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Robbinsdale Cop Shot by Permit Holder. Permit Holder Released Without Charges.
Update: Treptow (the shooter) has been released from jail without being charged:
"Coon Rapids police did not rule out the county prosecutor filing charges against the officer."
Last Updated: 06/08/2007 08:58:15 AM CDT

A rolling argument between a Robbinsdale undercover officer and a Coon Rapids man escalated into an apparent full-blown case of road rage Thursday. In the end, the officer was shot. And a suspect, the father of two children who were in his vehicle during the shooting, was jailed.

The Robbinsdale police chief said his officer was just doing his job. But the suspect's family said the plainclothes officer pulled his gun and that the man fired to protect his family.

Martin Scott Treptow, 35, of Coon Rapids, was arrested. Police refused to release the 27-year-old officer's name, saying he was working undercover, but he is described as a six-year veteran of the Robbinsdale police force. He sustained injuries to both legs and an arm, although investigators aren't sure how many shots were fired.

Treptow, his wife, Rebecca, and their two children, ages 6 months and 6 years, were in a Buick
Rendezvous SUV. The officer drove an unmarked police car. The original dispute began at a stop sign.

Both vehicles turned east on 99th Avenue. The altercation continued, with yelling and shouting. As both cars approached Foley Boulevard, the officer pulled onto the shoulder. The Rendezvous pulled up slightly behind the officer's car on the driver's side.

Meanwhile, the yelling match continued. Treptow reached past his wife in the passenger seat and fired more than one shot into the police officer's vehicle, Snell said. Despite the Treptow family's comments, investigators are not clear on whether the police officer pulled his gun. He did not fire his weapon, Snell said.

The officer got out of his vehicle and fell to the shoulder of the road. His car rolled backward across 99th Avenue and came to rest behind a pizza restaurant. The officer was treated at Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis and released.

Treptow and his wife drove to a Holiday gas station across U.S. 10 and called police. Both adult Treptows were taken into custody without incident. Rebecca Treptow later was released. Martin Treptow is being held in the Anoka County Jail on suspicion of aggravated assault. His handgun was collected as evidence.

"It does not appear they knew that he was an officer," Snell said. They didn't, Martin Treptow's family said. They say the officer never identified himself as a law enforcement official.

Treptow has a license to carry and conceal a gun, Snell said, and according to family he worked as a security guard for six years. He has no known criminal history in Minnesota, beyond a single traffic incident more than a decade ago, according to police and court records.

Two indicted in road rage case
Wednesday, 19 December 2007

Two Coon Rapids men involved in a road rage shooting incident at Foley Boulevard and 99th Avenue N.W., Coon Rapids, June 7 have been indicted by an Anoka County grand jury.

The grand jury handed down a three-count indictment against Martin Scott Treptow, 35 - drive-by shooting, reckless discharge of a firearm in a municipality and terroristic threats, all felonies. At his first court appearance Dec. 19, Treptow was released on his recognizance. His next court hearing is Feb. 13, 2008.

Landen Michael Beard, 27, made his first court appearance Dec. 20 on a grand jury indictment of terroristic threats, a felony. Beard, too, was released on his own recognizance and is due back in court Feb. 14, 2008. In releasing both men, the court issued no contact orders.

Both men will plead not guilty to the charges, according to their attorneys. In the case of Treptow, he will use self-defense and defense of his family as his defense, said Kurt Glaser, Treptow’s attorney. While Treptow was indicted on three felonies, Glaser said there was no indictment on a more serious charge - second-degree or aggravated assault - of intent.

Beard was treated at Hennepin County Medical Center for bullet wounds in both legs. His arm was also grazed by a bullet.

Both men gave police different accounts of what happened, he said. While Glaser alleges there was no identification and none of the witnesses heard Beard do so, Michael alleges that he did, in fact, identify himself as a police officer as he drew his gun. After being struck, Beard exited his car on the passenger side to provide himself some cover, according to Michael.

No bullets struck the car and Beard has been undegoing physical therapy for a broken femur from a bullet wound, Michael said.

Indictment in road rage is dismissed
Wednesday, 07 May 2008
A felony indictment brought by an Anoka County grand jury against a police officer in connection with a road rage shooting incident at Foley Boulevard and 99th Avenue N.W., Coon Rapids, June 7, 2007 has been dismissed by a Anoka County District Court judge.

Landen Michael Beard, 27, Coon Rapids, an officer with the Robbinsdale Police Department, had been scheduled to go on trial June 23 on a grand jury indictment of felony terroristic threats.

But late last month, prosecutor Michael Hutchinson of the Washington County Attorney’s Office, which was handling the
case because of conflict of interest for the Anoka County Attorney’s Office, filed court papers to dismiss the indictment.

And at an Anoka County District Court hearing, the judge dismissed the case.

According to Washington County Attorney Doug Johnson, his office’s review of the case found there was insufficient
evidence to prove the indictment beyond a reasonable doubt. In returning the indictment, the grand jury had a much lower standard - probable cause, Johnson said. “Reasonable doubt is a much more difficult standard to prove,” he said. And because the grand jury transcript is secret, his office cannot spell out its reasons for coming to the decision it did,
Johnson said.

Motions to dismiss road rage charges are denied
Wednesday, 21 January 2009
by Peter Bodley

The trial of one of two men indicted by an Anoka County grand jury in the wake of a road rage shooting incident in Coon Rapids June 7, 2007, has been pushed back from Jan. 12 to March 23. That comes after Anoka County District Court Judge Thomas Fitzpatrick, in a ruling Dec. 31 following an Oct. 9 court hearing, denied motions by defense attorney Kurt Glaser to dismiss all charges in the indictment against Martin Scott Treptow, 36, Coon Rapids - drive-by shooting, reckless discharge of a firearm in a municipality and terroristic threats, all felonies.

Beard, a plainclothes investigator, was shot by Treptow, the driver of the other car, through its passenger window, Snell said. Beard was armed, but he did not fire his gun, which was found on the ground beside him, according to the Coon Rapids Police report. The car from which the shots were fired left the scene, but Treptow called 911 while he was driving across Highway 10 and then stopped at the Holiday Stationstore at 101st Avenue and Foley Boulevard, where police found him. A handgun was recovered. Beard was treated at Hennepin County Medical Center for bullet wounds in both legs. His arm was also grazed by a bullet and he received physical therapy for a broken femur.

Beard is scheduled to be a witness in the Treptow case, according to Fitzpatrick’s ruling.

Glaser, Treptow’s attorney, had moved to have the indictments against his client dismissed on the basis that they did not substantially comply with legal requirements and also because probable cause did not exist. According to Glaser’s motion, it was legally inconsistent for the grand jury to indict Treptow on some charges, but not on the second-degree assault charge, nor did the facts presented to the grand jury support the charges in the indictment.

In his motion, Glaser argued that because the grand jury failed to indict Treptow for second-degree assault, it must have found that he acted in self-defense and therefore it should not have indicted him for reckless discharge of a firearm and drive-by shooting.

But Fitzpatrick, in his ruling, wrote that it is undisputed that Treptow intentionally shot Beard and quoted part of his grand jury testimony in which Treptow states that it was not a mistake that he fired his gun and he had aimed at Beard’s “center mass.”

While he agreed with Glaser that the only possible reason the grand jury would have found “no bill” for the second-degree assault is because it concluded there was reasonable self-defense (the instruction for self-defense was read to the grand jury), Fitzpatrick wrote that the grand jury found that Treptow created an unreasonable risk of harm to the passengers in his vehicle or other motorists on a busy road when he fired his gun. “This court finds no legal inconsistencies prevented the grand jury from finding probable cause to support the drive-by shooting and reckless discharge of a firearm charges,” he wrote.

Glaser also argued in his motion that the evidence before the grand jury was not sufficient to establish that Treptow made a terroristic threat on the basis that Beard had asserted that he was never afraid, but Fitzpatrick wrote that that was not an “essential element” of the offense.

According to Fitzpatrick, the grand jury had to determine if there was probable cause to find that Treptow made a declaration of intent to injure another by an unlawful act in terms of the words he used.

“Based on all the evidence proferred, including defendant’s aggressive and dangerous driving conduct toward Mr. Beard, repeatedly yelling and profanities, threats to ‘kick his [butt],’ all coupled with defendant’s possession and use of a gun, a grand jury could have found probable cause to support its determination that defendant intended to terrorize Mr. Beard,” Fitzpatrick wrote.

In addition, Glaser stated in his motion that the grand jury evidence showed that Beard was the aggressor and that it was he that committed acts of terroristic threats and assault justifying Treptow’s self-defense.

“The issue before this court is not whether defendant’s conduct met all the elements of each charged crime beyond a reasonable doubt, but instead if evidence worthy of consideration brings the charge within a reasonable probability,” Fitzpatrick said in his ruling. And in denying the probable cause motion, the judge wrote that “deference is given to the grand jury’s fact finding role.”

But Fitzpatrick said that Glaser, on behalf of Treptow, will have ample opportunity at trial to “introduce evidence of Mr. Beard’s conduct during the confrontation and the trier of fact will determine if defendant’s actions were justified or criminal.”

Coon Rapids man takes plea deal in road rage shooting of undercover cop
Driver claims undercover officer pulled his gun first
By Brady Gervais
Updated: 06/24/2009 11:38:47 PM CDT

A man accused of shooting an undercover officer in what was described as a road rage case has taken a plea agreement.

Martin Scott Treptow, 37, pleaded guilty Tuesday in Anoka County District Court to reckless discharge of a firearm within a municipality, said Anoka County prosecutor Kurt Deile. Two other felony charges — making terroristic threats and drive-by shooting — will be dismissed at sentencing.

The presumptive sentence is probation, Deile said. Anoka County District Judge Alan Pendleton could sentence the Coon Rapids man to up to a year in jail. Deile expects Treptow will get some jail time. Sentencing is scheduled for Aug. 20. The case was scheduled to go to trial July 13 after delays.

"We're happy that the case is resolved, brings closure for everyone involved," Deile said. "Saves taxpayers the time and expense of going to trial. And the defendant has acknowledged wrongdoing."

Neither Treptow nor his attorney could be reached for comment.

Charges against Landen Michael Beard, the Robbinsdale police officer involved in the Coon Rapids shooting, were dropped in May 2008. A grand jury had indicted him on making terroristic threats, a felony. But the Washington County attorney's office, which handled the case to avoid a conflict of interest in Anoka County, asked that the charge be dismissed.

On the afternoon of June 7, 2007, Beard was returning to an undercover operation from his home, and Treptow was driving to St. Paul. Treptow's wife, Rebecca, was in the passenger seat of their SUV, and their two young children were in the back.

Beard passed the Treptows on a paved shoulder of a suburban side street, setting off a confrontation. Horn-honking and gesturing ensued and rapidly escalated, according to statements Beard and the Treptows gave authorities.

A key witness told police she saw Beard hanging out of the unmarked sedan he was driving, screaming, "I'll (expletive) kill you. ... I don't care about jail," according to police records. Beard told investigators he didn't yell profanities.

As the vehicles approached Foley Boulevard south of U.S. 10, they stopped next to each other in traffic. Treptow and Beard said the other drew his weapon first, investigators said.

Treptow, a trained security officer, leaned across his wife and shot Beard through the vehicle's open windows, investigators said. A single round from his Glock 9 mm blew out Treptow's passenger-side mirror and passed through one of Beard's arms and his left leg. It then entered his right leg, breaking the femur.

Beard filed a personal-injury lawsuit against Treptow in October. That case is scheduled for trial next year.

DoubleJ wrote:I don't disagree with anyone here, but I would like to add something.

... I mean, he was driving an unmarked police car, otherwise known as a "Plain White Wrapper" ...

ELB wrote: Most accounts said he was driving a "red sports car." There was one reference to it being a Corvette.

It does sound like Treptow's temper got the better of him, but I think the same is true of the cop, and he bears at least as much, and really, more, responsibility for behaving himself with a gun and a badge. I later read that when his felony indictment was dismissed, the case was referred to yet another jurisdiction for possible misdemeanor charges, but I've seen nothing further on that...