Authorities say the suspect in an apparently random east metro crime spree died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, rather than police gunfire, during a confrontation with law enforcement on Monday morning.
The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension announced Tuesday night that the Ramsey County medical examiner determined the suspect, identified as Noah Ante Erickson, 34, of White Bear Lake, died of suicide by firearm.
On Monday, authorities had said that the suspect was killed by police during an exchange of gunfire in Cottage Grove.
On Tuesday night, the BCA also identified the two officers who discharged their firearms during the incident, which included a kidnapping and car theft in Maplewood, a sexual assault in St. Paul, and a carjacking and hostage-taking in Cottage Grove.
The officers are Cottage Grove police Capt. Gwen Martin, who has 18 years of service, and Woodbury police Sgt. Omar Maklad, who has 16 years of service. Both were placed on standard administrative leave as the investigation continues.
Erickson has an extensive criminal record dating back to 2004, when he was 19 years old. It includes convictions for fleeing police in a motor vehicle, stalking, receiving stolen property, theft of a motor vehicle, drug possession, check forgery and several traffic violations.
Erickson was a burglary suspect in January 2014 when he fled Woodbury police detectives who were attempting to contact him about the case. He crashed his car into the detectives’ unmarked squad vehicle in St. Paul and was arrested. In his car, investigators found drugs and a firearm.
According to the BCA and St. Paul and Cottage Grove police, Erickson’s latest crime spree began around 6 a.m. Monday when he kidnapped a woman at gunpoint in the parking lot of her Maplewood workplace, the Ramsey County Care Center, a senior nursing home on White Bear Avenue.
He then forced her to drive them to her St. Paul home in the 300 block of Londin Circle in the Battle Creek neighborhood.
There he tied up the woman and her roommate before he sexually assaulted the roommate. Erickson left the home in the assault victim’s vehicle, but the women were able to get free and call 911.
A short time later, St. Paul police officers used the GPS system in the stolen vehicle to find it abandoned in Cottage Grove.
Around 8:30 a.m., Erickson stole another vehicle from a man at gunpoint at a Cottage Grove residence in the Hidden Valley neighborhood, which is just off Hardwood Avenue and 70th Street.
A half-hour later, after abandoning that vehicle, Erickson kicked in the door of the home of Craig and Lisa Patterson in the 7400 block of Hidden Valley Court South, where he held them at gunpoint for about five minutes, the couple told KSTP-TV.
Erickson told the Pattersons that he was “going to die today” before going into their garage and stealing their pickup truck, KSTP said. The Pattersons grabbed their two children and fled the house.
“God had an extra shield over our family that day,” Craig Patterson said.
Law enforcement had converged on the neighborhood, and when Erickson fled in the pickup, he drove around police barricades and across yards before eventually crashing into a tree several houses away.
After crashing the truck, Erickson exited the vehicle and exchanged gunfire with police before shooting himself.
He died at the scene despite lifesaving measures by officers. A gun was recovered near this body.
The BCA said that portions of the incident were captured on officer body cameras, squad car dashboard cameras and surveillance cameras.
In addition to Cottage Grove police, other law enforcement agencies at the scene included officers from the St. Paul, St. Paul Park and Woodbury police departments, the Washington County sheriff’s office and the Minnesota State Patrol.
The BCA is investigating the officer-involved shooting. When the BCA’s investigation is complete, the agency will forward its findings to the Washington County attorney’s office for review.