Weapons probe led to fatal Cottage Grove shooting

Neville acknowledged that a search warrant served at a St. Paul Park apartment complex on Thursday morning was part of the weapons investigation, but declined to elaborate. A woman who answered the phone at Clausen’s residence in St. Paul Park also declined to comment.

Besides the identity of the third person in the car, key details were still being pieced together: whether anyone in the car fired at officers, if there were weapons in the car, the chain of events that led to the shooting and the role of the suspects in the weapons investigation.

Clausen has an adult criminal record dating to 1995, in Pine County, court records show. Charges in the past 15 years include disorderly conduct, drunken driving, assault, making terroristic threats and drug and weapons charges.

In May, he was charged with three felony drug possession charges in Washington County, records show. Eight days before the shooting, he was in Washington County District Court, and was facing a jury trial next month.

In 2008, he was charged for failing to register as a predatory offender in Washington County. And in a 2007 incident in which he was charged with assault, he refused to comply with officers before being forcibly removed from the apartment of his live-in girlfriend, the complaint says. He also refused to take a breath test. The woman’s wrist was broken in that incident.

A scary night

Residents who witnessed the shooting Wednesday night were shaken.

Jerry Befort, who lives a few doors from the shooting, said he heard several loud pops, followed by heavier bursts that sounded like shotgun blasts. “It was exactly at 11, because I was watching Jay Leno,” he said. “I told my wife and kids to get down in the basement — I was afraid they were going to get shot.”

“It’s pretty quiet here,” said Befort’s neighbor, Robin Moy. “We thought it was someone blowing off the rest of their fireworks.”

Carol Brown, who has lived on the street since 1972, was getting ready for bed. “It sounded like it was right outside my door, and I thought: ‘What in the world?’” she said. “The police officers were telling them to get out of the car and get on the ground.”