Prosecutors seek stiff sentence for woman who bought guns used to kill 3 Burnsville first responders

Federal prosecutors are calling for a prison sentence longer than federal guidelines for a woman who supplied “a violent, depraved man” with the firepower he unleashed to kill two Burnsville police officers and a paramedic during a standoff in early 2024.

Ashley Anne Dyrdahl, 36, is scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 10 after pleading guilty in U.S. District Court in St. Paul to two counts of straw purchasing, meaning she knowingly bought guns for a person barred from owning them.

Dyrdahl’s boyfriend, 38-year-old Shannon Cortez Gooden, fired more than 100 rounds from the illegally purchased weapons in February 2024, when officers responded to their home on a domestic abuse call.

Officers Paul Elmstrand and Matthew Ruge, both 27, and 40-year-old firefighter/paramedic Adam Finseth were killed. Gooden also wounded police Sgt. Adam Medlicott before taking his own life.

“Dyrdahl provided a violent, depraved man with deadly weapons designed for combat and lethality,” read a court filing last week from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

“Predictably, that man then turned those weapons on others, murdering three courageous Burnsville first responders,” the filing continued. “Dyrdahl’s crime enabled this unthinkable act to take place. Without her, it would not have occurred. Her crime shattered three families and devastated our community.”

Federal sentencing guidelines, which are advisory, call for Judge Jerry Blackwell to give Dyrdahl a sentence ranging from 2½ to slightly more than three years in prison. Blackwell is free to impose a sentence of his choosing.

Dyrdahl’s defense has the option to file its own argument for what sentence she should receive.

A conviction in 2008 for second-degree assault in Dakota County prohibited Gooden from possessing guns or ammunition. In August 2020, he petitioned the court unsuccessfully to regain his right to own a gun. He said that he wanted to protect himself and his family, according to court records.

Prosecutors noted in last week’s filing that they understand judges must weigh the need for sentences to deter violence vs. “the reality that domestic partners are a primary avenue for violent convicted felons to secure deadly firearms. ... Violent men choose their wives and girlfriends as straw purchasers because their partners are easy to control, and the crime is easy to conceal.”

“While the government is not without sympathy for these women, the arming of violent men — so often met with violent ends — must stop. And it will not stop until the public understands that these straw purchases are amplifying violence everywhere, and the straw purchasers themselves do bear responsibility.”

According to prosecutors:

Among the guns were three semiautomatic AR-15-style firearm lower-receivers. One was a Franklin Armory FAI-15 .300-caliber semiautomatic firearm equipped with a binary trigger, which fires once when the trigger is pulled and another when the trigger is released. Dyrdahl also bought a .300-caliber barrel for the lower-receiver.

Dyrdahl knew Gooden was loading the semiautomatic AR-15-style guns with .300 Blackout ammunition, which has increased potential for lethality, prosecutors said.

A law enforcement search of the bedroom that Gooden and Dyrdahl shared found a “stockpile of fully loaded magazines as well as boxes with hundreds of additional rounds of ammunition and additional firearms,” the indictment read.