Fugitive fatally shot in Minneapolis home; couple arrested

A 21-year-old convict wanted by state corrections officials was shot to death early Tuesday in a north Minneapolis home, where he and others in his family were staying temporarily, a relative said.

Landon J. Pederson, of Appleton, Minn., was killed in the shooting that occurred about 4:45 a.m. at a home on the 2400 block of Illion Avenue N., on the northern edge of Glen Gale Park, authorities said.

Officers called to the home took into custody without incident a woman and a man who lived there, police said. The two have yet to be charged.

The state Department of Corrections had been looking for Pederson for failing "to maintain [an] approved residence and to inform" and properly check in with his supervising agent, department spokeswoman Sarah Russell said.

Pederson began serving a prison sentence in June 2010 for a felony weapons offense in Swift County. He was freed in February 2013 on supervised release, which was to last until November 2014.

No other suspects are being sought, and "there doesn't appear to be any danger to the public," police Inspector Michael Kjos said, standing outside the crime scene.

Investigators interviewed witnesses at the home to try to determine what led to the incident. Police said there were several children in the home at the time of the violence.

"All people involved in this are acquaintances," Kjos said. "Some are relatives, and some are just acquaintances."

Crystal Pederson, of Dawson, Minn., spoke with her nephew's mother and learned that he was shot while trying to stop a physical dispute between the man and the woman who are under arrest.

The man "locked him out of the house," the aunt said. "Landon kicked open the door and ran upstairs [and the man] shot him in the face."

Fighting back sobs, Crystal Pederson said: "My baby is gone. I helped raise him. He's like my own son."

Crystal Pederson said that Landon Pederson's mother and his 10-year-old sister were also being put up at the home.

"She thought it would be a safe place for him," the aunt said, noting that Landon had been in scrapes with the law starting in elementary school.

Paul Walsh • 612-673-4482