Police shoot man in Woodbury who was taunting 'come kill me'

A man who taunted officers late Sunday morning to kill him was shot and wounded by police in a residential Woodbury neighborhood, authorities said.

A.J. Nobello said he was washing his car when he heard what sounded like fireworks.

Outside the beige house next door in the 7700 block of Highpointe Road, he saw three police officers with guns drawn. They began screaming at the man to "get down" and then began shooting at him. Nobello said he quickly took his kids inside and retreated to the basement.

The man doesn't live in the house where police arrived, Nobello said, and neighbors have said he was walking through the neighborhood.

"Nobody knows where the guy is from," Nobello said.

Woodbury Police Cmdr. John Altman told the Star Tribune that the state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension is investigating the shooting.

The man was in stable condition at Regions Hospital, according to a statement from police. His identity was not released.

The gunfire entered the man's lower torso from the front and exited his lower back, according to emergency dispatch audio from the Washington County Sheriff's Office.

The police statement said: A caller to 911 reported the man was having homicidal feelings and saying he "wants to die." He was repeatedly saying, "Come kill me."

Police arrived and were in contact with the man almost immediately.

"The suspect took a shooting stance directed towards the officers," the statement continued. "Less lethal munitions were deployed as well as lethal rounds, striking the suspect." No officers were injured.

The statement did not say whether the man was armed or if a weapon was recovered from the scene.

That block of Highpointe is made up of single-family homes and sits to the south and west of where Valley Creek Road and Radio Drive intersect.

Jamie Kujawa rode up to his own house on a bike about 30 seconds after the shooting and saw an injured man he didn't know lying on his lawn. Police pointed their guns at him and his friend and made them get down on the ground, he said.

The man lying on his lawn was black and in his 20s or 30s, Kujawa said, adding that the man was breathing and groaning as he was placed in the ambulance.

Shirley Townley, who lives several houses from the shooting, said that she heard three or four shots.

"You know, this doesn't happen around here," she said. "You could leave your bike out in the yard and it'd be here in the morning."

Erin Adler • 612-673-1781 Paul Walsh • 612-673-4482