Burnsville police gunfire exchange with wrong-way driver leads to attempted murder charges

‘Lead persuasion’ used by Bloomington police

Bloomington police officers exchanged gunfire with a wrong-way driver Wednesday night, leading police to use “lead persuasion” to end the situation with the suspect. Police Chief Booker Hodges offered an update on the “use-of-force” incident on Thursday.

BURNSVILLE, Minn. (FOX 9) - A 21-year-old man faces several charges, including attempted murder and assault, for a standoff that escalated into gunfire with Burnsville police last week.

Burnsville standoff charges

What we know:

Joshua Rocha, of Savage, Minnesota, is charged with three counts of attempted murder and three counts of first-degree assault for an encounter that escalated into gunfire between him and Bloomington Police officers.

Charges state that on Dec. 4, officers saw a wrong-way driver, later identified as Rocha, near Old Shakopee Road and Killebrew Drive around 10:30 p.m. Police report that they attempted to stop Rocha, but when he continued driving, they used PIT maneuvers to disable his vehicle.

Police report that Rocha was seen moving around, and refused officers' orders to exit prior to officers deploying a pepper ball toward his vehicle.

Charges state that one officer observed a "large assault-style rifle gun and notified other officers," at which point they took cover. Soon afterward, the charges state that Rocha fired numerous shots at their squad car.

Officers then returned fire, resulting in an injury to Rocha’s hands.
He was taken into custody by authorities.

‘Idiotic decisions’

What they're saying:

During an update the following day, Bloomington Police Chief Booker Hodges says that a few minutes after pepper balls were deployed, Rocha "continued his idiotic decisions" before officers provided "a little bit of lead persuasion to get the man to stop shooting at us."

"We're grateful today that no one is visiting the undertaker," Hodges later said. "Don't come to Bloomington and think you're going to shoot at our cops. You shoot at us, we're going to shoot back." 

Bloomington police were wearing body cameras that were recording during the incident.