MINNEAPOLIS– Two young police officers and a firefighter-paramedic were killed in a burst of gunfire on Sunday as they responded to a domestic disturbance call in the Minneapolis suburb of Burnsville. Another officer was also injured and the man identified as the shooter, 38-year-old Shannon Gooden, fatally shot himself, police said.
Here are the stories of the victims.
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Paul Elmstrand, 27, was the youngest of five children. He grew up on his family’s farm in North Branch, north of Minneapolis, where his parents, Rodney and Sara Elmstrand, grew mostly strawberries and pumpkins, his mother said Tuesday.
As a boy, he enjoyed running around the country and chose to join the police force because of his admiration for a family friend who was a state trooper, his mother said.
Elmstrand was class president at Cambridge-Isanti High School in Cambridge, a town of about 10,000 near North Branch. He graduated with a criminal justice degree from the University of Northwestern-St. Paul in 2018 and married his high school sweetheart, Cindy, the following year.
They had two children: Maria, 2, and Mateo, 6 months.
“He was the most generous, loving and patient person I have ever known, with the biggest smile,” Cindy Elmstrand-Castruita said of her husband in a statement. “He had the heart of a servant and would drop everything to help someone who was in trouble. need.”
Elmstrand joined the Burnsville Police Department as a police officer in 2017 and became a police officer in 2019. He was, among other things, a member of the department’s mobile command staff.
Elmstrand also worked as a part-time officer with the University of Minnesota Police Department.
“He really loved people, and he loved Jesus.” said Sara Elmstrand. “He was a real people person who could talk to anyone. A great father,. A wonderful husband. I don’t think he had any enemies.”
Sara Elmstrand said her son’s funeral will be held Saturday at Woodridge Community Church in Long Lake.
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Most of Burnsville Officer Matthew Ruge’s relatives live in the Chicago area, but he and his family moved to Minnesota when he was a child, his cousin Josh Ruge said Tuesday via Facebook Messenger.
Ruge, who was 27, grew up in Wabasha, Minnesota, a city of about 2,500 people about 85 miles (137 kilometers) southeast of Minneapolis. A neighbor, Robin Gwaltney, remembered him as kind and respectful, even at a young age.
“It was a pleasure getting to know him,” Gwaltney told the St. Paul Pioneer Press. “I’m so proud of what he has become: such a great young man. It’s just a shame.”
He graduated from Minnesota State University, Mankato’s Law Enforcement Program in 2018, the university said on its Facebook page. He joined the Burnsville Police Department in 2020. Ruge was part of the department’s crisis negotiation team and was a physical evidence officer.
Josh Ruge said the last he heard about Matt was how happy his family was that his cousin was not an officer in Minneapolis during the protests that followed the police killing of George Floyd in May 2020.
“And then this happens to him,” Josh Ruge said.
Gwaltney wasn’t surprised that Matt Ruge joined the police force.
“He was a young man who wanted to do nice things for people,” she told the newspaper.
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Adam Finseth, 40, was an Army veteran with a long history of service to his country and community.
Finseth graduated from John Marshall High School in Rochester, Minnesota in 2001. He served in the Army Reserve from February 2003 to October 2003, when he joined the regular Army. He served until February 2009, according to an email from Fonda Bock, a spokesperson for the U.S. Army Human Resources Command.
During his time in the Army, Finseth deployed twice to Iraq: for a year starting in September 2005 and for 14 months starting in September 2007. He earned 13 awards, including the Army Achievement Medal and Army Good Conduct Medal, and was promoted to sergeant in January 2008.
Finseth began his fire and paramedic career with the fire department in Hastings, southeast of Minneapolis, in 2015, the Pioneer Press reported.
“He was just a great guy to work with, great to work with,” retired Hastings Fire Chief Mike Schutt, who hired Finseth, told the newspaper. “If my family had an emergency, he’s the kind of guy I would want to show up to.”
Finseth had been a firefighter and paramedic in Burnsville since February 2019, according to a city news release.
In his spare time, Finseth coached youth baseball.
He was part of the Burnsville Public Safety Team’s SWAT unit that was called to the scene of the domestic disturbance on Sunday. He was treating one of the wounded officers when he was shot, police said.
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Burnsville Police Sgt. Adam Medlicott was taken to Hennepin County Medical Center after being shot. He was released from hospital on Monday.
Medlicott, 38, joined the force in August 2014 and was promoted to sergeant in September 2022, the city said. He serves as a patrol sergeant, supervises community service officers and is an expert in drug recognition, the report said.
A city spokesperson said in an email that Medlicott was named Burnsville’s Officer of the Year for 2020.
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Snow reported from Phoenix. Salter reported from O’Fallon, Missouri.
