Star Tribune
Girlfriend bought AR-15 style firearms for felon weeks before Burnsville ambush
The two AR-15-style firearms used to kill three Burnsville first responders and wound another last month were bought by the shooter’s girlfriend just weeks before he used them to unload more than 100 rounds during an hourslong standoff at the couple’s home, according to new federal charges unsealed Thursday.
A federal grand jury indicted Ashley Anne Dyrdahl, 35, on 11 counts, including conspiracy, straw purchasing and making false statements for procuring five firearms on behalf of 38-year-old Shannon Cortez Gooden, who was prohibited from having them based on a prior conviction.
Two rifles used in the Feb. 18 shooting were bought by Dyrdahl on Jan. 5 and Jan. 25, respectively, weeks before Gooden shot and killed officers Paul Elmstrand and Matthew Ruge, both 27, and firefighter-paramedic Adam Finseth, 40, then took his own life. Dyrdahl was living at the home with Gooden on the day police were called in response to a domestic abuse call, where Gooden barricaded himself inside with seven children present. Gooden also wounded Burnsville police Sgt. Adam Medlicott during the shootout.
“Now today we can answer the questions Minnesotans have been asking since Feb. 18,” U.S. Attorney Andrew Luger said at a news conference Thursday.
The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) is still investigating the broader circumstances surrounding the case — such as the events leading to police first being called to the home and the shooting itself — but Superintendent Drew Evans said Thursday that the federal charges closed a key loop.
“Ashley Dyrdahl didn’t shoot anybody, make no mistake; that was Shannon Gooden in this incident,” Evans said. “But Ashley Dyrdahl handed him the guns, and for this she must be held accountable.”
Dyrdahl surrendered to U.S. marshals and made a brief, 16-minute first appearance in a St. Paul federal courtroom. Luger’s office did not seek to have Dyrdahl detained before trial, and she was released soon after appearing in court. Dyrdahl and an attorney from the federal defender’s office who appeared alongside her both declined to comment. The attorney, Robert Meyers, told Magistrate Judge Elizabeth Cowan Wright that Dyrdahl intended to plead not guilty to all charges.
Wright agreed to release Dyrdahl under conditions that included restricting her travel to within Minnesota, cooperating with a mental health assessment and agreeing not to possess firearms, destructive devices or any other weapons. Dyrdahl also agreed to random drug testing and to abstain from alcohol.
According to the indictment:
In 2016, Dyrdahl began a relationship with Gooden, and knew that he had previously been convicted of second-degree assault, a felony, which precluded him from owning firearms. In 2019, she filed a letter in support of Gooden’s petition to restore his firearm rights in which she acknowledged his conviction and crime. That petition was later denied. Despite this, the charges said, Dyrdahl bought five firearms from two federally licensed dealers between September 2023 and January of this year before “knowingly and intentionally” transferring them to Gooden.
As part of the conspiracy, the indictment alleges Gooden sent Dyrdahl text messages of firearms he wanted her to buy for him. She would then place the orders at dealers, and filled out federally required paperwork stating that she was the actual buyer of the firearms and that she was not planning to transfer them to a felon. During a text exchange between Dyrdahl and Gooden, the two discussed background checks and other questions from firearm sellers, in which Dyrdahl allegedly told Gooden, “We just gotta make sure we’re smart about all this ya know?”
The final purchase listed in the indictment happened Jan. 25 at the Burnsville Pistol and Rifle Range. Owner Roger Hird told the Star Tribune that Dyrdahl came in to pick up the lower portion for a PA-15 semiautomatic that she bought online from Palmetto State Armory in Columbia, S.C., and had it shipped to the range, which is a federal firearm license holder. Hird said his business completed the transfer to Dyrdahl “after she filled out the [federal background check] forms without any assistances. She knew what she was doing and wasn’t nervous or anything. It raised no red flags.”
Luger told reporters Thursday that Burnsville Pistol and Rifle Range and the Modern Sportsman Gun Shop and Range, also in Burnsville, “cooperated with our investigation” but declined to provide further details.
According to the indictment, among the firearms Dyrdahl bought and transferred to Gooden at his direction were three semiautomatic AR-15-style firearm lower-receivers. One of these was a Franklin Armory FAI-15 .300-caliber semiautomatic firearm that was equipped with a binary trigger. A firearm with a binary trigger fires one shot when the trigger is pulled, and another when the trigger is released, effectively doubling the rate of fire. Dyrdahl also purchased a .300-caliber barrel for the lower receiver.
Dyrdahl knew that Gooden was loading the semiautomatic AR-15-style firearms with .300 Blackout ammunition, which is a heavier load ammunition that has an increased potential for being lethal, prosecutors said. Gooden referred to them as “higher pressure” rounds, according to the indictment.
The indictment describes a text exchange between the couple on Feb. 10, about a week before the shooting, in which Gooden describes going to a shooting range.
“I love my 300 blackout,” he wrote to Dyrdahl.
“Haha good baby,” she replied.
Later, Gooden texted, “It’s nasty bae,” to which she replied, “hell yeah.”
“Thanks for making me so happy,” Gooden texted.
“You’re welcome baby thank you for making me so happy to [sic] ….”
On Thursday, Luger recounted another text exchange in which Dyrdahl asked Gooden how he liked his new Glock 47 semiautomatic pistol she had just bought him.
“He responded by sending her a video in which he loaded the Glock 47 with an extended magazine,” Luger said. “She responded with a smiling heart emoji.”
Gooden soon followed with an emoji of his own, depicting a finger pressed to his lips as if to say “shhh.”
A conviction in 2008 for second-degree assault in Dakota County prohibited Gooden from possessing firearms or ammunition. In August 2020, Gooden petitioned the court unsuccessfully to regain his right to own a gun. He said that he wanted to protect himself and his family, according to court records.
Straw purchasing, or knowingly buying firearms on behalf of a prohibited person, is outlawed under both state and federal law in Minnesota. The federal straw purchasing charges against Dyrdahl are just the second such case filed in Minnesota since the 2022 Bipartisan Safer Communities Act gave federal prosecutors the ability to charge that as a felony. Luger said that prosecutors can seek penalties of up to 15 years in federal prison under the new law.
“The indictment charges her with intentionally and deliberately and knowingly engaging in this conduct,” Luger said. “That’s the law.”
Travis Riddle, special agent in charge of the St. Paul division of the ATF, said straw purchasing makes it possible for prohibited persons to “effectively circumvent the background check and recordkeeping requirements of federal law by distancing themselves from the documented part of the firearm purchase.”
In a letter supporting Gooden having his gun rights restored in 2020, Dyrdahl wrote that “family is everything to him and that is why these rights are so meaningful to him. He hopes to one day own his own home and protecting that home involves having these Second Amendment rights.”
Dakota County Attorney Kathryn Keena said Thursday: “In retrospect, it was the seven children in his home that needed protection from him. Ms. Dyrdahl is the reason why he had an arsenal of firearms in his possession that ultimately resulted in the murder of three of Dakota County’s finest and the injury of another as they selflessly acted to protect those children.”
According to the indictment, a law enforcement search of the bedroom Gooden and Dyrdahl shared found a “stockpile of fully loaded magazines as well as boxes with hundreds of additional rounds of ammunition and additional firearms.”
Prosecutors moved at a swift pace to bring the charges: The grand jury returned the indictment under seal on Wednesday, just a day after taking testimony from a group of five witnesses which included the mother of three of the children who were present during the shooting. Noemi del Carmen Torres told the Star Tribune this week that she was asked about Gooden’s history of possessing firearms and whether he would have been able to force her to buy any guns on his behalf.
“No, I don’t want any of that because I feel like he was gonna kill me,” Torres said in an interview this week, noting that Gooden was abusive toward her. “I feared for my life, and that’s what I told them.”
Keena’s office will review the remainder of the BCA’s findings once it completes its investigation of the shootings.
“This work will take some time and we ask you for your patience as we continue that work,” Evans said Thursday. “There will be a complete accounting of the incident, the facts that led to what happened that day and the incident in its entirety.”
Burnsville Fire Chief BJ Jungmann and Burnsville Police Chief Tanya Schwartz also attended Thursday’s announcement of the charges.
“I believe our partners would be alive today if this woman would not have bought these guns and given them to the murderer who shot our partners on Feb. 18,” Jungmann said. “I’m encouraged that there will be accountability for this tragedy.”
Star Tribune staff writer Paul Walsh contributed to this story.
Some take him up on it and fret when he’s not around.
“It is nice to be missed and be part of the school’s culture,” Arzola said. But mostly, he added, he wants kids to know that police aren’t around just for when the bad stuff happens. He’ll hand out his stickers and bracelets, even a trading card bearing his image. Then, they’ll talk about dogs and family.
School resource officer Al Arzola talks to students in his office at John Adams Middle School in Rochester on Oct. 11. (Leila Navidi/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
Two months ago, Rochester played host to a three-day training session for new SROs from across the state — an event organized by the Minnesota School Safety Center. On the final day, the 26 officers learned about surveillance challenges at the other school where Arzola works: Dakota Middle School.
It is a beautiful building with a scenic view. There is a lot of glass, too. Arzola, handling the role of instructor and tour guide, took the group outside and noted how one could look straight through the entrance to the large groups that gather inside. There were no curbs in front, either.
“There is nothing stopping any vehicle whatsoever from going through my front doors,” Arzola told the officers. “Law enforcement wasn’t talked to before this building was made. It was kind of like, ‘Here it is. You’re the SRO. Do what you do.’”
He showed them his office, too, which is separate from the main office and near those of other school support staff members. That makes sense, said Jenny Larrive, SRO coordinator for the Minnesota School Safety Center, given than SROs spend more time connecting with youth than on actual law enforcement.
“The basic rule in Minnesota is you cannot preemptively post law enforcement at a polling place,” he said. “A city can’t say, ‘Wow, Precinct Two, there’s a lot of intensity there, let’s just put a cop at the door.’”
Simon doesn’t go deep into the details on security, though. “I don’t want to give a total road map to the bad guys,” he said.
But testimony at the Capitol last year on behalf of the new law bolstering protections for election and polling place workers indicated there’s room for concern. One election worker was followed to her car by an angry voter; the head of elections in another county was called repeatedly on her home phone during off hours, and an official was lunged at by an aggrieved voter, forcing her to call the local sheriff.
Those who violate the law could now face civil damages and penalties of up to $1,000 for each violation.
The Brennan Center survey indicated more than four in 10 election leaders were concerned about recruiting enough poll workers due to threats of harassment and intimidation. This includes doxing — publishing a person’s personal information online in a threatening manner — and swatting, fake emergency calls that result in an armed response being sent to someone’s home.
“Election officials are working to prepare for everything right now,” said Liz Howard, director of partnership engagement at the Brennan Center. “More than 90% of election officials have made improvements to election security since 2020.”
Star Tribune
Daylight saving time ends next weekend. This is how to prepare for the potential health effects
The good news: You will get a glorious extra hour of sleep. The bad: It’ll be dark as a pocket by late afternoon for the next few months in the U.S.
Daylight saving time ends at 2 a.m. local time next Sunday, Nov. 3, which means you should set your clock back an hour before you go to bed. Standard time will last until March 9 when we will again ”spring forward” with the return of daylight saving time.
That spring time change can be tougher on your body. Darker mornings and lighter evenings can knock your internal body clock out of whack, making it harder to fall asleep on time for weeks or longer. Studies have even found an uptick in heart attacks and strokes right after the March time change.
”Fall back” should be easier. But it still may take a while to adjust your sleep habits, not to mention the downsides of leaving work in the dark or trying exercise while there’s still enough light. Some people with seasonal affective disorder, a type of depression usually linked to the shorter days and less sunlight of fall and winter, may struggle, too.
Some health groups, including the American Medical Association and American Academy of Sleep Medicine, have said it’s time to do away with time switches and that sticking with standard time aligns better with the sun — and human biology.
Most countries do not observe daylight saving time. For those that do — mostly in Europe and North America — the date that clocks are changed varies.
Two states — Arizona and Hawaii — don’t change and stay on standard time.
Here’s what to know about the twice yearly ritual.
