MSP airport police shoot vehicle driving at them in parking ramp

Hennepin County Sheriff Rich Stanek
Hennepin County Sheriff Rich Stanek speaks to the media at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport after an officer shot a man in an airport parking ramp Saturday night.
Peter Cox | MPR News

Updated: 7:33 p.m. | Posted: 9:43 a.m.

Police shot a man in a parking ramp at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport Saturday night after what police say was an attempt to run over officers.

Airport officials said the incident occurred at the Hertz Rental car lot on the second floor of the Terminal 1 parking ramp around 9:30 p.m.

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Airport police officers arrived on foot at the ramp, responding to a report of suspicious people. While officers dealt with someone in one vehicle, another vehicle drove at them, twice. They shot the driver of the second vehicle, Hennepin County Sheriff Rich Stanek said.

Hertz rental car lot
The shooting took place outside of the Hertz Rent-A-Car lot in the Terminal 1 ramp at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.
Peter Cox | MPR News

Stanek said officials do not believe the case is Homeland Security-related airport police have been dealing with a rash of thefts of rental vehicles.

Stanek says a 36-year-old suspect was shot and was taken to an area hospital. An officer also suffered injuries in the incident that Stanek said were not life-threatening. The incident temporarily shut down part of the parking ramp.

Patrick Hogan, spokesman for the airport, said these types of incidents are rare.

"I believe the last time there was a shooting involving airport police was more than two decades ago," He said. That time, police stopped "an individual who was armed who came into the baggage claim area at Terminal 1 and began shooting."

On May 7, 1995, David DeMatthew opened fire on guards and officers at the airport. He was the only one seriously wounded in the exchange and was later sentenced to 10 years and three months in federal prison for the shooting.

The Hennepin County Sheriff's Office is investigating at the request of airport police.