MINNEAPOLIS — A Kennewick man who was killed by police after a high-speed chase on a busy Minnesota freeway repeatedly stabbed himself after emerging from his crashed vehicle, and then charged at officers with a knife, authorities said Friday.
The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension said Johnathon Dean Mar, 18, ignored officers’ commands to drop the knife and get on the ground during the Wednesday-morning incident on Interstate 694. Two officers shot him multiple times when he charged at them.
Authorities were pursuing Mar as a suspect in a Wednesday fatal shooting at a highway rest stop in the Minneapolis suburb of Maple Grove. Matthew Paul Maffei, 23, who had no permanent address, was found dead at the rest area.
It was not immediately clear why Mar was in Minnesota, whether he knew Maffei, who attended middle school in the Pasco School District for 1½ years, or what might have led to Maffei’s shooting. The Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s office said Maffei died of a gunshot wound to the head. His death has been ruled a homicide.
The officers who fired at Mar were identified Friday as Hennepin County sheriff’s Deputy Matthew Hagen and Brooklyn Center Police Officer Alan Salvosa. Both are on standard administrative leave, the BCA said.
According to a preliminary investigation, Maple Grove police arrived at the Elm Creek rest stop about 1 a.m. Wednesday to find a man had been fatally shot. Officers saw a red sport utility vehicle with Oregon license plates matching the description of Mar’s vehicle, and began pursuing it.
Authorities followed the SUV until it crashed in the center median on I-694 in Shoreview, north of St. Paul. The BCA said that was when Mar was shot.
The Kennewick School District said Mar had been enrolled for a total of seven months between 2011 and 2014. Most recently, he enrolled at Legacy High School and Tri-Tech Skills Center in November; attendance records show he was last at school Dec. 11.