Burnsville police officers and firefighters gathered in a federal courtroom Tuesday as a woman pleaded guilty to illegally purchasing the firearms used to fatally shoot three of their co-workers last February.

Ashley Anne Dyrdahl, 36, admitted to two of the 11 charges against her. Prosectors said she bought the firearms used by her boyfriend in the killings of officers Matthew Ruge and Paul Elmstrand and firefighter/paramedic Adam Finseth, and to injure Burnsville police Sgt. Adam Medlicott.

The sentencing guidelines call for a prison term of 2½ years to 3 years and 1 month, followed by 1-3 years of supervised release, a prosecutor said in court. It will be up to a judge to decide her sentence when she’s next in court.

Speaking at the federal courthouse in downtown St. Paul before the hearing, Burnsville Police Chief Tanya Schwartz said they were grateful to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, which prosecuted Dyrdahl, and the communities in Burnsville and across the state that have been supporting their departments.

Photos of Burnsville police officers, from left, Paul Elmstrand, Matthew Ruge and firefighter/paramedic Adam Finseth are displayed during a community vigil Feb. 20, 2024, at the Burnsville Police Department/City Hall. (Mara H. Gottfried / Pioneer Press)

“It’s been very hard and we have a long way to go,” Schwartz said. Attending Tuesday’s hearing will “hopefully be a little closure,” she said.

Five guns in five months

Dyrdahl was the longtime live-in girlfriend of Shannon Gooden, 38. Authorities say he used two AR-15 style firearms on Feb. 18 to fatally ambush the officers and firefighter.

Because Gooden pleaded guilty to second-degree assault in 2008, he had a lifetime ban on possessing firearms, according to a previous filing from the Dakota County Attorney’s Office. The county attorney’s office opposed Gooden’s petition to the court in 2020 to restore his firearms rights and a judge did not restore them.

An investigation found that Dyrdahl went to two gun stores at Gooden’s direction and purchased or picked up five firearms in a five-month span, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office of Minnesota.

Dyrdahl was charged in March with one count of conspiracy, five counts of straw purchasing and five counts of making false statements during the purchase of a firearm. She pleaded not guilty during her first court appearance and, in a November court filing, indicated she intended to change her plea.

Gooden died by suicide after shooting the first responders.

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