Deputies criticize plea deal as too lenient after man sentenced for shootout with SWAT

GRANITE FALLS, Minn. — Two members of law enforcement on Wednesday decried a plea deal dropping 19 felony charges for a man who shot at deputies and SWAT teams during a 15-hour siege in rural western Minnesota.

Kasey Paul Willander, 28, pleaded guilty to one charge of attempted first-degree murder of a police officer. He had been arrested after police said he shot at them during a chaotic firefight involving an aerial drone, a robot, a Humvee, and SWAT teams from across the region on Sept. 14 and 15 last year.

“You’re lucky you’re not looking at a life sentence,” Judge Keith Helgeson told Willander at a sentencing hearing Wednesday in Yellow Medicine County District Court in Granite Falls.

“It was only by the grace of God that no one was killed,” Helgeson said.

Willander agreed to a guilty plea deal on May 21 that would send him to prison for 17½ years in prison, with up to one third of the time potentially served on supervised release.

Under the terms of the deal, 19 other felony counts against him, including for attempted murder, assault and burglary of a weapon, were dismissed.

Two members of law enforcement who were present at last year’s shootout with Willander wrote letters submitted to court about their concerns about the plea deal.

“I do not believe that this plea is appropriate to the acts committed,” said a letter by Big Stone County Sheriff’s Deputy Michael Lamee, read aloud by county victim services specialist Linda Hagen.

Lamee, identified as one of eight law enforcement personnel who exchanged fire with Willander last year, argued that one felony charge for shooting at law enforcement while under the influence of “methamphetamines” did not provide enough deterrence for future attacks on police and deputies.

The letter by Lamee also list a series of instances in which Willander had violated parole over the years.

“Mr. Willander has received as many second chances and breaks as anyone I’ve seen in 10 years of law enforcement,” said the letter from Lamee. “Mr. Willander knows that no matter what he does, he doesn’t have to face the full repercussions of his actions.”

A second letter expressing concerns about the deal came from another member of law enforcement, who declined to give her name but was at the shootout last year. The letter described the psychological toll on the officer and asked the court to reconsider the deal.

On the afternoon of Sept. 14, deputies said Willander’s mother reported her son was acting paranoid, possibly under the influence of drugs, and was armed with a bow and arrow at his home in Clarkfield, about 30 miles from the South Dakota border.

By the time deputies arrived, Willander had left. Willander broke into his great-uncle’s nearby home and stole a semi-automatic Remington shotgun, according to a criminal complaint.

He had pleaded guilty to third-degree criminal sexual conduct, a felony, in 2015, and had been prohibited from possessing firearms since 2023.

Willander then headed to his father’s property in Boyd. Scott Willander and his wife, Stacy, locked themselves in at the home and were told by police to go into their basement, an amended criminal complaint said. Police used an aerial drone to search for Willander, who was hiding in a grove of trees on the property.

Deputies who evacuated Scott and Stacy Willander from the home said Willander pointed a long gun at them, the complaint said. Willander entered the home, boarded up the doors, and destroyed cameras on the property, leading to a standoff.

Just before midnight, SWAT teams entered the home, and a chaotic firefight ensued.

According to law enforcement:

As four SWAT officers entered the east side of the house, Deputy Britni Bilky of the Kandiyohi County Sheriff’s Office climbed the stairs leading to a bedroom on the west side.

Bilky spotted Willander in the corner of a bedroom. He fired a shotgun blast at her, hitting the door jamb as she retreated, she said.

The other SWAT operators said they fired rifle and pepperball rounds into the room where Willander was hiding.

They sent a robot with a camera into the room, which Willander allegedly pelted with objects. The robot operator said Willander seemed to be wounded in the arm and the leg.

Willander told the operator through the robot that he believed he had shot a SWAT officer in the head.

About six hours later, Willander left through the garage and fired his shotgun at a SWAT team Humvee, tearing a hole in the vehicle’s hood.

The SWAT officers in the vehicle shot Willander, striking him several times. He was airlifted and then arrested while hospitalized at HCMC in Minneapolis.

Judge Helgeson ultimately decided on Wednesday to accept the deal for 17½ years. He asked Willander to spend his time in prison bettering himself.

“I wasn’t me then,” Willander said in court. “I’m sincerely sorry for my actions.”

Willander is also on the hook for more than $90,000 worth of damage to his father’s home.

His father, present at court on Wednesday, declined to comment.