Second 911 call from Burnsville home: Child reported ‘there was a big shootout here’

Mara H. Gottfried, Pioneer Press
·6 min read

A second 911 call from a Burnsville house came from a child who reported, “There was a big shootout here and my dad’s down,” according a newly released transcript.

Shannon Gooden, 38, barricaded himself in the home with seven children. He fatally shot Burnsville officers Paul Elmstrand and Matthew Ruge and Burnsville firefighter/paramedic Adam Finseth on Feb. 18. Gooden then died by suicide, the medical examiner’s office has said.

The transcript of the second 911 call from the home sheds more light on the trauma the children went through. Five were Gooden’s children and two are his girlfriend’s.

Relatives of the children have expressed gratitude for the first responders, with the aunt of four of them saying they are “safe today because of their heroic actions.” They’ve also said they’re trying to help the children, who weren’t physically hurt, to heal mentally and emotionally.

Girlfriend called 911 first

The first call to Dakota 911 came in at 1:50 a.m. Feb. 18. The caller said: “Can I have the police at my house right now please?” and gave an address in the 12600 block of 33rd Avenue South in Burnsville, according to a 911 transcript.

Gooden’s girlfriend was the 911 caller, according to Noemi Torres, who was previously in a relationship with Gooden, of what the woman told her. Three of Torres’ children, who she had with Gooden, were in the home at the time.

The caller reported: “Um, my husband is,” and what she said next was redacted by the city of Burnsville. “Help me. Shut the (expletive) up,” according to the transcript. Then, there was screaming and the call disconnected.

Dakota 911 kept calling back back, but didn’t reach the caller.

Gooden’s girlfriend told Torres that he took the phone and she tried to get him to calm down before she ran out from the garage and talked to police outside, Torres said.

Shot officers ‘without warning’

Officers responded to the home after receiving a report of a domestic incident, according to the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, the investigating agency. It was “regarding an alleged sexual assault,” a BCA agent wrote in an application for a search warrant. The BCA has said their investigation includes what led to the 911 call.

When police arrived, they spoke with Gooden, who refused to leave the home; he said he was unarmed and had children inside, according to the BCA.

Ruge, a trained crisis/hostage negotiator, was talking to Gooden inside the rental home. Also with him were Elmstrand and their supervisor, Sgt. Adam Medlicott.

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Officers tried to get Gooden to surrender peacefully, but he opened fire “without warning” at 5:26 a.m., the BCA said. He shot Ruge, Elmstrand and Medlicott in the home. Medlicott and another officer returned fire in the house.

Gooden shot Ruge and Medlicott a second time as the officers were moving from the home to an armored vehicle in the driveway. Finseth tried to aid the officers and Gooden shot him. Medlicott was treated at the hospital and released.

A firearm from the scene was traced to a Burnsville firearm shop. The purchaser passed the background check and took possession of it on Jan. 15. The store’s owner said authorities are now investigating it as a straw purchase — when someone buys a gun legally and provides it to someone who is prohibited from having it, which was the case for Gooden.

Torres said she didn’t know Gooden had guns or that he’d tried to get his firearm rights restored, which a judge denied in 2020.

After shooting, teen reported she was alone with siblings

Gooden and his most recent girlfriend had two children together. Torres and Gooden, who broke up in 2016, had three children, ages 12, 14 and 15. His girlfriend has two children from a previous relationship. The seven kids were the children in the home.

Torres’ 12-year-old daughter and his girlfriend’s 14-year-old daughter were in the home’s main bedroom with Gooden when he was firing and when he shot himself, Torres said.

The 14-year-old called 911 at 6:54 a.m., according to a transcript of the call requested by the Pioneer Press, which the city of Burnsville released Monday.

The girl, who referred to Gooden as her dad, reported he wasn’t breathing. She told a dispatcher that an officer shot Gooden in the leg and “then a little bit later, when the cops left he shot himself in the head,” the transcript said.

“It’s just … me and my siblings here,” she said, and told the dispatcher the children were putting on their jackets to go into the cold.

The dispatcher told them to walk out the door and that officers would tell them what to do. The teen said she’d be holding children’s hands.

“Five, six, seven,” an officer could be heard counting the children as they exited, with the teen still on the phone with 911.

“You guys aren’t hurt at all?” an officer asked. The teen said, “No,” but also noted a child had a cut to the arm.

Torres has said her 12-year-old daughter was struck by a glass shard in the arm when Gooden was shooting out a window.

Police put the children into armored vehicles. A paramedic or medics checked their blood pressure.

A medic asked the children: “You guys hungry at all? We have (unintelligible) bars, they don’t sound or taste the best but if you’re hungry I can grab one for you,” the transcript said.

12-year-old left with ‘what ifs’

Torres said Monday that of her three children, her 12-year-old is taking it the hardest because she was in the same room with Gooden. She said she’s been letting her talk about what happened without asking her questions, and she’s in the process of getting therapy for all of them.

The girl left school early Monday because “she was thinking about the last moments that she was with her father” and was feeling sad, Torres said.

Torres’ daughter said Gooden asked the 14-year-old girl “something about who’s going to be watching the younger brothers,” referring to his younger sons, according to Torres. Gooden’s 12-year-old “wishes she could have said more to maybe change his mind in some kind of way,” Torres said.

“She has a lot of ‘what ifs,'” Torres said. “She even says, ‘I wish I could have left the room and went and talked to the officers'” before Gooden shot them. Torres said she’s told her daughter: “I don’t think your dad would have let you.”

She’s also said to the girl: “You’re going to have those ‘what ifs,’ but also know that there’s nothing you could have done to prevent it. There was nothing that anybody could have done to stop him from what he was going to do.”

How to help

Donations for the families of the first responders who were killed are being accepted at lels.org/benevolent-fund.

A friend of Torres started gofundme.com/f/transpiration-for for her because they “are struggling to resume their normal routine due to lack of housing and transportation.”

Gooden’s most recent girlfriend’s sister established a fundraiser at gofundme.com/f/devastation-for-family-of-7-childrenburnsville-mn so they can find a new place to stay, replace transportation and get therapy.

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