Police: Edina hospital lockdown prompted when gun drawn as siblings clashed in mom’s room

The security lockdown of an Edina hospital Tuesday afternoon was prompted when a man visiting his ailing mother pointed a gun at his sibling and assaulted her, police said Wednesday.

Police made their disclosures in search warrant affidavits filed in Hennepin County District Court one day after the altercation on the eighth floor of M Health Fairview Southdale on France Avenue just south of Crosstown Hwy. 62.

A Minnesota Star Tribune reporter who was at the hospital when the incident unfolded saw at least 30 officers in full gear and weapons race in through an east entrance, while armored trucks were positioned outside.

Law enforcement from several agencies swarmed the hospital about 3 p.m. and arrested the suspect about 4 p.m. without incident, and a gun was recovered, Police Chief Todd Milburn said late Tuesday afternoon.

A police report released Wednesday elaborated that the 65-year-old man was apprehended about 28 miles to the northwest in the west metro suburb of Independence at his home on the southern shore of Lake Sarah.

As of midday Wednesday, charges against the man are pending. The Star Tribune generally does not identify suspects before they are charged.

M Health Fairview spokeswoman Aimee Jordan declined Wednesday to reveal specifics about security provisions at its Southdale hospital for safety reasons, but she did say in a statement there have been “significant investments in recent years — including secure entrances, weapons detection systems and increased officer presence—to reinforce security, prepare for emergency situations, and ensure our hospitals and clinics remain safe for everyone who walks through our doors."

Jordan added that “hospitals are places of health, healing, and humanity — and we are committed to keeping them that way. M Health Fairview prohibits weapons at all our facilities because they can seriously jeopardize our mission to provide safe, compassionate care."

Details about the conflict in the mother’s hospital room are spelled out in the affidavits that cleared the way for police to search the man’s pickup truck, his home and collect a DNA sample from him.

According to the filings:

Police at the scene learned the sister was in her mother’s room when the brother arrived.

“An argument ensued [between the siblings] regarding power of attorney for their mother,” the filings read.

During the argument, the sister said, brother took a handgun from his sister’s waistband.

The sister told police that her brother then drew a handgun from his waist, aimed it at her and threatened to kill her. She said he hit her in the face, head and throat eight to 10 times and “threw her into a chair in the corner of the room,” one affidavit read.

She said her brother left the room and put her gun on a hospital cart. She said she retrieved her gun and put it in a bag in her mother’s room. Police later seized the weapon.

However, in the most recent of the three affidavits, police say the sister said she was uncertain whether the gun her brother pointed at her was hers or one he brought to the room.

The brother was known to carry a gun, frequented shooting ranges and had a state-issued permit to carry a gun in public.

A witness reported to police that she heard a female yell for help and saw the man pointing a gun at someone in the corner of the room.

The sister told police that her brother drives a Ford F150 pickup truck. Police tracked his cellphone’s movements showing he was heading home.

While en route, a police crisis negotiator was on the phone with the man.

West Hennepin police went to the man’s home and saw the pickup in the drive shortly before his arrest. The man declined to answer questions from police.