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Crime, Law and Justice
Catharine Richert and MPR News Staff
Rochester, Minn.

Standoff with armed man outside Rochester shopping complex ends in self-inflicted gunshot

Police vehicles outside of a mall
A large police presence is gathered in Rochester, Minn., on Thursday.
Catharine Richert | MPR News

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Updated: 8:03 p.m.

A standoff with an armed man outside a shopping center in Rochester on Thursday afternoon ended with a self-inflicted gunshot wound, according to police.

Police first received a call about the man around 9:25 a.m. and began looking for him. Rochester Police Chief Jim Franklin said law enforcement found the man around 2 p.m. at the complex and that the situation was contained and there was no threat to the general public.

Minnesota State Patrol, Olmsted County Sheriff’s Office and crisis negotiators were on the scene.

Franklin said after hours of negotiation, things escalated.

“We continued to try to ask him to surrender himself peacefully … later on we discovered the individual deceased of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. At this time, we’ve frozen the scene and we are completely turning it over to the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension for their investigation,” he said. “My absolute condolences to the deceased’s family.”

At one point, the individual shot through his windshield in the direction of law enforcement, but according to Franklin, no police officers discharged their guns or were injured by the individual.

The incident unfolded outside Rochester television station KAAL, though Franklin said there had been no specific threats against that station, any media or individual and the man posted the threats on social media and called them in to area TV stations.

The deceased’s name has not yet been released.

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