Cook County is hunting robbery suspect who shot at police

Federal and local authorities set up roadblocks across Cook County and sent out aircraft Monday to search for a man charged with firing at a Maplewood police officer last week.

Police believe Quincy A. Pederson, 38, of Willernie, fled to Cook County after allegedly robbing a Subway restaurant Wednesday night and firing at the Maplewood officer during an ensuing chase.

Pederson was charged Monday with first-degree assault and first-degree aggravated robbery. According to a complaint filed in Ramsey County District Court, his girlfriend, when shown surveillance photos, said: "It's his cap, his jacket, his glasses. It's him."

Cook County Deputy Sheriff Don Phillips said Maplewood police contacted the Sheriff's Office last week after friends said they thought Pederson would head north, where he owns land.

"He is from this area and we've been looking for him since Thursday," Phillips said.

The Cook County Sheriff's Office said that, on Sunday night, a deputy spotted a white Ford Expedition matching the description of a Department of Natural Resources SUV that police believe Pederson stole in St. Paul. Around 9:30 p.m., authorities said, the deputy tried to stop the car, which had license plates that matched another vehicle stolen in Pine County on Friday. The driver, believed to be Pederson, fled at speeds reaching 100 miles per hour before the deputy lost sight of the vehicle in the Caribou Lake area.

The U.S. Border Patrol, U.S. Forest Service, Lake County Sheriff's Office and Minnesota State Patrol and conservation officers assisted with the ground and air search across Cook County on Monday.

The complaint filed Monday alleges that during the robbery before 10 p.m. last Wednesday, Pederson walked up to a clerk at the Subway restaurant at 2649 7th Av. in North St. Paul and ordered the clerk at gunpoint to put all the $5 and $20 bills on the counter. His girlfriend told police that Pederson, a recovering crack addict, was high when he left home that night.

A short time later, the complaint said, a Maplewood police officer spotted the suspect driving a blue van. The officer turned on his emergency lights and followed the van for 1.6 miles, before the suspect fired multiple rounds at him out of a rear window.

A shot hit the squad car's radiator, allowing the van to get away. The van was recovered later in St. Paul.

Pederson's father told police his son owned a 9-millimeter Beretta handgun, the complaint said. Police found 9-millimeter shell casings in the van.

According to the complaint, the girlfriend told police she last spoke with Pederson around 11 p.m. Wednesday, when he told her that he loved her and then ended the call.