Sentencing scheduled to take place on Wednesday for the woman who purchased guns that her romantic partner used to gun down three first responders last year in Burnsville.
This past January, Ashley Dyrdahl pleaded guilty in federal court to purchasing five guns for Shannon Gooden, who used two of the five guns to ambush and kill Burnsville police officers Matthew Ruge and Paul Elmstrand along with firefighter-paramedic Adam Finseth in February 2024.
Gooden was ineligible to have firearms due to an assault conviction.
Dyrdahl's plea agreement calls for a 30 to 37 month prison sentence but prosecutors are asking Judge Jerry Blackwell to go beyond that and send Dyrdahl to federal prison for 41 months.
Burnsville Police Chief is Tanya Schwartz talked with WCCO-TV after that plea hearing
"We do want accountability," says Schwartz. "We want responsibility, which we hope is where where she's at with us right now. And we want justice as well."
Just before 2 a.m. on Feb. 18, 2024, officers responded to a report of a domestic situation involving a man who was barricaded in a house with family members on the 12600 block of 33rd Avenue South in Burnsville.
After the officers arrived, the situation grew tense, escalating “into gunfire” with the first responders.
Burnsville Police Officers Paul Elmstrand, 27, and Matthew Ruge, 27, along with firefighter Adam Finseth, 40, were killed in the exchange with Gooden. Burnsville Police Sergeant Adam Medlicott was injured in that same shootout.
Gooden, 38, was also killed in the exchange.