Twin Cities – by Marino Eccher and Richard Chin
As Mendota Heights police veteran Scott Patrick lay dying Wednesday on a West St. Paul street, passers-by and witnesses to his shooting rushed to his side. Some tried to administer first aid. One picked up his radio and called: “Officer down.”
A manhunt followed, ending in a shootout and an arrest in a St. Paul parking lot eight hours later.
Hospitalized with gunshot wounds suffered in his arrest, Patrick’s accused killer made no secret about what had happened, prosecutors said Friday.
“Just to let you know,” he told an officer, according to court documents, “I hate cops, and I’m guilty.”
The account of the shooting and ensuing manhunt was laid out in criminal charges filed Friday in Ramsey and Dakota County district courts.
Brian George Fitch Sr., 39, of Mendota Heights was charged with two counts of first-degree murder in Patrick’s slaying — one for premeditation, one for killing an officer.
Fitch also was charged with attempted murder, assault and illegal possession of a firearm in connection with the shootout with police who tracked him down in St. Paul.
Fitch, who was shot eight times during his arrest, was expected to remain hospitalized for at least a week. As of Friday evening, he did not have a defense attorney on record.
At a news conference Friday afternoon, Dakota County Attorney James Backstrom and Ramsey County Attorney John Choi announced plans to convene a multi-county grand jury to combine the cases against Fitch into one.
That’s been done just once in Dakota County history, Backstrom said; as far as he knew, it’s never happened in Ramsey County.
State law requires a grand jury to review the first-degree murder charges. A first-degree murder conviction carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison without parole.
The other charges, which were filed in Ramsey County, include three counts of attempted murder of a police officer, three counts of drive-by shooting, three counts of assault with a gun and a count of illegally possessing a firearm.
Fitch, who has a long criminal record, had several outstanding warrants when Patrick stopped him about 12:20 p.m. Wednesday at Dodd Road and Smith Avenue in West St. Paul.
He was likely facing prison time for probation violations if caught — and also had a pending Dakota County drug felony case in which prosecutors were seeking a sentence of at least 13 years.
Patrick, 47, likely didn’t know Fitch was a wanted man at the time of the stop, because the car was registered to someone else. West St. Paul police Lt. Brian Sturgeon said authorities don’t know why Patrick made the stop, and “don’t know if we’ll ever know.”
According to the criminal charges, Fitch fired at Patrick as the veteran officer approached the car.
Witnesses heard three shots and saw Patrick fall, mortally wounded in the head, leg and abdomen. He would be pronounced dead at St. Paul’s Regions Hospital soon after.
Fitch then sped away, according to the charges. Video from Patrick’s squad car reportedly showed Fitch was the only occupant in the Pontiac Grand Am.
Officers tracked the car to a residence in the 600 block of South Robert Street in St. Paul, where it was parked in a yard and covered in a tarp. The residents, a man and a woman, said Fitch had shown up soon after the shooting. He wanted to hide his car there and buy the woman’s Hyundai Veracruz SUV, the charges said.
She reportedly refused but agreed to let him borrow it for a few days.
About 8 p.m. that night, officers searching for Fitch learned from two confidential informants that he was at a home on Sycamore Street in St. Paul’s North End. When police arrived at the scene, they saw Fitch get into the SUV and flee.
After a short chase, Fitch veered into a parking lot off Sycamore and stopped. A witness saw the driver’s window shatter as Fitch shot at officers, the charges said.
Police returned fire, and Fitch slumped forward, wounded. None of the officers was hurt. When he refused to leave the SUV, police stormed the vehicle and arrested him.
Two other people were in the SUV with Fitch, according to the charges — a man and a woman.
Police identified the woman as Kelly Hardy, 36. She was in the back seat behind Fitch and wounded in the leg and elbow. Her wounds were not life-threatening.
The male passenger, who was not identified, got out of the vehicle when it stopped and followed police orders to go to the ground, prosecutors said.
He told police Fitch had shown up with Hardy at the Sycamore Street residence about 5 or 6 p.m. Armed with a handgun, Fitch reportedly told the man to say he went to Canada if anyone asked. If he said otherwise, the charges said, Fitch said he would kill him.
Fitch, Hardy and the unidentified man left together in the SUV. The plan was to drop Fitch off a few blocks away and return the vehicle to its owner, the man said.
When the man saw police cars, he asked to be let out. Fitch told him to “shut the (expletive) up” and pulled the gun from his waistband, the charges said.
Prosecutors would not describe Fitch’s relationship with the people listed in the complaints or say whether they might face criminal charges.
When arrested, police said, Fitch was armed with a 9mm pistol with a laser sight. The gun was believed to be stolen from Eden Prairie.
The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension was testing the gun and a shell casing recovered from the Grand Am to determine whether the pistol was the murder weapon.
A search of the SUV also turned up a .22-caliber Derringer and a “large quantity” of suspected methamphetamine. Prosecutors declined to say how much.
Court documents indicate Fitch has a history with the drug.
Fitch’s remark about hating police and being guilty was made to an officer guarding him in Regions Hospital, the charges said.
The charges don’t specify if Fitch said it after he was read his Miranda rights, but a spokeswoman for Backstrom’s office said it didn’t matter: Prosecutors will treat the remark as an utterance made freely and not under questioning. Such statements are generally admissible in court.
Reporters asked Backstrom if there was anything more that courts or law enforcement could have done to keep Fitch — who has a history of armed felonies — off the streets. He was asked in particular about a Dakota County judge’s decision in 2013 to sentence Fitch to probation for a terroristic threats conviction.
It was a downward departure from sentencing guidelines. The prosecutor had asked for prison instead.
“It’s a fact, and I’m not going to comment on it further,” Backstrom said of the sentencing. Scrutinizing how an offender was handled is always easier in hindsight, he said.
Fitch landed behind bars anyway for a probation violation, but he was released into drug treatment last February. He failed out of the program and slipped away from law enforcement supervision.
Police officers present at Friday’s news conference wore black bands over their badges to honor Patrick, whom Backstrom described as a model officer who cared deeply about serving the community.
“We don’t like to have to take these out of our uniform drawers,” St. Paul Police Chief Thomas Smith said.
Fitch was scheduled to appear Monday in Ramsey County District Court on the charges related to the shootout during his arrest, and Aug. 12 in Dakota County on the murder charges.
This story contains information from the Associated Press. Marino Eccher can be reached atmeccher@pioneerpress.com or 651-228-5421. Follow him at twitter.com/marinoeccher. Richard Chin can be reached at 651-228-5560. Follow him at twitter.com/RRChin.
http://www.twincities.com/crime/ci_26258355/suspected-cop-killer-faces-murder-charges
“Just to let you know,” he told an officer, according to court documents, “I hate cops, and I’m guilty.”
Digger would have loved this guy!
OUTSTANDING!!!
he was a better shot than all of those cops.. they shot him 8 times and he still survived
he shot 3 times and the cop is dead
Exactly, Tom!
And had that been NYPD he shot it out with, they might have been lucky enough to hit him twice – MAYBE. In the meantime, he might have even iced a couple more of them.
Location, location, location…
Which is better. Live like a peasant on the outside or live like a king on the inside?