, Anderson wrote.

Polk County District Attorney Jeffrey L. Kemp also found that the shooting was justified; Anderson wrote that he asked Kemp to provide a second legal opinion on the case "out of an abundance of caution."