Man charged in shooting that wounded two South St. Paul police officers

Updated: July 20, 3:58 p.m. | Posted: July 19, 2:50 p.m.

Two South St. Paul police officers were shot and wounded while responding to a call on Thursday afternoon. A suspect was charged a day later.

One of the officers was shot in the shoulder and was hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries, authorities said at a Thursday afternoon news conference at South St. Paul City Hall. Another was shot near their leg, and was not hospitalized.

Dakota County prosecutors charged 33-year-old Dustin Bilderback with two counts of attempted first-degree attempted murder and two counts of second degree attempted murder in connection to the shooting.

Bilderback lives in a group home in South St. Paul. The group home told police he was late for an appointment with a mental health caseworker. Bilderback was on provisional release from the Minnesota Security Hospital at St. Peter where he'd been committed as mentally ill and dangerous.

While South St. Paul Police officers were at the group home, Bilderback came back. He grabbed a shotgun from his vehicle and shot at the officers six times. They had minor injuries. After they told him to drop the weapon, he did and was arrested.

"Our officers did return fire but did not strike the suspect," South St. Paul Police Chief William Messerich said at the news conference Thursday.

In a statement, the group home, Everyday Living, said it was in the process of terminating Bilderback's lease.

Dakota County Sheriff Tim Leslie said there were 110 calls for service in 2017 to the group home. So far this year there have been 62 calls.

The hospitalized officer is an 11-year veteran of law enforcement. The other officer is a six-year veteran.

"We're thankful that the officers are alive — we're very, very thankful. We're thankful for the community that came to support us," Leslie said, noting many other agencies responded at the report of the shooting.