Rosemount teen faces upgraded manslaughter charge for punch that killed Vietnam vet

Nick Ferraro, Pioneer Press
Updated ·5 min read

A Rosemount 18-year-old now faces an upgraded charge of manslaughter for the death of a Vietnam veteran who was punched in the face this winter at Harriet Island Regional Park.

Wyatt Daniel Doerfler admitted to police that he punched Thomas Dunne after confronting the 76-year-old in a parking lot on Jan. 28, according to the original juvenile petition charging the then 17-year-old with first-degree assault causing great bodily harm.

At Regions Hospital, Dunne had emergency surgery for “traumatic damage” to his right eye. He had several fractures to both his eye socket and nose. He died Feb. 23 while hospitalized.

The final autopsy report found Dunne, of St. Paul, died of “probable complications of assault” due to homicide, according to the amended juvenile petition filed Thursday charging Doerfler with first-degree manslaughter while committing fifth-degree assault.

Dennis Gerhardstein, Ramsey County attorney’s office spokesman, said Thursday that manslaughter was the “highest charge we could prove beyond a reasonable doubt in court.”

A hearing is scheduled for May 1 to determine whether Doerfler, who turned 18 on March 25, will stand trial as an adult. Attempts to reach Doerfler for comment Thursday were unsuccessful.

Dunne fought two tours in Vietnam as a Marine and went on to serve in the Minnesota National Guard and the Wisconsin Army Reserves. He was a hero, his wife, Helen Broderick, told the Pioneer Press four days after his death.

She said they had just finished a walk at the riverfront park.

“For a hero like him to come home to his local park after being at risk in foreign wars,” she said, “and to be assaulted like that …”

‘Yeah, that was me’

Officers were called to the 100 block of Water Street after Broderick reported her husband was punched in the face. Officers found Dunne standing next to his car with blood streaming from his right eye socket. St. Paul fire medics were called to the scene.

Dunne told officers that after he saw a male urinating and took out his phone to take a picture, two other males got out of a blue Ford Fusion. They approached him and tried to take his phone. One of them punched him in the face.

A witness told police she was getting out of her car and saw a male urinating in a pond. She said three males then confronted Dunne and that one of them slapped the phone out of his hand and punched him approximately two times in the face. She said she yelled at them before they walked away, headed east.

Officers saw three males walking east along the river and asked if they were involved in a fight. Doerfler spoke up and said, “Yeah, that was me,” the petition says. He declined to give a formal statement.

One teen told police they confronted Dunne because they believed he was recording them and that he should have “minded his business.”

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The third teen said he couldn’t find a public bathroom and began urinating in a pond. Doerfler and the other teen walked over and Doerfler “indicated that (Dunne) was recording or taking a picture of him,” the petition says. “Doerfler then approached (Dunne) and said, ‘Let’s get to it,’ before punching (him).”

Hospital staff told the police investigator that Dunne’s eye injury was “very severe” and that he “may permanently lose most of his vision in that eye, and it would be months before they could tell if there was any improvement.”

Dunne was discharged from Regions on Jan. 29 with instructions to receive follow-up care. Five days later, he was readmitted to Regions due to complications stemming from the injuries he sustained from the assault, the petition says.

Medical records indicate that Dunne had contracted an infection that continued to progress and ultimately led to him being placed on a ventilator on Feb.13.

Born in Ireland

Born in Clonaslee, Ireland, Dunne emigrated to the U.S. at age 2 with his parents and his younger sister. They ended up on Chicago’s far southeast side, where growing up he delivered Chicago Tribune newspapers and graduated from George Washington High School. He then enlisted in the Marine Corps and served two tours in Vietnam as an infantryman. He was a staff sergeant when discharged in 1972.

Dunne moved to St. Paul in 1975. He met Broderick the next year in Ireland and they married five years later.

He re-entered the military in 1984 as a Minnesota National Guardsman, drilling once a month and going away for two weeks every summer, according to a biography he wrote and submitted to Twin Cities PBS’ online project, mnvietnam.org, which records local vets’ stories.

Dunne was recalled to active duty when Desert Storm began in 1991. He later transferred to the U.S. Army Reserve and had assignments in Somalia, Haiti and northern Iraq, where he helped coordinate and implement the evacuation of Kurds.

In 2002, Dunne became the command sergeant major of a Wisconsin Army Reserve battalion that sent most of its troops to war after 9/11, he wrote in his biography. “It was difficult for me as a Vietnam vet to do this as I was very much aware what they were heading into; it would have been much easier to go than stay,” he wrote.

Funeral services for Dunne, who also worked for Ramsey County Public Works for over two decades and retired in 2010, were held last month.

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