From hospital bed, woman describes being shot by deputy after car chase in northwest Minnesota

A late-night traffic stop in northwestern Minnesota ended with a woman being shot and seriously wounded early Sunday, authorities said.

In an interview Monday with the Star Tribune, the woman — in recovery at Sanford Medical Center in Fargo — said the deputy shot her as she was removing a handgun from her shirt.

"I was outside the SUV when I got shot," said 20-year-old Shequoya Basswood, who splits her time between the Mahnomen area and Minneapolis. "He told me to put my hands on the hood. I did have a Glock in my shirt ... so I took it out. He must have thought I was going to shoot him."

According to a statement from the Mahnomen County Sheriff's Office, the incident began with a deputy pulling over the SUV about 1:30 a.m. A pursuit followed, with the SUV ending up in a ditch in the village of Naytahwaush, about 50 miles northeast of Detroit Lakes.

"Shots were fired, and an adult female received gunshot wounds," the statement said.

The Sheriff's Office did not disclose whose gunfire hit the woman, but it did say a firearm was recovered at the scene. The deputy involved in the encounter was not hurt.

Neither the Sheriff's Office nor the state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, which is investigating the incident, returned calls or emails for comment on the case.

Basswood said she was one of five people in the SUV at the time it was pulled over. One person with her was detained but later released, she said.

Basswood said she believes the deputy "was in the wrong. I didn't know he was going to react like that."

Basswood sustained numerous internal injuries from the gunfire, she said. "I have a bullet in my back, and they can't take it out" without risking paralysis, she said.

A Sanford Health spokeswoman said Monday that Basswood was in serious condition.