2 dead after shootout with SWAT team at Moorhead apartment building, police say
Two men are dead after a shootout with a SWAT team inside a Moorhead, Minnesota, apartment complex on Monday night, police said.
Three officers from the Fargo Police Department who were part of the SWAT team fired their weapons and are on administrative leave, Chief David Zibolski said.
Moorhead Police Chief Chris Helmick said his officers responded to a reported domestic assault at an apartment on the 2400 block of Third Avenue South around 8:50 p.m. The woman who called said she was physically assaulted by two men, and that she and two children were inside the apartment, the BCA said in a news release on Friday.
Officers at the scene tried to talk with the men, later identified as 42-year-old Nathan Heiberg and 41-year-old Lucas Heiberg, who allegedly did not respond. Police were trying to force the door open when "a firearm was discharged inside the residence," the BCA said.
The officers then called for a SWAT team.
"At some point, SWAT officers entered the apartment and shots were fired," the BCA said. "Both Nathan and Lucas were fatally struck."
Lucas Heiberg died at the scene, while Nathan Heiberg later died at a hospital. No officers or other civilians were injured, according to Moorhead police.
The BCA said three members of the Red River Valley SWAT team, Sergeant Michael Anderson, Sergeant Kyle Seehusen and Officer Tyler Seehusen, "Used force during the incident." All three have since been placed on leave by the Fargo Police Department.
The woman and two children were safely removed from the apartment. Some of the surrounding apartments were evacuated, but residents have since been allowed to return.
The officers involved have not been publicly identified, nor have the two deceased men. Body cameras captured part of the encounter, police said, and the BCA will review that footage.