A shivering Northfield, Minn., man, suspected of firing at police after a hotel robbery early Monday, was tracked for eight hours before being arrested along the Cannon River about 11 a.m. in Northfield.
The 26-year-old suspect had crossed the river after fleeing police who stopped his vehicle about 3 a.m., said Northfield Deputy Police Chief Chuck Walerius. He said police stopped a black Grand Prix while responding to a 2:47 a.m. call from the America's Best Value Inn.
The clerk said the hotel on Hwy. 3 south of downtown had been robbed by a masked man displaying a silver, semiautomatic handgun.
The suspect fled from the car to some nearby woods, firing several times but missing, Walerius said.
Police called for backup to cordon off a long, narrow area along the river. Local police and deputies from Dakota and Rice Counties responded, as did a State Patrol helicopter.
Walerius said a police dog and a Northfield officer tracked the suspect to a trucking company plant. The officer walked over to check parked vehicles and noticed a blanket moving in the back of a pickup truck with a glass-window topper. Drawing his gun, the officer ordered the suspect, in wet clothes and bundled in a blanket in the low 30-degree temperatures, to climb out.
He was unarmed and had "no injuries other than he was pretty cold. He had been in the river," Walerius said.
The suspect was arrested, as was his ex-girlfriend, who was driving the car. Charges are pending.
