Man shot and killed by Rochester police identified

Authorities on Tuesday identified the man shot by Rochester police while allegedly wielding an ax last weekend.

Joshua Clayton Hippler, 27, died of multiple gunshot wounds to the upper torso after police said he charged an officer with an ax during a traffic stop around 1 a.m. Saturday on Hwy. 63 near the Hwy. 52 overpass.

Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension officials say officer Michael Bottcher was the officer who fired his gun and hit Hippler. Bottcher has worked for the Rochester Police Department for just over a year and worked for another agency before that, according to the city of Rochester.

He is on administrative leave and the case is under BCA investigation, which is standard in officer-involved shootings.

Police said they responded to a burglary call just before 11 p.m. Friday at a business in the 2000 block of Broadway Avenue S., where a white male entered with an ax, took cash and left. Police stopped the van Hippler was driving about two hours later.

Hippler was taken to Mayo Clinic Hospital-Saint Marys, where he died.

BCA investigators recovered an ax and knife at the scene. The incident was captured on Bottcher's body camera, which BCA spokeswoman Bonney Bowman said would be released along with the redacted case file once the case is closed.