A man suspected of murdering two other men shot himself to death early Saturday off a rural road west of Cloquet, Minn., after a state trooper stopped him for questioning.
According to the St. Louis County Sheriff's Office, the man confessed to the murders to a 911 dispatcher while he was being pursued by the trooper and indicated that he wanted to kill himself.
Authorities were first notified when a man called the Sheriff's Office about 1 a.m. Saturday and asked them to check on his son, who lived in rural Culver Township north of Brookston, Minn., about 30 miles west of Duluth.
The caller then went to the house and found a dead man outside it. When authorities arrived, they found a second man also dead outside the house.
A short time later, a state trooper spotted a vehicle driving a few miles away from the scene. The driver, who was determined to be the murder suspect, refused to stop for the trooper, leading to a chase that ended when his vehicle skidded into a ditch just west of Cloquet. It was then that the suspect shot himself.
The names of the victims and the suspect were being withheld until family members could be notified. Authorities said they were not seeking any additional suspects.
The Sheriff's Office and the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension were leading the investigation. Anyone with information on the investigation was asked to call the Sheriff's Office at 218-336-4350.
STAFF REPORT
