Updated: 08:23
Two people were killed and a sheriff’s deputy was admitted to hospital after an attempt to stop traffic ended in Wadena County on Saturday night.
The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension is investigating the incident – the third fatal police shooting in the state in less than a week.
According to the sheriff of Wadena province, a deputy tried to stop a vehicle for a traffic violation on Saturday just after 8.45pm on a country road about 7 km east of Sebeka.
The vehicle stopped after about a mile, near the junction of 205th Street and 270th Avenue. The sheriff gave the following report of what happened next:
“A quarrel arose between the deputy and the motorist.” A second motorist then arrived on the scene and a while later an officer of the Sebeka police arrived and the fight continued, a while later at least one of the motorists started firing back at one of the officers. was hit by gunfire. ‘
One of the drivers died at the scene; the other later died at the hospital in Wadena.
The injured deputy was taken to the hospital in Park Rapids and then transferred to the North Memorial Health Hospital in Robbinsdale with, according to authorities, serious but not life-threatening injuries.
The police officer in Sebeka was beaten in their bulletproof vest but did not need medical treatment.
From the sheriff’s office statement it was not clear why the second driver stopped at the scene and whether they were trying to help the deputy or the first driver.
Authorities did not release the names of the two people who died, or law enforcement officials involved in the shooting.
Little other information was available early Sunday, although the sheriff said there was no ongoing threat to the public.
Local and state investigators remained at the shooting scene early Sunday and authorities asked people to stay away from the area.
Saturday’s shooting follows the fatal shooting of a man after a long battle with law enforcement on Friday in Duluth. That nearly 20-hour distance began with a home assault call and also led to the death of a police dog.
And a man was fatally shot dead by law enforcement officers near Braham last Sunday, February 21, after a car hijacking in Blaine and a chase north in Isanti County. A police dog was injured in an exchange of gunfire.
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