4 arrested after Minneapolis police officer shot and injured while driving

A Minneapolis police officer was shot and wounded by automatic gunfire while pursuing a robbery suspect in an unmarked car on the city's North Side late Friday night, Police Chief Brian O'Hara said.

The seven-year department veteran was struck in the back of the shoulder and taken to North Memorial Health in Robbinsdale, where he was treated and discharged overnight. Top police officials declined to name the injured officer, but three sources with knowledge of the investigation identified him as Jacob Spies.

"By the grace of God, he is alive, awake and talking," O'Hara said during a late-night news conference. "This incident underscores the incredible courage, bravery — and truly the restraint of our officers as they face incredible challenges today. Putting their lives on the line to protect strangers."

Four suspects, including a teenage boy, were later taken into custody, O'Hara said. Investigators also recovered one firearm from the scene.

O'Hara gave this account of the chaotic string of events Friday night:

Just before 8 p.m., officers observed a white Chevrolet Equinox in the area of a robbery that had just occurred at 36th and Queen avenues N. in Minneapolis, O'Hara said. Officers from the Fourth Precinct attempted a traffic stop on the SUV. The vehicle had a COPS alert for fleeing from Brooklyn Park police on Thursday, he said. The vehicle initially pulled over but then fled.

Around an hour later, a uniformed patrol officer driving alone in an unmarked, "unconventional" vehicle observed that same Chevy in the area of Dowling and Morgan avenues N. He pursued the suspect vehicle for about a mile, trailing behind and believing he was "undetected while he was calling for additional officers."

At 9:16 p.m. on the 4300 block of Colfax Avenue N., the officer pursuing the suspect vehicle was hit by a volley of automatic gunfire as he drove past. At least 14 rounds were fired — six struck the squad and one hit the officer in the shoulder.

The officer drove west on Webber Parkway to Fremont Avenue N., where a backup officer pulled him from the vehicle and raced him to the hospital. O'Hara declined to name the injured officer, describing him only as a seven-year veteran and a member of the Fourth Precinct Community Response Team.

Shortly after the shots were fired, backup officers spotted the same Chevy Equinox in the area of 42nd and Lyndale avenues N., O'Hara said. Several squad cars began pursuing the vehicle and attempted a traffic stop, but the driver refused to pull over. That pursuit continued — with assistance from deputies from Hennepin County Sheriff's Office — to 21st and Upton avenues N., where the suspect vehicle crashed into a parked car.

Two men, one woman and a teenage boy were arrested. All three males were hospitalized with minor injuries, including one man who was bitten by a dog with the Hennepin County Sheriff's Office, O'Hara said.

Investigators roped off multiple crime scenes Friday night. Forensic analysts placed evidence markers over spent bullet casings at the site of the shooting as investigators combed side streets with flashlights. At the crash site, the heavily damaged Chevy Equinox could be seen with its airbags deployed and doors flung open.

"The officer I would say is in shock. ... Looking at the car, listening to the gunfire — it truly is a blessing he is still here with us," O'Hara said, flanked by newly appointed Assistant Chiefs Christopher Gaiters and Katie Blackwell. "That particular block, the way it's set up — with a hillcrest, on a grade and on a curve — is quite frankly a perfect area for somebody to be ambushed."

"You wouldn't see it coming," he added.

The officer, later identified as Spies, was released from North Memorial around 1:30 a.m. Saturday, where more than 120 Minneapolis and suburban officers waited outside to salute him. They applauded as he and his wife, Holly, slowly walked to their waiting SUV in the ambulance bay.

Man in 70s fatally stabbed

Also Friday night in Minneapolis, a man in his 70s was stabbed to death in a suspected domestic homicide on 17th and Dupont avenues S. and a woman in her 30s was arrested, police said.