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Cold Spring Officer Killed

11/30/2012 - 8:30 AM

A police officer has been shot and killed while conducting a routine check on a resident in central Minnesota.

31-year-old Tom Decker of Cold Spring was killed around 11 p.m. near Winner’s Bar in Cold Spring as Decker and his partner were conducting a welfare check at a nearby apartment. Law enforcement agencies from across the region along with the Minnesota State Patrol launched a search for the suspect.

Within an hour, Stearns County SWAT team investigators took 34-year-old Ryan Michael Larson of Cold Spring into custody. Larson is being held in the Stearns County Jail on murder charges. Officer Decker spent more than 10 years in law enforcement in Mille Lacs, Meeker and Stearns counties and had worked as an officer with the Cold Spring Police Department since March 2006.

The last Stearns County officer killed in the line of duty was St. Joseph officer Brian Klinefelter, who was shot in 1996 while attempting to arrest three robbery suspects.

The shooting is being investigated by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension and the Stearns County Sheriff’s Office with assistance from the Cold Spring Police Department, the Minnesota State Patrol, the St. Cloud Police and several other agencies.

 

Suspect Ryan Michael Larson