Charges: Man fatally shot wife as officers converged on her Chisago County home

A man with a suspected history of mental illness was charged Monday with fatally shooting his wife last week as law enforcement converged on her home in Chisago County.

Prosecutors charged Mike L. Carda, 39, of Harris, Minn., in District Court with second-degree murder and assault with a dangerous weapon in connection with the death of 35-year-old Sarah Carda, who worked as a nurse in the jail in neighboring Isanti County.

Mike Carda remains jailed in lieu of $2 million bail ahead of a court appearance on Oct. 24. Court records do not yet list an attorney for him.

Melissa Stockness wrote on an online fundraising page started to help the family with expenses related to her sister's death that "after 17 years of providing unconditional love and support, the person she should have been able to trust the most ended her life."

Stockness said Sarah Carda worked in nursing for more than 15 years and "loved music, being outdoors, her dogs and adored her nephews. She was the best aunt, always making them laugh and smile."

The sister said that along with funeral costs and Sarah Carda's student loans, any money raised will also help her parents pay to either repair her sister's home or have it demolished.

"Words cannot fully describe the shock and pain our agency and community are feeling. Our thoughts, prayers and condolences are with Sarah's family and friends," Isanti County Sheriff Wayne Seiberlich wrote in a statement posted to the Sheriff's Office Facebook page.

A sheriff's deputy responding to a report of a domestic incident arrived at the Fish Lake Township home in the 42100 block of Elmcrest Avenue and could hear arguing going on inside. Emergency dispatch alerted the deputy that there was "a large number" of weapons inside the home.

The deputy knocked on the door twice and a window once while announcing, "Sheriff's Office." He found the door to the home was locked.

After rapping on the window, a woman was heard saying, "He has a gun," followed by gunshots in a bedroom. The deputy backed away from the window; three more rounds came through the window at the level of the deputy's head as he stood 2 feet away.

SWAT team members soon arrived, a window was removed from the home, allowing a drone to be flown in. Its camera revealed Sarah Carda dead on the bed from a gunshot to the head. Mike Carda was in the bedroom. Two long guns were on the floor near the bed.

After numerous pleas to surrender, a police dog assisted in removing Carda from the bedroom.

A deputy arrived at the home, where Mike Carda said his wife and her parents were in groups trying to kill him, the charges from the summer encounter read. Carda said they were using biological weapons, aircraft and electrical weapons from a tower, the charges continued. He showed the deputy a photo and said it depicted a demon and a human skull; the deputy saw no such images.