A man shot by police after pointing a high-powered pellet gun at police officers in a Target parking lot in Woodbury was sentenced Monday to more than seven years in prison, the Washington county attorney’s office said.

Donald Eugene Roche, 61, of Rockford, Minn., pleaded guilty in July to two counts of second-degree assault after he admitted to pointing a pistol-stye pellet gun at officers during an April standoff at the Target on Valley Creek Road.

While entering his guilty plea, he admitted in court that police had “every right” to shoot him based on his actions, prosecutors said.

The criminal complaint and prosecutors said that:

On April 22, Roche stole a wallet from an Oakdale construction site and then used the credit carts inside to buy more than $3,000 worth of items at Home Depot and Target in Woodbury. He also attempted another $7,000 in transactions that were declined.

Police tracked Roche to a stolen vehicle in the Woodbury Village Target parking lot a bit later. When they tried to take him into custody, a struggle ensued. Officers backed up when they that saw Roche had a gun.

Roche barricaded himself inside his vehicle, and SWAT team members attempted to negotiate with him for more than an hour.

When Roche exited, he had the firearm pointed at law enforcement officers, who tried to subdue him with less-than-lethal force.

Roche continued to ignore demands to drop the gun and instead pointed it at police. He was shot and injured by a Woodbury police officer and a Washington County sheriff’s deputy.

In August, an investigation into the officer-involved shooting determined that the use of force was legally justified.

The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension turned over its investigative findings to the the Washington County attorney’s office, which cleared the law enforcement officers after reviewing the BCA’s report.

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