A Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension agent "discharged his weapon" while trying to apprehend a homicide suspect in Bloomington late Wednesday, authorities said Thursday night.
The gunfire preceded a six-hour manhunt that ended early Thursday with the arrest of Eddie Markeith Frazier, suspected in the death of a woman he lived with in Crookston, Minn.
According to the Crookston Daily Times, Frazier, 49, was charged Thursday in Polk County with three counts of second-degree murder in the death of 48-year-old Tawnja Wallace, whose body was found Wednesday in the home she shared with Frazier.
Frazier was arrested just after 3 a.m. Thursday in the 8200 block of Stevens Avenue S., according to the Hennepin County Sheriff's Office.
In a news release Thursday night, the BCA confirmed that shots were fired when BCA agents approached Frazier in Bloomington about 9:15 p.m. Wednesday.
"During the effort to apprehend [Frazier] … a Bureau of Criminal Apprehension agent discharged his weapon," according to a BCA news release.
It identified the agent as Special Agent in Charge Scott Mueller, who has led the BCA's metro regional office for more than three years. Mueller, who has been with the BCA since 2008 and also has worked for the White Bear Lake Police Department, was placed on standard administrative leave.
The BCA did not say why Mueller fired his gun, whether Frazier was hit, or what, if any, injuries resulted. It did say that Frazier was taken to a hospital after he was arrested.
Wednesday's events unfolded when Frazier was spotted in a vehicle near 86th Street and Oakland Avenue S. BCA agents tried to stop him, but after shots were fired, he took off. At some point, Frazier abandoned the vehicle near 83rd Street and Wentworth Avenue S. and took off on foot.
That led to a search in which law enforcement officers from multiple agencies went house to house and yard to yard and warned residents to stay indoors as they searched the area bounded by Lyndale and Portland avenues and 86th Street to American Boulevard.
After Frazier's arrest, Bloomington police sent out a tweet saying, "Thank you to all who called in and/or tweeted suspicious activity/noises etc. We couldn't have done this alone."
The University of North Dakota medical examiner's office will conduct an autopsy on Wallace.
The Crookston newspaper said her body was found in a bathtub.
