Edina veteran accused of setting up ambush of police needs mental care, not incarceration, supporters say

REDWOOD FALLS, MINN. – Friends and family of an Edina man accused of setting up an ambush for police say he is a troubled Army veteran who needs mental health treatment, not incarceration.

Christopher Mark Covert, 27, of Edina has been charged with attempted first-degree murder and first- and second-degree assault after police said he intended to shoot first responders after luring them into a park in Redwood Falls on Aug. 28.

Police say Covert, armed with a rifle and carrying a bag with hundreds of rounds of ammunition, some of which were armor-piercing, was thwarted in his plan only when his weapon jammed.

Law enforcement were so concerned that Covert was a danger to himself and others that they used a recently passed red-flag law to seize his firearms.

Covert said he was suicidal and not homicidal that night, a police email said. And Covert’s friends and family said the idea that he intended to kill first responders was “unfathomable,” in eight letters of support recently submitted to court.

“It appears that there is a great deal of confusion and misunderstanding about what my client’s actual intention was that evening,” Covert’s lawyer, Robert Paule, said in a call Friday.

The letters and other recent court filings shed light on how an Army veteran, described as “quiet, respectful, and very bright” but troubled after a deployment to Afghanistan, would end up arrested and charged with attempted murder.

Covert graduated from Washburn High School in Minneapolis, where he ran cross country and track, before enrolling at Hamline University and then enlisting in the U.S. Army, said Curtis Johnson, his former coach, in a letter to court.

The U.S. Army confirmed Covert served from 2016 to 2020 as a combat medic, leaving at the rank of specialist. His service included a deployment to Afghanistan from April 2018 to February 2019, said a statement from Army spokeswoman Heather Hagan.

During his service, he was well-liked in his role as a medic, and in one incident saved another soldier’s hand after an injury, wrote Lance Owens, who said he served with Covert.

Covert had a difficult time transitioning to civilian life, his friends and family said. He told friends that while he was in Afghanistan he saw a pregnant woman who had been torn apart by a bomb, and had watched a friend die, said Janet Wigfield, who said she knows him through his aunt, in a court filing.

Over the summer, one of Covert’s close friends died in a freak accident, a loss that he took especially hard, Owens and Johnson said in their letters.

Court filings show Covert had numerous run-ins with the police over the summer. On Aug. 1, Edina police said they responded to a disturbance in which Covert was overheard yelling that he had been contacted by Satan, and that Christians were under attack.

Five days later, Edina police said they were called to Our Lady of Grace Church after a report that Covert wanted to kill himself. Officers said they found Covert in a nearby park, and that he had told them he was a veteran and had recently lost a friend.

On Aug. 28, police said they received two calls about a possible suicide in Redwood Falls’ sprawling Ramsey Park around 9:43 p.m. There, police said they found a car registered to Covert. Inside were camping supplies, a Bible and a crucifix. As police and a search dog scoured the 256-acre park and its miles of hiking trails and rocky outcroppings, they called out into the darkness, “Christopher, it’s the police, we are here to help you!”

They said they saw a man run from them toward a walking bridge. As the man ran, he allegedly dropped a black rifle case. Inside the case was an AR-15 rifle with an altered trigger and a red-dot optic, and 10 loaded magazines with about 300 rounds — some of which were armor-piercing, police said.

The rifle was jammed, police said. Police say Covert ran onto the bridge and climbed over the railing, but they grabbed him and prevented him from jumping or falling.

Covert’s supporters said he intended to kill only himself that day, and that he had never fired a shot.

But police said they heard Covert say while hospitalized that he loaded his firearm when he observed flashlights held by law enforcement that night.

“I believe that an individual arming themselves with a rifle-style firearm and hundreds of rounds of ammunition, including armor-piercing rounds, is not consistent with an individual intent on only killing themselves,” Steven Schroeder, assistant chief of the Redwood Falls Police Department, said in a court document.

Covert also faces a felony charge for possessing ammunition capable of penetrating body armor.

His phone had notes about how he was in favor of murder or “involuntary assisted suicide,” how he was taking lessons on stalking people and tips on firing a pistol in close-quarter combat, police said.

About 40 minutes before he called police to Ramsey Park, Covert searched “vengeance is mine [sayeth] the lord,” phone records show.

The records also include messages from his mother, Sheila Covert, imploring him to come back home, saying she knew he was struggling, but that it was not too late to start fresh.

After police handcuffed Covert, he was brought to an emergency room and then to a locked psychiatric unit at the Minneapolis VA hospital, court records show.

An affidavit said he was diagnosed with schizophreniform disorder, a type of psychotic illness similar to schizophrenia but lasting fewer than six months, in which a person cannot tell what is real from what is imagined.

While Covert was at the VA, police requested an emergency extreme-risk protection order, part of a new red-flag law in which family, friends and law enforcement can petition a judge to temporarily remove guns from someone they fear is a danger to themselves or others.

In their request, police said Covert had a commitment hearing on Sept. 17, and they feared he may be released from the VA before or after that hearing. “His access to firearms would put himself, law enforcement and others in immediate and present danger,” the request on Sept. 12 said.

Some 92 petitions have been filed since Jan. 1, with 71 of these filed by law enforcement agencies, according to data from Minnesota Judicial Branch.

On Sept. 13, deputies seized several firearms and found body armor, survival supplies and tactical medical gear at a property in Edina.

Covert was in custody Friday in Redwood County jail. His supporters say he needs mental health treatment instead of incarceration, and said he had been making progress.

“This is not a young person that should be jailed,” wrote Johnson, his former coach. “He should get the mental health support that will enable him to reenter society as a productive citizen.”