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Eight people were injured by a bull that escaped during a rodeo at the Dakota County Fair Wednesday night. They included a woman who suffered a serious head injury and had to be airlifted to Hennepin County Medical Center.


The incident happened shortly after 8 p.m, according to Dakota County Sheriff Dave Bellows. He said the 2,000 pound bull apparently pushed open the gate of a pen where he was being held. The animal then started to run through the fairgrounds.


Bellows said the animal ran into one of his deputies, who fired twice with his handgun and hit the bull. But the shots had little apparent effect on the animal, which ran free among thousands of fairgoers until it was recaptured.


"Given the number of people out there and just how wild this animal was, you know he was running in the streets through large gatherings of people indiscriminately, I think it was very fortunate that we only wound up with eight injuries," he said.


Bellows said the rest of the people hurt at the fair suffered only minor injuries.

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Tim Nelson

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A witness said the bull charged a Dakota County sheriff's deputy who had chased the animal after it escaped. The witness said the officer fired two shots at the beast before it ran him over.

Rodeo bull escapes, injures 8 at county fair

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