The Associated Press
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - In a quiet public housing tower for older people, a 60-year-old female resident walked around with a gun Thursday night, then traded shots with Minneapolis police called to the scene by scared neighbors. The woman and one of the officers died in a hospital.
Officer Melissa Schmidt became the first Minneapolis police officer to be killed in the line of duty since 1995.
Mayor R.T. Rybak and Police Chief Robert Olson announced her death early Friday. “The Minneapolis Police Department is in mourning. One of ours has died,” Olson said.
It may take awhile to understand precisely what happened.
Shortly after 7 p.m., Schmidt and another officer responded to a call that a woman with a gun was in a car outside the Horn Towers complex in south Minneapolis.
When they arrived, they found the car empty. They walked into a lobby of one of the three towers, and encountered the woman and asked if they could search the car. The woman said she first wanted to go to the bathroom.
It’s unclear what happened next but the shootout occurred in the bathroom. Schmidt was shot below the bulletproof vest she wore. The woman, whose identity hasn’t been released, also was struck and died a short time later at Hennepin County Medical Center.
Schmidt died about four hours after the shooting at the same hospital, where doctors for some time operated on her wounded abdomen. The other officer was injured.
On Thursday night, Olson said it was too early to tell who fired first or whether both officers fired their weapons. He also said he didn’t know if the officers had patted the woman down before entering the bathroom. But police found a handgun that didn’t belong to either officer in the bathroom.
The Hennepin County Sheriff’s Department was investigating the deaths, as it routinely does when Minneapolis police are involved in a shooting.
The three-building Horn Towers complex isn’t considered a hotspot for crime. Two buildings are filled with older residents while the third is for people of all ages.
Schmidt, 35, had been with the department for at least six years, working in crime prevention before being assigned to its 13-person public housing unit.
“We suffered a tremendous loss tonight.” Rybak said at a short news conference early Friday. “We also feel a renewed sense of gratitude for the people behind me and the hundreds of others who everyday put themselves between the citizens of Minneapolis and harm’s way.”
The last Minneapolis officer to die in the line of duty was Paul Moen. In July 1995, Moen, 53, suffered a heart attack while trying to subdue a suspect who was attacking other officers. He was a 25-year, decorated veteran of the force.
In September 1992, officer Jerry Haaf died after being shot in the back by gang members.