Formal review zeroes in on moments before Burnsville gunfight that killed 2 officers, EMT

A newly-released formal review of the deadly gun battle between police and a man holed up in a Burnsville house with several children details key moments before the hours-long standoff ended.

The state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) investigated the Feb. 18 shootout and turned over its findings to the Dakota County Attorney’s Office, which announced Tuesday that the officers who fired on suspect Shannon Gooden “were legally justified in using deadly force in this extremely harrowing incident.” Gooden shot and killed two officers and a firefighter-EMT.

In light of the circumstances — most notably that Gooden was the first to shoot and kept firing after killing the three first responders — County Attorney Kathryn Keena wrote in her 10-page synopsis that officers Javier Jimenez and Daniel Wical and Sgt. Adam Medlicott believed “Gooden posed a deadly threat to them, other officers and first responders present at the scene, and to members of the public when they fired their respective weapons.”

Officers Paul Elmstrand and Matthew Ruge, both 27, and firefighter-paramedic Adam Finseth, 40, were killed by Gooden at his home in the 12600 block of S. 33rd Avenue. A wounded Gooden fatally shot himself inside the house.

Keena’s report spells out how Gooden used the family’s seven children, ages 5 to 15, on the home’s upper level as a buffer to keep police at bay. It also laid out how the scene shifted from one of negotiation to a deadly gunfight.

The back-and-forth negotiations began about 2 a.m., with Ruge in charge and a number of officers in the home. “Through the course of the negotiations, Gooden repeatedly reminded the officers he was near his children and officers should not shoot due to the risk to the children,” according to the report. At times, officers could see children moving about upstairs from one bedroom to another.

As the negotiations were nearing the three-hour mark, police command decided to “allow Officer Ruge to continue to negotiate with Gooden as he was seemingly building rapport with Gooden.” But as the stalemate persisted, Ruge was alerted that he was being relieved.

Just as Ruge got word of the switch, “Gooden fired multiple gunshots from the upper-level hallway towards the officers present inside the residence,” according to the report. Medlicott fired five times toward the staircase in an attempt to provide cover while fellow officers dragged a wounded Elmstrand from the house. As Gooden was attempting to reload behind a door, Wical shot him in the leg.

Ruge approached a police armored vehicle and said he had been shot. Medics determined the round must have hit his protective vest because they couldn’t find an entrance wound. As the medics were assessing injuries, Gooden fired from an upstairs window, striking Ruge again, along with Finseth.

The barrage lasted 13 minutes, with at least 41 rounds hitting the armored vehicle. A police sniper attempted to shoot Gooden as he leaned out the upper window and fired upon officers taking cover in the drive. Gooden retreated inside. Moments later, one of the children called 911 and said Gooden had shot himself in the head.

Keena’s report also expands on the circumstances and supports the allegation that sent police to the home in the first place: a caller telling a 911 dispatcher at 1:50 a.m. that Gooden had sexually assaulted one of the children.

Gooden’s girlfriend, Ashley Dyrdahl, who also lived at the home, told the first officers to arrive that she believed Gooden “was sexually abusing one of the children ... and had been suspicious of this for approximately two weeks earlier,” according to the report.

One of the officers found on the child’s cellphone texts messages “between Gooden and the child [that] were sexual in nature and indicated that a sexual act has just occurred between the two,” the report continued.

In a follow-up interview with the BCA, Dyrdahl said she saw Gooden wearing only a towel but not having taken a shower, the report added. Dyrdahl went to the child’s bedroom, took the girl’s cellphone and read a text message exchange with Gooden. Dyrdahl then called 911.

A law enforcement search of Gooden’s cellphone unearthed nearly 1,000 images of the child, most of them pornographic in nature, the report read.

Read the full report here.