Minnesota man who shot 2 officers and a firefighter wasn’t allowed to have guns
A man who died after fatally shooting two police officers and a firefighter in a wooded Minneapolis-area neighborhood wasn’t legally allowed to have guns and was entangled in a yearslong dispute over the custody and financial support of his three oldest children, court records show.
Authorities on Monday identified Shannon Gooden, 38, as the man who opened fire on police in the affluent suburb of Burnsville after they responded to a domestic disturbance call early Sunday. The caller reported that he had barricaded himself in his home with family members, including seven children aged 2 to 15. He was found dead inside the home hours later.
His standoff with police came only two days before a scheduled district court hearing over his ongoing legal disputes with the mother of his three oldest children. Online court records show that those children spent most nights with him, but that he still he wanted to go back to court. The records do not say why.
The attorney representing Gooden in the custody dispute, Robert Manson, did not return a telephone message seeking comment.
Court records also show the state barred Gooden from possessing guns after he pleaded guilty in 2008, aged 22, to second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon. Prosecutors said he threw rocks and pulled a knife on a man in a Burnsville shopping mall parking lot.
Authorities have not provided details about Sunday’s call to Gooden’s home, and it’s not clear exactly how he died. But court records suggest he cared for seven children — the three oldest by one woman, two more with another and that women’s two children from a previous relationship. When he petitioned a court unsuccessfully in 2020 to have his gun rights restored, he and his attorney said he had matured and that he regretted his past poor decisions.
“He is a good man to his peers and his family,” one longtime friend wrote to the judge in August 2020. “He has personally guided me and many others through some very tough times all through the kindness of his heart.”
But court records show his disputes over the parenting of his oldest three children had grown increasingly contentious. He accused their mother of neglect and she called him “controlling” and accused him of abusing her and the children.
Prosecutors opposed his effort to restore his right to possess guns, citing the details of his crime and repeated traffic violations that they said showed his disregard for the law.
Drew Evans, superintendent of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, said officers “spent quite a bit of time” negotiating with Gooden before he opened fire. He killed Officers Paul Elmstrand and Matthew Ruge, both 27, and Adam Finseth, 40, a firefighter and paramedic who was assigned to the city’s SWAT team.
Sgt. Adam Medlicott was shot and wounded and was later released from a hospital, the city said.
