Weeks Before Armed Carlton County Standoff, Property was Site of Separate Reported Shooting
SAWYER, Minn. – Weeks before Sunday’s armed standoff, law enforcement responded to the same Carlton County address for reports that a man had been shot, court documents show.
A man is in custody, after Sunday’s armed standoff at a residence in Carlton County involving multiple state, tribal, and local law enforcement agencies. According to the Carlton County Sheriff’s Office, a call came in around 4:05 p.m. from a man who said he shot himself while cleaning his gun. Fond du Lac Police responded to 3667 W Moorhead Rd in Sawyer Township, but the man was “screaming out of a window on the house” he “then fired a gun out the window.” The sheriff’s office said, “It was unknown at that time whether the shots were fired directly at officers.”
The W Moorhead Rd residence was the site of another reported shooting weeks before the standoff occurred. According to an affidavit from the incident, on Mar. 31, authorities received a call that the property owner claimed he was shot by his brother. The call came from the owner’s son, who told dispatch his father planned on driving himself to the hospital.
The man left the property in his truck, and responding officers attempted to stop him to render aid. While on Hwy 210, the affidavit said the man fled at speeds which reached “100 MPH and he swerved and brake-checked responding law enforcement patrol cars in an aggressive manner.” Spike strips were eventually deployed, but the driver made it to Cloquet Memorial Hospital and ran inside.
Authorities spoke with the man inside, who claimed his brother shot him four times; three hitting his bulletproof vest, and the other grazing his oblique. The man said he recently began wearing the vest due to a property dispute with his brother.
According to the man’s statements at the hospital, the incident began when he noticed his dog barking at something on the property. He then saw his brother roughly twenty feet away near some trees with “crazy eyes” while “pointing a silver semi-automatic handgun at him.” He alleged his brother then fired four times. When the man fell to the ground, he said he fired into the air to scare his brother off.
The affidavit said that after being discharged from the hospital, the man went “to his home where he continues to be uncooperative.”
Authorities spoke with the man’s brother later that night, who agreed to meet them at his residence. In his statement to deputies, the second man denied “knowledge or involvement” in the incidence. He said he hasn’t spoken to his brother in over a year, and he doesn’t own any firearms. No charges were filed in relation to the Mar. 31 incident, at the time of our reporting.
The man arrested in Sunday’s incident is being held on pending charges of 1st Degree Assault, 4th Degree Assault, Intentional Discharge of Dangerous Weapon, and Felony Possession of firearms/ammunition by a prohibited person, according to the Carlton County Sheriff’s Office.
