CLOQUET — The Cloquet Police Department has yet to determine a motive or connection between the suspected gunman and two victims during a shooting Monday night that left three dead, including the alleged shooter.

“Last night was a very difficult night for our community,” Police Chief Derek Randall said during a news conference Tuesday morning.

Police received a call at 6:34 p.m. from an employee at the Super 8 motel that they found another hotel employee who looked like she was attacked. Within three minutes, police arrived on the scene and found a 22-year-old woman, the clerk, with a gunshot wound. She was transported to St. Luke’s hospital in Duluth, where she died of her injuries.

As police searched the scene, they found a 35-year-old man from Deer River with multiple gunshot wounds dead inside a vehicle in the hotel parking lot.

Police found a 32-year-old man dead with what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound on the hotel property with a handgun located nearby. The police identified him as the primary suspect in the shooting. He was a resident of Ramsey, Minn.

The police believe the clerk was the first victim. The suspect then went outside and shot the man in the car before walking a short distance on hotel grounds and shooting himself.

After being alerted of the shooting, police immediately issued a shelter-in-place notification for the vicinity near Super 8.

“We took a cautious approach and issued an alert until more information about the suspect’s whereabouts were known,” Randall said.

As responding officers secured the scenes, they used hotel video surveillance to determine that the assailant was one of the three people who died. At that time, police sent out another update stating they believed the suspect to be dead.

According to video surveillance, the entire incident lasted about 10 minutes before law enforcement arrived.

Throughout the night of the shooting and early into Wednesday morning, detectives executed search warrants while the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension and crime scene teams processed the scene.

Based on current evidence, the police believe it was an active shooter situation.

“At this time, we are confident that there are no further threats to the public,” Randall said.

The names of the victims and the suspect were not released pending notification of their families. Their names were expected to be made public within the next 24 hours.

“I would like to extend my sympathies to the families of this tragic incident,” Randall said.

Cloquet has never experienced a shooting of this nature that he can recall, he said.

“We’ve had homicides, but nothing to this nature,” Randall said. “I don’t recall in my 20-plus years here that we’ve ever issued a shelter-in-place alert.”

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