Officers in Woodbury shot a man in the parking lot of a Target in Woodbury Monday morning after confronting him for driving a vehicle with stolen license plates, officials said.
The shooting happened around 10:30 a.m. Monday in the parking lot of the Target in Woodbury Village, near the intersection of Interstate 494 and Valley Creek Drive.
An adult male, believed to be around 50 years old, was transported to Regions Hospital in St. Paul with gunshot wounds and is receiving treatment, officials said.
A Woodbury police officer and a Washington County Sheriff’s Office deputy – a member of the Washington County SWAT team – were involved in the shooting. Both have been placed on standard administrative leave.
When officers arrived in the parking lot of Target on Monday morning, they found the man’s vehicle unoccupied, according to a news release from the Woodbury Public Safety Department. “While officers were investigating, the suspect returned to the vehicle and fought with the officers when they attempted to arrest him,” the news release states.
The officers saw the suspect had a handgun and disengaged, the news release states. The suspect then barricaded himself into the vehicle.
Woodbury officers called for the SWAT team and attempted to negotiate with the man, according to the news release.
“They deployed less-than-lethal options with the suspect for an extended period of time, but he would not comply,” the release states. “He later exited the vehicle, brandished a handgun, and pointed it in the direction of responding officers, who then fired.”
All body/dash camera footage and camera data will be handled by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, which is leading the investigation of the officer-involved shooting.
Woodbury Police are investigating the original stolen-plates incident.
The store, located near Valley Creek and Interstate 494, was placed on lockdown, and police asked residents in the area to shelter in place. The store was closed as of early Monday afternoon.
Julie Larsen, her daughter Alyssa Hewitt, and Hewitt’s 1½-year-old son were in Target before the incident happened. “We were so thankful” they left when they did, Larsen said.
They went to the nearby Carter’s, which sells baby and children’s clothes, and they were locked in that store due to the danger outside.
Hewitt said they asked a law enforcement officer outside if they could get to their vehicle, which was parked in the Target lot, but the officer responded along the lines of, “I don’t want you to get shot,” Larsen said.
“Too close for comfort,” Hewitt said afterward.
Someone they knew came to pick them up. They couldn’t get to their own vehicle because it ended up being inside crime scene tape that was strung around the Target parking lot.
A Maplewood man, who asked that his name not be used, said he arrived at the Woodbury Target around 9:30 a.m. Monday to pick up some Vitamin C.
As he was walking into the store, he said he heard an officer yell “He’s got a gun!” and then saw a squad car with its lights flashing and sirens wailing pull into the parking lot.
“I was about 100 feet from the store entrance on the east side of the store,” he said. “I can’t say I was scared, and I can’t say I wasn’t scared. I didn’t know. When I realized it, I sort of picked up the pace a little bit. To be honest with you, I was glad I got in the store. After you’re inside, you start thinking about what you see on TV, and then you really start to wonder.”
He said he thinks there were maybe 60 other customers in the store at the time and another 20 or employees.
Target employees made the customers stay away from the store’s doors, he said. Customers had to stay inside the store until around 11:15 a.m. or so.
Police said that the customers’ cars had to stay in place in the store’s parking lot as it was considered a “crime scene,” he said. He said he called his wife to come and get him.
He said he hopes to be able to retrieve his car later Monday afternoon.
“The public is asked to stay away from the Valley Creek Plaza area,” police said in an earlier statement posted on Facebook. “If in the immediate area, shelter in place.”
A 3 p.m. press conference is planned.
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