ST PAUL, Minn. — Four officers fired guns and two shot "less lethal" rounds after officials say a man pointed a gun at officers Monday evening in St. Paul.
According to the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA), the incident was captured on body cameras, dash cameras and nearby security cameras, but those videos have not yet been released to the public.
The BCA said the man, later identified as 40-year-old Earl Bennett, was shot by St. Paul Police officers after he pointed a gun at police during a confrontation Monday night near Allianz Field.
Officers Shawn Marlowe, Chase Robinson, Blake Steffen and Sergeant Lamichael Shead all fired their weapons, while Officers Austin Borowicz and Peov Suon fired "less lethal" rounds, according to the BCA. Officers Marlowe and Robinson have each been in law enforcement for 10 years; Officer Shead has been in law enforcement for eight; Officer Steffen has four years of law enforcement experience and Officers Suon and Borowicz had three. The BCA says all six officers are on critical incident leave.
Bennett was transported to Regions Hospital where he remains in critical but stable condition.
Minneapolis Police say Bennett was a suspect in two shootings since Sunday. Officers say the first shooting occurred Sunday afternoon when three people were shot at an encampment on the 4400 block of Snelling Avenue. Two of the victims died and one was taken to HCMC with life-threatening injuries. Bennett has not been officially charged in Sunday's shooting.
However, according to court documents, Bennett is charged with first-degree attempted murder in connection to a second shooting after he allegedly shot another man in the neck inside a sober living facility on the 3500 block of Columbus Avenue Monday evening. The victim was transported to a hospital and is in critical condition.
Later that night, police were called to the 400 block of Pierce Street in St. Paul just before 7:45 p.m. on reports of shots being fired in the area. When police arrived, they found a man walking around the area with a gun. At one point, when police approached the man, he put the gun to his own head, according to St. Paul police spokesman Sgt. Mike Ernster.
Police began to negotiate with the man for a peaceful surrender, but he reportedly refused to drop the weapon and started walking in the middle of traffic on Snelling Avenue. Court documents say Bennett stopped in the middle of light rail tracks, and officers fired "non-lethal" rubber balls at him. Bennett then pointed the gun at police, according to charging documents, and officers responded by firing their weapons. Police recovered an unloaded 9mm handgun at the scene that prosecutors say was tied to the casings fired in Sunday's double fatal shooting.
Bennett was charged Tuesday in Ramsey County with illegally possessing a firearm and second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon.
