BCA identifies deputy and the Vietnam veteran he killed after fight, car chase

Officials identified the Clearwater County sheriff’s deputy who killed a man after a physical fight and car chase last week in Bagley, Minn.

The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension said Tuesday that deputy Noah Hallman fatally shot Dennis Hoie, 75, on Nov. 13, after attempting to arrest him over an outstanding warrant. The situation escalated into gunfire after Hoie fired a projectile at law enforcement, the Sheriff’s Office said.

Hallman, who has three years of law enforcement experience, knew about the felony warrant and recognized Hoie at the Cenex gas station shortly after noon. The men got into a fight and Hoie fled in his pickup truck. A pursuit on Hwy. 2 ended when a Bagley police officer performed an intervention maneuver that caused Hoie’s vehicle to spin out and stop in a residential driveway.

Deputies and the officer approached Hoie’s vehicle and attempted to get Hoie to exit. The BCA said Hallman broke the glass of the passenger-side window as Hoie pulled a flare gun and fired it toward the deputies. Hallman fired his handgun, striking Hoie, who was pronounced dead at the scene.

Clearwater County Sheriff Darin Halverson, in response to a data request from the Minnesota Star Tribune, provided the report logging the 911 calls and response that day.

By the time Hallman approached Hoie at 12:12 p.m., the fight, pursuit and gunfire all happened with three minutes, according to the sheriff’s log.

The BCA said Hallman has been placed on critical incident leave.

“It’s bad that stuff like this happens,” said Mayor Duane Lewis, who didn’t know Hoie personally, but in “a small-knit community, we just feel for everybody ... and I feel for the law enforcement.”

Hoie was civilly committed last year due to mental illness, according to court records. Clearwater County Human Resources terminated its guardianship over Hoie at the end of July 2024, and he was discharged from civil commitment that September.

On Nov. 6, a week before the shooting, Stearns County issued a warrant for Hoie, who was accused of violating state and federal laws that prohibit a mentally ill person from possessing firearms or ammunition.

Hoie’s cousin, Cheryl Grover, the former county assessor, said that Hoie recently missed a court hearing that sparked the warrant.

Grover said so many Vietnam vets came home with PTSD and while many don’t have tragic outcomes like this, “he’s one of the unfortunate ones who did.”

“He was just a kind man,” Grover said in an interview Wednesday.

“Every morning he went to a local restaurant in town and he would go there and have breakfast. He’s so mild mannered and soft spoken. The waitress said he was so easy to talk with, and fun,” she said. “He brought his own coffee cup and it played music when they filled it. I can just see the smile on his face when they realized it was his coffee cup making the music.”

Funeral arrangements for Hoie are pending.

The day before the fatal shooting, the Bagley City Council discussed disbanding its Police Department and contracting with the Clearwater County Sheriff’s Office for services.

City leaders will continue its preliminary discussion about the future of its police department, but the mayor stressed it’s very early in the process that a growing number of Minnesota cities are going through.