WASECA, Minn. — A police officer in southern Minnesota was gravely injured when he was shot in the head while responding to a report of a suspicious person, officials said Tuesday.
Officer Arik Matson, 32, was shot at about 8 p.m. Monday in Waseca, and was taken by air to a hospital in Robbinsdale, where he was in critical but stable condition Tuesday, according to Bureau of Criminal Apprehension Superintendent Drew Evans.
The suspect, 37-year-old Tyler Robert Janovsky, was shot twice by other officers at the scene and was flown to the same hospital. Evans said Janovsky’s injuries were not life-threatening. He has not been charged.
Matson and three other officers were responding to a call of a suspicious person in a residential backyard with a flashlight, Evans said. Officers saw Janovsky on a neighboring property, and “at one point during the encounter, Officer Matson was shot.”
Evans said authorities are still piecing together why Janovsky was in the backyard. He did not live at the house. Janovsky has an active warrant for drug-related charges, but the officers didn’t know who they were dealing with when they were first called to the scene.
Matson has been with the Waseca Police Department since 2013 and is assigned to patrol. He is also a member of a regional drug investigative unit, a SWAT unit, and is a DARE officer, Chief Penny Vought said. He is married and is a father.
“This is the worst nightmare a law enforcement agency can face,” Vought said. “And we’re living it right now.”
U.S. Rep. Jim Hagedorn tweeted Tuesday that he spoke with Matson’s father, a retired officer, overnight.
“On behalf of all southern Minnesotans, I offered our deepest concerns and prayers for Arik and his family,” Hagedorn tweeted.
Waseca is a city of about 9,400 located 70 miles (110 kilometers) south of Minneapolis.
