MINNEAPOLIS — Two young police officers and a firefighter-paramedic were killed in a burst of gunfire Sunday as they responded to a domestic disturbance call in the Minneapolis suburb of Burnsville. Another officer was injured, and the man identified as the shooter fatally shot himself, police said.
Here are the victims’ stories.
Paul Elmstrand, 27, was the youngest of five children. He was raised on his family’s farm in North Branch, north of Minneapolis, where his parents, Rodney and Sara Elmstrand, mostly grow strawberries and pumpkins, his mother said Tuesday.
He enjoyed cross country as a boy and he chose to work in law enforcement because of his admiration for a family friend who was a state trooper, his mother said.
Elmstrand was class president at Cambridge-Isanti High School in Cambridge, a city of about 10,000 residents near North Branch. He graduated with a criminal justice from the University of Northwestern-St. Paul in 2018 and married his high school sweetheart, Cindy, the next year.
They had two children: Maria, 2, and Mateo, 6 months.
Elmstrand joined the Burnsville Police Department in 2017 as a community service officer, becoming a police officer in 2019. Among other roles, he was a member of the department’s mobile command staff.
Elmstrand also worked as a part-time officer with the University of Minnesota Police Department.
Kind, respectful
Most relatives of Burnsville Officer Matthew Ruge live in the Chicago area, but he and his family moved to Minnesota when he was a child, his cousin Josh Ruge said Tuesday via Facebook Messenger.
Ruge, who was 27, grew up in Wabasha, Minn., a city of about 2,500 people roughly 85 miles southeast of Minneapolis. A neighbor, Robin Gwaltney, recalled that he was kind and respectful, even at a young age.
He graduated from Minnesota State University, Mankato’s Law Enforcement Program in 2018, the university said on its Facebook page. He joined the Burnsville police force in 2020. Ruge was part of the department’s crisis negotiations team and was a physical evidence officer.
History of service
Adam Finseth, 40, was an Army veteran with a long history of service to his country and community.
Finseth graduated from John Marshall High School in Rochester, Minn., in 2001. He served in the Army Reserve from February 2003 to October 2003, when he joined the regular Army. He served until February 2009, according to an email from Fonda Bock, a spokesperson for the U.S. Army Human Resources Command.
During his time in the Army, Finseth was twice deployed to Iraq. He earned 13 awards, including the Army Achievement Medal and Army Good Conduct Medal, and was promoted to staff sergeant in January 2008.
Finseth began his firefighting and paramedic career with the fire department in Hastings in 2015, the Pioneer Press reported. He later worked with the department in Savage, Minn., before going to Burnsville.
