One person is dead after an officer shot a suspect in downtown Alexandria during an undercover investigation Tuesday, Aug. 2.
Law enforcement was called about about 2:15 p.m. to the 300 block of Irving Street.
According to the Alexandria Police Department, the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension was conducting an undercover operation involving the solicitation of minors. Supporting agencies included Alexandria police and the Douglas County Sheriff's Office.
During the operation, two BCA agents fired their guns. According to Alexandria police, one person was dead at the scene. No officers were injured and no arrests were made.
At the request of the BCA, the St. Paul Police Department will conduct the official investigation of the shooting.
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Steve Linders of the St. Paul police said investigators arrived in Alexandria on Tuesday evening, but said no more information, including the identity of the man shot, would be released before Wednesday.
The shooting took place in a residential area near Minnesota Highway 29, the main thoroughfare through Alexandria, a town of about 13,000 people in west-central Minnesota.
The shots were fired about a block away from the St. Mary’s Catholic Church, also home to a parochial school.
Shootings involving police officers have become a national issue, with protests in front of the Minnesota governor’s residence continuing weeks after a police officer shot and killed Philando Castile during a traffic stop in Falcon Heights.
That shooting came on the heels of an officer in Louisiana shooting and killing another black man during an arrest.
Days later in Dallas, a sniper shot 12 officers, killing five of them, during a protest of police violence.
Hours after the Alexandria shooting, officers were at the previously scheduled Community Night Out event, intended to strengthen relationships between law enforcement and the community. While there, they mingled with community members, and the shooting was not publicly addressed.
There have been other shootings involving officers in Douglas County in recent years.
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In 2014, two people from Fargo, N.D., were involved in a shootout with a Douglas County sheriff’s deputy before they were found dead.
Devin Blowers, 24, shot Deputy Dustin Alexander during a traffic stop, striking him in a bullet-resistant vest.
Alexander returned fire, but the two suspects drove away, then got stuck in snow and ran, only to be found dead hours later.
BCA investigators determined Blowers shot himself after he shot and killed Katie Ray Christopherson, 29.
In 2011, a suspect was shot by Douglas sheriff’s deputies in the town of Garfield after he threatened others with a shotgun. That suspect later recovered from his wounds.
