A popular Mankato park became a crime scene Sunday after police received reports of a shooting and a man waving a handgun in the park just before noon.

When they arrived at a parking area near Elks Nature Center in Rasmussen Woods, they found an unidentified female who was dead.

A suspect was taken into custody a short time after the shooting was reported. Witnesses said he left the park in a Cadillac Escalade, turning south on Stoltzman Road. There was a pursuit before the man was stopped in a driveway off a gravel road south of Blue Earth County Road 90.

Matt Westermayer, acting Mankato Department of Public Safety director, said he could not confirm the victim had been shot. He said the incident was being treated as a homicide and agents with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension were called in to assist with the investigation.

“We do not believe this was a random act,” Westermayer said.

He said he didn’t know if the people involved knew each other, or if it was a domestic situation. Westermayer said he could not identify the victim or the suspect.

Max Griensewic walked out of the park with his dog after the park’s access had been shut down by police and firefighters. He said he was walking by when he heard multiple gunshots and saw blue smoke.

When he got to the end of the road, there was a car that had been rammed against a tree by a vehicle that looked like a Chevy Suburban. The SUV’s front end was still smashed against the car and its wheels were spinning, which was creating blue smoke, Griensewic said.

Griensewic then spoke to Todd Block, who told him he witnessed the incident before calling 911.

Block told Griensewic a man driving the wrecked SUV had gotten out after the crash and shot a woman in the car. That man then took kids who were in the car.

Another person drove the Escalade into the park after seeing the smoke, Griensewic said. The man with the gun forced that man and his family out of the Escalade before stealing it and driving away with the kids from the car.

Only the woman was shot, Griensewic said. There was a bleeding child who could have been injured in the crash or from broken glass because the woman had been shot through a window, he said.

“When you shoot someone that close, you’re not going to miss,” Griensewic said. “The other people were lucky they hadn’t been shot.”

Before Griensewic got to the scene, and was told what happened by Block, the man driving the stolen Escalade passed him on the long road that leads to the park, he said.

“I was pretty oblivious when the guy drove by me with the kids in the car,” he said. “I’m just glad I didn’t get caught up in it.

“I consider myself lucky.”

During a news conference Sunday night, Westermayer said he didn’t know when a Blue Earth County sheriff’s deputy started pursuing the Escalade. The vehicle did travel south out of the park on Stoltzman Road to Blue Earth County Road 90.

The deputy was apparently following the Escalade for at least a short distance on County Road 90 before the suspect turned off at 195th Street, which is a gravel road. The chase ended in the driveway of Solyntjes Stables, which is off 564th Avenue. After a hairpin turn to the south, 195th Street becomes 564th Avenue.

The road turns into a dead end after it intersects with Indian Lake Road.

“I was inside when I heard sirens go by,” said Phyllis Olfert, who lives in a house off 564th Avenue with her husband, Larry. “I looked out the window and all I could see was dust. Then we saw a whole bunch of squad cars go by.”

The second group of cars included deputies, at least one Mankato squad car and a state trooper, Larry Olfert said. “They were going as fast as they could go.”

An ambulance and a Good Thunder rescue vehicle followed later.

Tim Solyntjes said he was in his house when the pursuit ended halfway up his long driveway. The driver stopped and was taken into custody about a thousand feet away from the house, he said.

“I don’t know who it was,” Solyntjes said. “They were sitting on the guy by the time I looked out the window.”

More information was to be released at a news conference in Mankato at 10 a.m. this morning.