DWI suspect slips out of handcuffs, beats up female Edina officer

EDINA, Minn. (KMSP) - A 25-year-old accused of drunk driving slipped out of his handcuffs in the back of the squad car and struck the female Edina police officer who arrested him early Sunday morning.

Samuel Ronneberg, 25, is being charged with two counts of assault and driving while impaired (DWI). He was previously convicted of DWI in 2014.

According to the Edina Police Department, the officer had pulled someone over on Highway 169 and Londonderry around 2:50 a.m. During that traffic stop, a car zoomed by too closely, so she abandoned the first vehicle to pull over the other driver for not moving over.

Police said the second driver, Ronneberg, had been drinking and was arrested for DWI. While in the back of the squad car, he slipped one hand out of his handcuffs without the officer noticing. Ronneberg then told the officer he was going to vomit and asked her to open the door.

"When the officer bent down to assist him, Ronneberg grabbed the officer’s hair and hit her multiple times with his fist or the handcuff," Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman said. "The officer was terrified and may have lost consciousness during the assault."

Ronneberg then fled the scene, prompting a multi-agency manhunt including Hopkins, Eden Prairie, Minnetonka, Richfield, Bloomington, Plymouth, State Patrol, and Hennepin County.  He was soon located by Minnetonka and Plymouth K9s on the 6700 block of Lincoln Drive.

The Edina police officer was taken by paramedics to Fairview Southdale hospital to be treated for head wounds. According to Freeman, she sustained injuries to the back of her head and ear requiring staples and stitches, and also had a black eye.

After being transported to the police station, Ronneberg provided a BAC of .09.