What Happened

At about 3:24 a.m. on Wednesday, April 29, 2026, Richfield, Minnesota, police responded to a reported vehicle theft, according to the City of Richfield. After reviewing surveillance video and getting a description, officers found a man matching it on Oliver Avenue South. He ran.

During the foot pursuit, one sergeant caught up and tried to take him into custody while a second sergeant deployed a Taser, the city said. The man then raised a handgun and fired, striking the first sergeant in the hand. Both sergeants returned fire. The man, 27, was pronounced dead at the scene. The city said officers gave him medical aid until medics arrived.

The wounded sergeant was taken to Hennepin County Medical Center and released from the hospital on Thursday, April 30, according to FOX 9. Both sergeants were placed on critical incident leave. The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension is investigating.

What is not public: the extent of the hand injury, what aid the sergeant received before EMS arrived, and how he was transported.

The Lesson

This is a general principle, not a finding about this response.

A hand wound usually isn't the injury that kills an officer. It is the injury that takes away the hand he was going to use for everything else: the radio, the tourniquet, the handcuffs, the door handle. That is why the CoTCCC's military guidelines start Care Under Fire with "Direct casualty to control hemorrhage by self-aid if able," and why civilian TECC guidance does the same in its Direct Threat Care phase. Self-aid only works if it has been practiced with either hand, including the non-dominant one, and with a tourniquet the officer can reach from both sides.

Hands and wrists bleed well, and a hand can hide how bad it is under a glove. Direct pressure and a pressure dressing are often enough for a wound to the hand; if bleeding can't be controlled that way, a limb tourniquet placed high on the arm will stop it. The Joint Trauma System's Vascular Injury CPG lists the prehospital tools plainly: "Pressure dressings, tourniquet placement, wound packing, etc." It also credits "the widespread training and use of tourniquets" with getting casualties who would have died from extremity bleeding to medical care.

One more point that applies to every officer-involved shooting: after the threat is over, look at the whole team. An officer focused on a suspect may not notice he's been hit, and a partner may not either. A quick check of every officer on scene, hands included, is part of the job.

What Your Agency Should Do Now

  • Run one-handed tourniquet and pressure-dressing drills with the dominant hand "out of action," on the clock.
  • Check where officers carry their tourniquet. Every officer should be able to reach it with either hand, standing or on the ground.
  • Add a team injury check to your post-shooting checklist, before the scene settles into investigation mode.

Sources