The man who killed two Burnsville police officers and a firefighter died by suicide, the Hennepin County medical examiner’s office confirmed Tuesday.

Shannon Cortez Gooden, 38, shot himself in the head on Sunday, the medical examiner’s office said.

Shannon Cortez Gooden in 2007. (Courtesy of the Dakota County Sheriff’s Office)

That came after he shot Burnsville Police Officers Paul Elmstrand and Matthew Ruge and Firefighter/Paramedic Adam Finseth. They each died between 6:30 and 6:45 a.m. in the Hennepin Healthcare emergency room.

Someone from the house in the 12600 block of 33rd Avenue South called 911 about 1:50 a.m. on a report of a domestic situation where a man reported to be armed was barricaded with family members.

The home’s owners were renting it out. Gooden listed his address there, as did his girlfriend.

When officers arrived, Gooden was inside the home with family members, including seven children between the ages of 2 and 15. Gooden had five children.

After talking with police negotiators for “quite a bit of time,” the suspect opened fire on officers who were inside the home, and multiple officers returned fire, Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension Superintendent Drew Evans said. The gunman fired from several locations inside the two-story house, which is located in a wooded neighborhood just west of the junction of Interstate 35E and Cedar Avenue.

During the incident, someone called 911 from inside the home and reported, “the dad is down,” according to an emergency radio dispatch. The person reported the man been shot in the leg earlier and “just shot himself in the head.”

The other family members left the home and are safe, the city of Burnsville said in a Sunday announcement. The BCA won’t have further updates until their preliminary investigation is complete, a spokesperson said Monday.

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