Deputy critical after shooting

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Red River Valley Swat team members gather near the site of a standoff Wednesday morning in Mahnomen, Minn. where a deputy sheriff was shot. Photo by Dave Wallis/The Forum

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MAHNOMEN, Minn. (AP) — A Mahnomen County sheriff’s deputy was in critical condition after being shot several times early Wednesday while investigating a report of shots fired, and officers surrounded a mobile home where two suspects were holed up.

Sheriff Doug Krier told reporters the incident apparently started around 4 a.m. Wednesday when authorities got a call about a drunk driver leaving the Shooting Star Casino in Mahnomen. Deputies found the vehicle not far from the courthouse with no one in it.

About 6:20 a.m., the sheriff said, neighbors reported shots were fired in that general area.

“The deputies responded and checked the area but couldn’t find anything,” Krier said. He said that about 7:10 a.m. the deputy went to a house to interview a witness about the gunfire.

“At about 7:11 his backup called to find out his status and how he was doing. He did not answer his radio,” Krier said.

The backup deputy arrived to find his partner laying on the driveway of the home he was going to check.

“The deputy had been shot multiple times,” the sheriff said. “The suspects then ran into a residence across the street.”

The standoff outside that double-wide mobile home continued Wednesday afternoon.

The 26-year-old deputy was taken to Mahnomen Hospital, then flown to MeritCare Hospital in Fargo, N.D., where he was undergoing surgery, the sheriff said. He’s been with the sheriff’s department four years, Krier said.

MeritCare said in a prepared statement that the the deputy, Christopher Dewey, had multiple gunshot wounds to his abdomen and was shot once in the head.

Krier did not take questions, but said he hoped to provide more information at an afternoon briefing.

Several law enforcement agencies descended on the scene. The Red River Valley SWAT Team — made up of members of the Cass and Clay County sheriffs’ offices, West Fargo, Fargo and Moorhead police — was sent to the scene, Clay County Sheriff Bill Bergquist said. The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension also sent its SWAT team, its Crime Scene Team and investigators.

The Mahnomen public school, a few blocks from the shooting, was locked down as a precaution, Superintendent Walt Aanenson said. Doors were locked and students were not allowed to leave unless it was an emergency, he said.

Aanenson said the school of about 600 students learned of the shooting as buses were arriving Wednesday morning.

Mahnomen is about 60 miles northeast of Fargo.

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