Police announced Wednesday they’ve arrested a 20-year-old St. Paul man who they say recently fired a rifle at a Ramsey County sheriff’s deputy in St. Paul.

The deputy wasn’t injured, but the sheriff’s office said at the time that a projectile went through the front hood of the vehicle he was driving and struck the deputy in his ballistic vest strap near his collarbone. The suspect was arrested Wednesday and booked into the Ramsey County jail on suspicion of attempted murder, first-degree assault and drive-by shooting.

It happened two weeks after three Burnsville first responders were fatally shot in the line of duty. Assaults on law enforcement in Minnesota have skyrocketed in recent years.

“If you’re willing to shoot at a police officer, that is a bellwether to all of us that you will shoot at literally anybody,” St. Paul Police Chief Axel Henry said Wednesday. “And so we take these extremely seriously.”

On March 1, a St. Paul officer on patrol and saw someone driving recklessly at Payne Avenue and Jessamine Street. The officer tried to pull over the driver, but the car sped away.

Police didn’t pursue and told law enforcement in the area that the car hadn’t stopped for them. Deputy Joe Kill, who was on patrol, heard the dispatch, found the car “very shortly after” and used his vehicle’s red lights and siren to attempt to stop it, said Sgt. Mike Ernster, a St. Paul police spokesman.

He pursued the car and, in the 900 block of Euclid Street, “suddenly, the passenger in that vehicle leaned out and fired shots at him using a rifle. Thankfully, Deputy Kill was not injured,” Ernster said.

“Those rounds did pierce his vehicle, entering the passenger compartment,” Ernster said. “He was struck by shrapnel or possibly objects from inside his own vehicle that were broken during the shooting.”

Officers searched for the car and found it in the 1000 block of Pacific Street. Police also located two .223 rifle casings on Euclid Avenue and took them into evidence, the sheriff’s office has said.

On Wednesday morning, St. Paul officers carried out a search warrant in the 1000 block of Pacific Street, which is where they arrested the 20-year-old.

Soon after, just after 9 a.m. Wednesday, a 17-year-old suspected of being the driver turned himself in at police headquarters. He was arrested on suspicion of aiding and abetting second-degree murder, first-degree assault and attempted second-degree assault, along with fleeing a peace officer in a motor vehicle.

That Kill was struck in his bullet-resistant vest is a “close call,” Ernster said. “It’s unthinkable. … Somebody that’s willing to actually lean out the car window and take a shot at an officer who’s just trying to pull them over for a traffic violation. I think it says a lot for what our officers are facing on the street every day now.”

On Feb. 18, Burnsville police officers Paul Elmstrand and Matthew Ruge and Burnsville firefighter/paramedic Adam Finseth were shot and killed after officers responded to a 911 call. The gunman fired more than 100 rifle rounds at law enforcement and first responders, according to the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.

On Monday night, police say a 25-year-old man shot at Oakdale police officers, ran into a home and continued to fire at them before barricading himself inside. At least one officer exchanged gunfire with the man. Neither the officers nor the man were injured, and he was arrested.

Assaults on law enforcement in Minnesota have been climbing in recent years — they were up 152 percent last year compared to 2019.

On average, 388 officers were assaulted each year in the decade up to 2019. There have been an average of 1,041 assaults per year between 2020 and 2023, according to a Pioneer Press analysis of Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension data from local law enforcement agencies.

Most of the assaults resulted in minor or no injuries, but some officers paid the ultimate price. Since January 2023, nine first responders have been fatally shot in the region and 16 have been wounded by gunfire.

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