Feds charge alleged gun buyer tied to killing of 3 Burnsville first responders
Updated 4:20 p.m.
A federal grand jury has indicted the girlfriend of Shannon Gooden — the man who fatally shot three first responders in Burnsville last month before killing himself.
Prosecutors allege that Ashley Anne Dyrdahl, 35, purchased five guns as a straw buyer for Gooden, who was prohibited from buying firearms because of a 2008 felony assault conviction.
U.S. Attorney Andrew Luger told reporters Thursday morning that Dyrdahl acted on Gooden’s orders on what weapons to buy, including semiautomatic pistols and rifles, knowing that he was prohibited from buying them.
Dyrdahl “repeatedly obtained dangerous firearms and put them in the hands of a violent, convicted felon,” Luger said.
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Dyrdahl surrendered to federal marshals Thursday morning. She pleaded not guilty Thursday afternoon during her first federal court hearing, where she answered a judge's questions quietly and asked for a public defender. She was allowed conditional release. More motions in the case are expected next week.
Luger said Gooden's girlfriend warned Gooden in a text message that they needed to be careful as he chose the firearms and Dyrdahl picked them up.
"In a second chilling text message exchange, Dyrdahl asked Gooden how he liked a new Glock 47 semiautomatic pistol that she had just purchased for him. He responded by sending her a video in which he loaded the Glock 47 with an extended magazine,” he said. “She responded with a smiling heart emoji."
Dyrdahl is charged with conspiracy and making false statements during the purchase of a firearm. She also faces five counts of straw purchasing under the 2022 Bipartisan Safer Communities Act. Luger said the new law increases the maximum prison term for straw buyers to 15 years and better defines the crime.
Officials say Gooden fatally shot Burnsville police officers Matthew Ruge and Paul Elmstrand and firefighter-paramedic Adam Finseth on Feb. 18 and injured Sgt. Adam Medlicott.
They were responding to a 911 call for help from inside the home where seven children were present. Officers negotiated with Gooden for more than three hours before he opened fire. The children were able to leave the house safely following the incident.
The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension continues to investigate.
Dyrdahl, who lived in the home with Gooden, shares two children with him and is a mother to two others. Noemi Torres, who has three children with Gooden, told KARE 11 last month that they were in the home at the time of the shooting.
The indictment says Gooden used two AR-15-style semiautomatic firearms purchased by Dyrdahl to kill Ruge, Elmstrand and Finseth. Investigators said Gooden fired more than 100 rounds in the incident before killing himself.
"Dyrdahl's illegal buying spree for Gooden demonstrates a reprehensible disregard for public safety and the law, and the consequences of this disregard for public safety are beyond comprehension," Luger told reporters.
A federal grand jury had been convened to look into how Gooden obtained firearms despite the 2008 felony conviction.
John McConkey, who owns The Modern Sportsman, told MPR News in an email last month that an out-of-state online retailer shipped an AR-15 lower receiver, the federally regulated part of the gun, to his Burnsville store for transfer to a local buyer.
McConkey said Gooden was not the person who passed the FBI background check and picked up the weapon on Jan. 15.
“The Modern Sportsman had no way of knowing the lower receiver would end up in a convicted felon’s / prohibited person’s possession,” McConkey said in a statement. “The prohibited person was not there during the transfer process nor was his name on any of the enclosed documents.”
Luger told reporters Thursday the firearms retailers cooperated in the investigation.
Four years ago Gooden petitioned a court to have his firearms restored. At the time prosecutors argued that Gooden had “demonstrated a continued disregard to obey the law” as evidenced by numerous traffic and disorderly conduct convictions.
They pointed to an accusation of domestic violence that Dyrdahl made in a 2017 request for a protection order as well as to a protection order request that another partner filed in 2020.
Approximately two years after her protection order request, Dyrdahl wrote a letter to a judge urging her to restore Gooden’s gun rights.
In the end, Dakota County Judge Dannia Edwards sided with prosecutors and denied Gooden’s request.
MPR News reporters Estelle Timar-Wilcox and Peter Cox contributed to this report.