Crime & Safety

Suspect in April Standoff Charged with Illegally Possessing Sawed-Off Shotgun

Joseph Forrest Sanders told authorities that he wanted to commit "suicide by cop."

A North St. Paul man has been charged in connection with an April incident in Dakota County in which he told authorities he wanted to commit “suicide by cop.”

Joseph Forrest Sanders, 26, faces one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm, which carries a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison and a $30,000 fine.

Sanders’ criminal record includes felony convictions for drug possession in 2007 Dakota County and illegally possessing a machine gun or short-barreled shotgun in 2006 in Washington County.

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He was also convicted in 2008 in Ramsey County of carrying a pistol without a permit, illegally transporting a firearm in a motor vehicle and carrying a weapon in a public place.

According to the latest complaint against Sanders, filed in Dakota County District Court, Minnesota State Patrol troopers were called just after 3:30 p.m. April 23 by a man who said he was in a red Chrysler, which he intended to drive until he ran out of gas, and that he planned to die via “suicide by cop.”

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An hour later, troopers learned that a red Chrysler had stopped on the shoulder of Interstates 35E and 494 in Dakota County, and that the driver, armed with a handgun, had gotten out of the car and ran west up a hill.

By the time troopers arrived, along with police from Eagan and Mendota Heights, Sanders had returned to his car and was sitting in the passenger seat, according to the complaint.

The complaint says all the officers on the scene had their weapons drawn and pointed at Sanders when he got out of the car and sat down on the ground. While officers were handcuffing and arresting him, Sanders yelled, “Hey, the gun is at the top of the hill,” according to the complaint.

Officers found a sawed-off shotgun on the top of a retaining wall adjacent to a chain-link fence. The gun appeared to have a laser light on the bottom of it, and there was one spent shotgun shell inside.

A trooper asked Sanders how long ago the gun had been fired, and he said he had just shot a hole in the door of his car, the complaint says.

Sanders also told police that he didn’t want to be a “snitch,” that there were people following him and that officers needed to “watch their backs.”

Sanders remains in the Dakota County Jail on a $100,000 bond. An omnibus hearing in his case is scheduled for June 27 in Hastings.


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