A 31-year-old man who had been under repeated questioning about the shotgun slaying of Cold Spring police officer Thomas Decker killed himself Wednesday after an hours-long standoff with law enforcement at his home near the central Minnesota city, officials said Friday.
Eric J. Thomes, described by the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) as a "person of interest" in the Decker case, was found hanged in a metal outbuilding near his rural Cold Spring home. Thomes ran into the building when he saw investigators arrive for another interview, the BCA added.
Authorities also said that the shotgun used to kill Decker on Nov. 29, 2012, was found on property to which Thomes had access, but BCA Superintendent Wade Setter stopped short of declaring Thomes the person who killed Decker, 31, behind Winners Bar in downtown Cold Spring and urged anyone who had contact with Thomes in the past six weeks -- both before and after Decker's death -- to come forward as investigators continue to work the case.
"That would be premature for us to reach a conclusion that he is a presumptive suspect. We're trying to figure out what his role is," Setter said. "In the last 24 hours there's been a number of things that have happened. We will be able to answer that question at some point, we're just not able to make that conclusion today."
Thomes, a divorced father of two boys, had numerous run-ins with police, all involving driving and starting when he was 16 years old. He was convicted in late 2011 for drunken driving after being stopped in Cold Spring. He was then booked three times -- in September, November and December -- apparently in connection with the 2011 case, according to Stearns County jail records.
Decker assisted in the August 2011 arrest of Thomes. The arresting officer was Greg Reiter, a part-time Cold Spring officer who was with Decker the night he was killed. Reiter, who has been unable to recount many details of what happened that night, didn't leave his squad car in the seconds after Decker was shot and put his car into reverse and backed away as the shooter headed in the other direction.
About three weeks after Decker was killed, authorities released a transcript of the 911 calls. It revealed a caller reporting a black van with a noisy exhaust system leaving the area. The transcript release was accompanied by a $100,000 reward offered by authorities for information leading to the killer. Court records show Thomes drove a green Dodge van when he was ticketed Nov. 8 for driving after revocation. Setter said the BCA has recovered a vehicle similar to the one described that night. It is being examined.
Allen Lambrecht, a neighbor across the road from the property where Thomes killed himself, said Thomes drove a noisy dark green minivan. Thomes had lived on the property for at least the last nine months and was seen driving to and from the residence as often as four times a day, Lambrecht said.