911 transcript released in triple homicide as Brooklyn Park police meet with residents

Police and public meeting
Brooklyn Park police inspector Mark Bruley (left) addressed more than 100 residents Wednesday, April 11, 2012 at a public meeting to discuss the murders of an in-home daycare provider and her parents.
MPR photo/Rupa Shenoy

More than one hundred Brooklyn Park residents met with police and city council members Wednesday evening in the aftermath of a triple homicide earlier this week in the Minneapolis suburb.

Residents asked many questions Brooklyn Park police couldn't answer. They wanted a better description of the suspect who shot daycare owner Delois Brown and her parents Monday morning in Brown's home. More than anything else, they wanted to know if they're in danger.

Brooklyn Park Police Inspector Mark Bruley apologized to residents for not being able to disclose more specific detail in the investigation, but he did say that the daycare slayings were not random.

"The reality is if I provided the information to you — the facts that lead me to believe it's not random — I would be providing you facts that would compromise the case. And that's why we have investigators working on this," Bruley said. "But believe me, if I thought it was random, I wouldn't have one patrol just cruising the neighborhood, we would be doing things much different."

Police said they still believe the suspect acted alone. Police also said he remains at large.

Bruley said there was likely no link between the daycare killings and another homicide Tuesday evening in Brooklyn Park. In that incident, officials say the suspect in shooting death of 32-year-old Ashantai Finch was arrested at the scene.

Police released a transcript of the 911 call from the mother who said she saw a "suspicious man" near the daycare as she was driving away after dropping her child off. She told the dispatcher the man appeared to have something under his coat. The mother was still on the phone with the dispatcher when she discovered the three bodies.

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