Without warning: Man who killed 2 Burnsville officers and paramedic fired 100-plus rounds, BCA says

Shannon Cortez Gooden lied about being unarmed before he fired more than 100 rounds at police and first responders without warning during a predawn standoff in a Burnsville neighborhood that left two police officers and a paramedic dead, state investigators said Thursday.

Those details and others were included in the release of the most specific information yet by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) since Gooden, 38, killed the three responders early Sunday at his home in the 12600 block of S. 33rd Avenue.

Killed were officers Paul Elmstrand and Matthew Ruge, both 27, and firefighter/paramedic Adam Finseth, 40. A public memorial service for the three is scheduled for 11 a.m. Wednesday at Grace Church in Eden Prairie. A third officer, 38-year-old Sgt. Adam Medlicott, was wounded and is recovering at home.

The BCA, which is leading the investigation, filed an account of the shooting this week in a news release and court document:

Officers responded to the Burnsville home shortly before 2 a.m. after receiving reports of a sexual assault. Gooden refused to leave the home but said he was unarmed and had children inside.

The officers entered the home and negotiated with Gooden for about 3½ hours in an effort to get him to surrender peacefully.

“At about 5:26 a.m., Gooden opened fire on the officers inside the home without warning,” the statement read.

It’s believed that Ruge, Elmstrand and Medlicott were initially shot inside the home.

Medlicott and officer Daniel Wical returned fire, wounding Gooden in the leg. Ruge and Medlicott were shot a second time as officers moved from the home to an armored vehicle in the driveway.

“That’s when Finseth was shot while trying to aid the officers,” the BCA said.

Elmstrand, Ruge and Finseth were pronounced dead that morning at HCMC in downtown Minneapolis.

Gooden continued to shoot from inside the house at officers and those inside an armored vehicle. At one point, as Gooden was shooting from an upstairs window, officer Javier Jimenez returned fire with his sniper rifle. The standoff ended when Gooden shot himself in the head. A SWAT team with a drone found his body once they cleared the house at 10:15 a.m.

BCA investigators seized several firearms and a large amount of ammunition at the scene. They also recovered cartridge casings that showed Gooden had fired “more than 100 rifle rounds at law enforcement and first responders,” the agency said.

The deadly standoff began after police were called about “an alleged sexual assault allegation,” according to a search warrant affidavit filed Tuesday by the BCA.

A 911 transcript obtained Wednesday by the Star Tribune shows that a woman in the home was asking for police to come “right now.”

”Help me,” she told dispatchers as someone cursed in the background. Screaming could be heard before the connection went dead, according to the redacted transcript.

Dispatchers attempted in vain to call back at least four times. The woman started to tell authorities that her husband was doing something, but the description was redacted in the transcript.

While the new details Thursday filled in some of the gaps about how the encounter unfolded, several aspects of the shooting have yet to be addressed by the BCA. Among them:

What prompted the decision to send officers into the home, a motive for Gooden’s actions, the number of weapons with him and how he obtained them, and the type of ammunition he fired that was potent enough to puncture the armored vehicle’s windshield.

Video from police body-worn and squad cameras was recorded and available to BCA investigators.

Once the BCA completes its investigation, the findings will be turned over without a charging recommendation to the Dakota County Attorney’s Office for review.

Star Tribune staff writer Liz Sawyer contributed to this report.