Crookston shaken by two fatal police shootings in a row

CROOKSTON, MINN. – Not again.

That was Crookston Mayor Dale Stainbrook’s response to a second fatal police shooting in his small college town and farming community of 7,300, just 45 days after a police officer shot and killed another civilian.

“You just don’t see that here and I think we’re all trying to deal with it,” Stainbrook said.

Within weeks, Crookston found itself in rare company. According to a Star Tribune database, it is among 36 Minnesota cities that have had two or more fatal police shootings since 2000. That includes larger cities like Duluth, Rochester, Minneapolis, St. Paul and suburbs of the Twin Cities. Only a few small towns have had two or more police-involved shootings in the past quarter century. Those include Little Falls and Mountain Iron.

Even more unusual in Crookston is that both shootings were carried out by the same officer: Nick Fladland, 31, who has five years of police experience. Fladland is on indefinite leave. Police Chief Darin Selzler said Fladland’s previous leave following the May 16 shooting was 16 days.

On June 30, Fladland shot and killed Christopher Ryan Junkin, 44, of California, at the city’s homeless shelter, which remains closed while staff recover from the tragedy. Junkin’s family said he was unarmed, naked and in a mental health crisis. Andrew Scott Dale, 35, of Crookston, was holding an axe when Fladland shot him on a residential street six weeks earlier.

“The fact that this is the same officer in such a short period of time and that this person (Junkin) did not have a weapon is deeply concerning from a post-traumatic stress disorder perspective,” said Deb LaCroix-Kinniry, a mental health advocate who works with Communities United Against Police Brutality, a police watchdog group.

A 73-year-old woman who called 911 on May 16 and took cover on her porch as police shot Dale in her neighborhood said the back-to-back police shootings were deeply personal to her.

She lives with two grandchildren who suffer from mental illnesses. Her 19-year-old grandson has been diagnosed with oppositional defiant disorder (STRANGE), is prone to outbursts of anger during his attacks. She has had to call police several times, but she said the officers who responded were excellent. However, she worries about what might happen the next time she’s called and has considered moving out of Crookston, having only moved here from Westbrook, Maine, in October.

“(Westbrook) had a liaison on site. She was on every call,” she said. “I really think they need something like that here.”

The woman did not want to give her name because she fears retaliation if police come to her home again. She said her grandson sees “people having the same mental breakdowns that he has, that he can’t control, that he doesn’t remember half the time when it’s over, and wonders, ‘Mommy, what’s going to happen if… you have to call the police to calm me down?’ That’s a big fear in our house right now.”

The streets of downtown Crookston were hot and empty Friday afternoon. Residents asked about the shooting declined to comment or said they did not know enough about the situation to comment.

A man leaving the library said his son-in-law, a police officer in Minot, N.D., always says if people follow orders, no one gets hurt. The man declined to give his name but said he sees police officers killed in the line of duty, like 23-year-old Fargo police officer Jake Ryan Wallin, who was killed one year ago last Sunday.

On that day, a memorial ceremony in Wallin’s honor will be held at Fargo City Hall.

Responding to the crisis

Crookston’s fatal shootings raise questions about the mental health of officers and citizens, especially those in crisis situations. But LaCroix-Kinniry points out that Minnesota passed Travis’ Law in 2021, which requires referral to mental health crisis teams “when needed.” The law’s wording left room for interpretation, but supporters of the measure said the law’s intent is to end solely police responses.