By Dave Orrick
Pioneer Press
MINNESOTA -- On Thursday, an Anoka County district judge unsealed a grand jury indictment against Robbinsdale undercover narcotics officer Landen Beard, 27, of Coon Rapids, for terroristic threats, a felony.
Records obtained Thursday by the Pioneer Press offer the most detailed narrative to date - as well as conflicting accounts - of events June 7.
A potential key witness told police she saw Beard hanging out of the unmarked sedan he was driving, screaming, ''I’ll (expletive) kill you. ... I don’t care about jail,” according to those police records.
On Wednesday, Martin Scott Treptow, 35, also of Coon Rapids, who shot Beard, was indicted on the same charge as well as drive-by shooting and reckless discharge of a firearm within a municipality.
Prosecutors also had offered up those additional charges against Beard, but the grand jury declined to indict, prosecutor Paul Young said.
Additionally, the grand jury declined to indict either man on the most serious offense offered: second-degree assault.
Each man accused the other of drawing his weapon first. Both are expected to plead not guilty to all charges. The men declined to comment, but their attorneys expressed confidence in exoneration.
“He didn’t do anything wrong,” said Bill Michael, Beard’s attorney.
The fact that Treptow faces more charges than Beard didn’t surprise Treptow’s lawyer, Kurt Glaser.
“There’s the operative fact that (Treptow) shot somebody, so when you look at it from that perspective, the grand jury did the same thing with each man,” Glaser said.
The accounts of Beard, Treptow (who goes by his middle name) and his wife, Rebecca, are similar in many respects, according to transcripts of police interviews with them and witnesses. The documents reveal new details of the incident.
On the afternoon of June 7, Beard was returning to an undercover operation from his home, and Treptow was driving to St. Paul with his wife in the passenger seat and their two young children in back of their SUV.
A minor snarl in suburban side-street traffic sparked the confrontation, after Beard passed the Treptows on a paved shoulder not intended for through traffic. Horn-honking and gesturing ensued and rapidly escalated, according to statements by Beard and both Treptows.
A hair stylist at a nearby strip mall, who had a view of the street, told police the following: “And the African-American gentleman was hanging out of the window kinda yelling at the guy in the car sayin’, ‘I’ll (expletive) kill you. ... I don’t care about jail. ... I’ll (expletive) kill you. I don’t care about jail.’ ... I heard that like three times.”
Beard is black; the Treptows are white.
When investigators questioned Beard, he denied making the threats.
“They’re making up lies,” he told investigators. “I didn’t yell any profanities at them. ...
“I’m totally in police mode here. So I’m like, you know, I gotta have tact here. ... I got utmost professionalism.” He also denied ever hanging out of the car.
As the vehicles approached Foley Boulevard south of U.S. 10, they stopped next to each other in traffic.
Treptow leaned across his wife and shot Beard through the vehicle’s open windows. A single round from his Glock 9mm blew out Treptow’s passenger-side mirror, passed through one of Beard’s arms and left leg. It then entered his right leg, breaking the femur. The bullet remains there, Michael said.
How it got to that point is the crux of the dispute.
What Beard said: When Scott Treptow became “irate” and said, “I’m gonna kick your ass,” Beard decided to call 911. “I look down (to grab his cell phone), I look up, gun’s out. Gun’s pointed at me, and she’s leaning back.”
What Treptow said: Beard reached for something in his center console. “He turns to face us, and he’s got a gun.” Treptow fumbled with his transmission, removed his gun, for which he has a permit to carry, and fired in self-defense.
Beard said that when he saw the gun, he identified himself as a police officer for the first time.
Treptow disputes this.
When an investigator asked Treptow that day when he learned Beard was a cop, Treptow said, “I didn’t know until you just said so.”
Judge Michael J. Roith ordered Beard to be booked at the Anoka County Jail before 1:30 p.m. today. He’ll then be released, like Treptow, on the promise he’ll appear at court dates and have no contact with the other parties.
The incident has also become political, pitting the media against police and the Ramsey County sheriff’s office against the St. Paul Police Department.
A follow-up story to the shooting led KMSP-TV reporter Tom Lyden to request records from St. Paul police. They denied him, but Lyden obtained the documents from the sheriff’s office. St. Paul police then got a search warrant for Lyden’s cell phone records. Now, Sheriff Bob Fletcher has demanded an investigation.
Copyright 2007 Pioneer Press