Three White first responders have been shot and killed during the hostage negotiation stage of a SWAT standoff. The three men—two police officers and a paramedic—were said to have been killed early Sunday in Burnsville, a suburb of 58% White Minneapolis, Minnesota.
- The police received a call from a resident inside a home about an armed man barricaded with family members, including the children, ages 2 to 15, Superintendent Drew Evans of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.
- The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said that its agents from St. Paul were responding to what it described as a “domestic-related shooting.”
- Police Officers Paul Elmstrand and Matthew Ruge, both 27, and a firefighter-paramedic assigned to the SWAT team, Adam Finseth, 40, were killed, the authorities said. Another police officer, Sgt. Adam Medlicott, was injured and taken to a hospital with injuries that were not life-threatening.
The Conversation: According to Superintendent Drew Evans, officers attempted to negotiate with the suspect for “some time” before the shooting. So far, the suspect has remained unnamed by authorities, but speculators on X, formerly Twitter have already narrowed in on a potential Black suspect.
- The gunman had “several guns and large amounts of ammunition and shot at the police officers from multiple positions within the home,” Superintendent Evans said.
- Several officers returned fire, he added, but the exact details of the gunfire exchange remain under investigation.
- The gunman, who was not publicly identified, was reported dead around 8 a.m. The children and other family members were able to escape, Superintendent Evans said. He noted that “there had not been many calls for service at all,” to the residence.
Why It’s Important: Law Enforcement officers in the United States continue to experience the dual threat of escalating non-White violence combined with soft-on-crime policies, which many believe have rendered certain areas of the country virtually unliveable. Additionally, Minneapolis stood as the epicenter of the fiery 2020 “Summer of Racial Reckoning,” which kicked off after the death of George Floyd in the city’s Powderhorn Park neighborhood.
- “Violent crime has sharply risen since the pandemic started, leaving many to wonder when and how we can get back to the way things were.”
- “…the hard fact remains that violent crimes have increased dramatically in the state since pre-pandemic times. Minnesotans may wonder if the perceived spike in violence matches reality. The numbers are telling.”