Neighbors shaken by officer-involved shooting in Hastings, Minn.
HASTINGS, Minn. (KMSP) - The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension is investigating the shooting that unfolded in a quiet Hastings neighborhood.
On Tuesday, the BCA reported that it all started with an incident at a group home where two residents got in a fight. One was armed with a knife and stabbed the other several times. When police arrived, the armed suspect was gone.
Just before 4 p.m. Monday, Hastings police started looking for the suspect involved in the stabbing. Two hours later they found him on the 1500 block of Walnut Street.
Neighbor Terry Swanson said there was no yelling, no sirens, nothing - until he heard the shots.
“Then all of the sudden I heard a quick ‘pop, pop.’ I looked out the front window and obviously they had shot a suspect and police started swarming in at that time,” he said.
Swanson said it all unfolded right in front of his home on Walnut Street while he was watching a movie with his three-year-old granddaughter.
“We were worried about any crossfire. As soon as I looked out the window and saw what was going on, I told my wife we gotta get her out of this room, she doesn’t need to see any of what’s going on out here,” he said.
But Swanson continued to watch and wait.
“I saw a male laying in the middle of the road with gunshot wounds. It was obvious. It was pretty obvious to me he had already passed.”
Swanson said Walnut Street may have had a few minutes of chaos, but he’s not worried and believes it remains a very safe area.
“You feel bad for the victim, the officer…but ya know, they’re trained to protect us and we thank them for it and I have all the confidence in the world in our local police department that they did what they needed to do to make sure that everybody else here was safe.”
The Hastings Police Department is investigating the stabbing and did not return requests for comment.