Officers shoot, injure man at MSP airport

Published 10:44 am Monday, April 27, 2015

MINNEAPOLIS — Police officers shot and wounded a man who drove at them in a parking ramp at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport in a confrontation that also injured one of the officers, authorities said Sunday.

The shooting happened about 9:30 p.m. Saturday in the Hertz rental car area on the second level of Terminal 1, according to the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office. The airport has seen a rise in rental car thefts recently.

Airport police had received a call about two suspicious people in the ramp, airport spokesman Patrick Hogan said. Police were dealing with a person in one car while the suspect in another car drove at the officers, the sheriff’s office said. Officers then fired on the vehicle, and an officer also was hurt, according to sheriff’s spokeswoman Lisa Kiava.

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The driver, a 36-year-old Twin Cities man, was hospitalized, authorities said at a news briefing Sunday. He has not been charged. The suspect and the officer are both expected to survive, Kiava said.

Authorities did not explain how the officer’s injuries were inflicted.

“At this time, we do not believe this case had any ties to any Homeland Security concern,” Sheriff Rich Stanek said.

The shooting scene remained off limits to the public until shortly before 9 a.m. Sunday as the sheriff’s office investigated the incident, Hogan said.

Hogan said he believes this is the first time airport police have been involved in a shooting since a gun battle with a man 20 years ago. In that incident, the man fired 43 shots inside and outside the main terminal. Airport police returned fire and hit the man in the hip and shoulder before arresting him. No one else was injured.