Shannon Gooden, who died by suicide, killed 2 officers and a firefighter.
Burnsville police officers who opened fired on Shannon Gooden in February were legally justified in their use of force, the Dakota County attorney announced Tuesday.
A 10-page memo from County Attorney Kathy Keena about her review of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension investigation provides more information about what happened on Feb. 18 when Gooden fatally shot Burnsville Police Officers Paul Elmstrand and Matthew Ruge and Burnsville Firefighter/Paramedic Adam Finseth when they responded Feb. 18 to a domestic incident.
Photos of Burnsville police officers, from left, Paul Elmstrand, Matthew Ruge and firefighter/paramedic Adam Finseth are displayed during a community vigil Feb. 20, 2024, at the Burnsville Police Department/City Hall. (Mara H. Gottfried / Pioneer Press)
Three Burnsville officers fired their guns during the incident, and one wounded Gooden in the leg.
“There is absolutely no doubt the officers were justified in using deadly force to protect themselves, other officers and first responders, and members of the public from death or great bodily harm,” Keena wrote.
Gooden later shot himself and died by suicide, according to the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office.
Elmstrand, Ruge and Finseth “embodied the spirit of a public servant as they selflessly acted to protect seven children from the hands of Shannon Gooden,” Keena said in a statement.
Attempt to negotiate
The memo from Keena gives the following information:
Gooden’s girlfriend, Ashley Dyrdahl, suspected him of sexual abuse of a child. She called 911 on Feb. 18 and screamed “Help me,” but the call was abruptly disconnected by Gooden. Dakota 911 tried calling her back, but couldn’t reach her.
Burnsville Officers Peter Mueller and Lucas Teske were dispatched about 1:50 a.m. to an in-progress domestic disturbance at a house on 33rd Avenue off Burnsville Parkway. Dyrdahl rented the home and Gooden lived there.
Mueller found Dyrdahl in the driveway and told her to walk to the road to speak with other responding officers, which she did. She spoke with a Burnsville officer and told him about her concerns about sexual abuse and said he had access to handguns and rifles in the residence. She said Gooden begged her not to call 911 and in the past he’d threatened he would “take everyone out with him,” the memo said.
The information from Dyrdahl was relayed to other responding officers.
Mueller went in the open garage door, which attaches to the house. He called out to Gooden, identifying himself as an officer and telling him he was under arrest. He instructed Gooden to exit with his his hands up. Gooden acknowledged Mueller’s presence, “but did not verbally acknowledge the instructions nor did he exit the residence,” the memo said.
Mueller told Gooden he wanted to make sure the children were safe and instructed him to have the kids exit, but they didn’t. There were seven children in the home, ages 5 to 15 — three were Gooden’s from a previous relationship, two were Dyrdahl’s, and two were Gooden’s and Drydah’s together.
Mueller informed Gooden that officers were entering the house, but Gooden told them not to. He and five other officers, including Matthew Ruge, entered and stopped in a dining room adjacent to the garage. They had two ballistic shields and their duty pistols were drawn.
The officers couldn’t see Gooden because it was dark in the house but they heard his voice coming from in front of them. There was a stairwell to the home’s upper level and a stairwell to the lower level, and Gooden was up on the upper level.
Mueller saw a child standing in a doorway off the upper level landing. The child moved to a hallway and back.
“Because of the known presence of this child, the officers decided they should initiate negotiations with Gooden instead of advancing further into the house to apprehend Gooden,” the memo said.
Gooden said he didn’t have a gun
Mueller and Ruge were members of the Burnsville Police Department’s Crisis Negotiation Team. Ruge took on the role of primary negotiator. Negotiations started about 2 a.m.
Gooden said he was up on the upper level and children were with him. Officers saw at least two kids walking upstairs between rooms.
“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,” the memo said. “When asked, Gooden denied he possessed or had access to any firearms.”
At one point, an officer said he believed Gooden was holding a firearm, but wasn’t certain due to darkness and shadows on the upper level landing. “Officer Ruge addressed this concern with Gooden who reiterated he was unarmed,” the memo said.
Gooden said “the negotiations would last several hours because he wanted to spend time with his children,” the memo continued. “He voiced his belief he would be imprisoned and prohibited from seeing them; or because police would shoot him ‘like other unarmed Black men.’”
He asked how many officers were there and what they were doing. “Officer Ruge repeatedly gave Gooden instructions for safely resolving the situation by descending the stairs with his hands up and nothing in them,” the memo said. “Gooden was told he would be handcuffed by officers and then given the opportunity to address ‘the allegations.’”
Burnsville Police Sgt. Adam Medlicott was periodically in and out of the house to speak with officers about progress and options. Officer Elmstrand went in the house at 2:49 a.m. to replace Medlicott.
A Burnsville police sergeant requested at 3:46 a.m. that Burnsville’s Emergency Action Group be called to the scene. The team includes Burnsville officers and two Burnsville fire department paramedics skilled in tactics and equipped with weapons and gear. Burnsville Officer Javier Jimenez responded and was assigned as a sniper. Burnsville Firefighter/Paramedic Adam Finseth also responded.
At 4:10 a.m., the sergeant asked that South Metro SWAT team respond to the scene with their Bearcat vehicle. The armored vehicle arrived about 4:50 a.m. and was initially staged out of view of the house “so as not to escalate Gooden,” the memo said.
Medlicott called the team leader for the Burnsville Crisis Negotiations Team, provided him with an update on the negotiations, and they decided to call out the team. The leader arrived and talked with Medlicott and Mueller. They decided to allow Ruge to continue negotiating with Gooden “as he was seemingly building rapport with Gooden, but that if the incident continued on longer, other options of communications or a switch out of negotiators would be considered,” the memo said.
Gunfire began
Mueller began walking to re-enter the home to relay the plan to Ruge, but Gooden fired multiple shots from the upper level hallway toward officers inside the home. It was 5:25 a.m., based on body-worn camera video.
Gooden shot Medlicott in his right forearm. He fell to the floor and used the ballistic shield he was holding to cover his head. He looked behind and saw an officer, Elmstrand, was bleeding badly from his head. One of the officers yelled about Elmstrand to “get him out of here” and other officers evacuated him.
Medlicott stayed on the floor and he told authorities that, “to provide protection for the evacuating officers,” he fired his pistol about five times up the stairway toward where he believed Gooden was shooting. The Bearcat was in the home’s driveway and Medlicott ran to it when he believed Gooden was reloading.
Burnsville Officer Daniel Wical had dropped to the floor when Gooden started shooting. Wical heard Gooden loading magazines into firearms, and believed Gooden was preparing shooting again as officers were trying to drag Elmstrand out of the house. He fired his rifle at Gooden’s legs. The later autopsy showed Gooden had a nonfatal gunshot wound to his thigh.
Firefighter/Paramedic Finseth started providing medical care to Elmstrand at the Bearcat. Ruge approached and said he’d been shot, and it was found a bullet had hit his ballistic vest.
Gooden started firing at the Bearcat from an upper level window of the home at 5:31 a.m., based on body-worn camera video. He shot Ruge and Finseth.
“Gooden continued to fire on officers from varying upper level rooms in the house,” the memo said, with at least 41 projectiles hitting the Bearcat. “The shooting spanned over a time period of approximately 13 minutes. During that time, officers deployed several distraction devices in an attempt to distract Gooden while the injured were loaded into the Bearcat and driven to awaiting ambulances.”
When Gooden was shooting at officers, Officer Jimenez took cover behind a patrol vehicle with his sniper rifle and fired one round at Gooden. He saw Gooden retract back into the room.
“It is my conclusion that given the facts and circumstances of this incident, most notably that Gooden fired first and continued firing causing the tragic loss of life of Officers Elmstrand and Ruge and injury to Sergeant Medlicott, it was objectively reasonable for Officer Jimenez, Officer Wical, and Sergeant Medlicott to believe 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,” Keena wrote. ” Accordingly, all three were legally justified in using deadly force in this extremely harrowing incident.”
The investigation
Jimenez heard a single gunshot come from the residence. At 6:54 a.m., a child in the home called 911 and reported that Gooden had shot himself in the head. The children walked out of the home safely at 7 a.m.
Elmstrand, Ruge and Finseth were pronounced dead at HCMC.
Medlicott was treated for a gunshot wound to his arm and released from the hospital.
A crime scene team found 119 rifle cartridge cases and one 9mm cartridge from the upper level of the home. There were three rifles on the bed and a pistol on the floor next to Gooden’s body. Additional firearms in the main bedroom were collected by BCA agents.
In a search of Gooden’s cellphone, law enforcement found more than 900 images of a child and the majority were “pornographic work” as defined by state law, the memo said. An analysis of the child’s underwear found Gooden could not be excluded from being a possible contributor to DNA.
Gooden was a felon with a lifetime ban on possessing firearms. In March, Dyrdahl federally indicted for straw purchasing the firearms used in the killings. She has pleaded not guilty and her court case is ongoing.
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