A man who died after fatally shooting two police officers and a firefighter in a wooded Minneapolis-area neighborhood wasn’t legally allowed to have guns and was entangled in a yearslong dispute over the custody and financial support of his three oldest children, court records show.
A man who died after fatally shooting two police officers and a firefighter in a wooded Minneapolis-area neighborhood wasn’t legally allowed to have guns and was entangled in a yearslong dispute over the custody and financial support of his three oldest children, court records show.
Authorities on Monday identified Shannon Gooden, 38, as the man who opened fire on police in the affluent suburb of Burnsville after they responded to a domestic disturbance call early Sunday. The caller reported that he had barricaded himself in his home with family members, including seven children aged 2 to 15. He was found dead inside the home hours later.
His standoff with police came only two days before a scheduled district court hearing over his ongoing legal disputes with the mother of his three oldest children. Online court records show that those children spent most nights with him, but that he still he wanted to go back to court. The records do not say why.
The attorney representing Gooden in the custody dispute, Robert Manson, did not return a telephone message seeking comment.
Court records also show the state barred Gooden from possessing guns after he pleaded guilty in 2008, aged 22, to second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon. Prosecutors said he threw rocks and pulled a knife on a man in a Burnsville shopping mall parking lot.
Authorities have not provided details about Sunday’s call to Gooden’s home, and it’s not clear exactly how he died.
