Toddler's mom found 3 adults slain at Brooklyn Park day care home
Article by: PAUL WALSH, PAUL LEVY and STEPHANIE AUDETTE
Star Tribune Staff Writers
April 9, 2012 - 5:17 PM
Three people were found dead Monday morning after a shooting at an in-home day care in Brooklyn Park, and police were looking for a suspect who fled on a bicycle.
At an afternoon news briefing, Police Inspector Todd Milburn said an unidentified client of the day care dropped off her child shortly before 6:30 this morning and spoke with at least one of the three adults. As she was leaving, she saw a man on foot near the house, Milburn said. As she drove off, she became suspicious and called the house and was in mid-conversation when the line went dead.
She went back to the home at 8117 College Park Dr. and found the three adults had been shot, he said. Her child was safe. She got the child out and called police.
There were no other children in the house, Milburn said.
At the news conference, Police Chief Michael Davis declined to provide details of the investigation but said he didn't believe there is a threat to the general public.
Police did not identify the victims; however, a relative said they were 59-year-old DeLois Brown, who operated the day care, and Brown's parents.
"We're just beginning to pass the news around in the family," sister-in-law Margaret Brown, of St. Louis, Mo., said early Monday afternoon.
Margaret Brown said DeLois Brown, whose husband died three months ago from health problems, had brought her parents up to Brooklyn Park from the St. Louis area earlier this month to live with her.
"Her mother and father were getting up in age," Margaret Brown said. "They agreed to move back with her. She only wanted a better life for them."
Margaret Brown said she's "still trying to absorb what happened. I can't think of anyone who would want to hurt her."
The search for the suspect stretched into the afternoon. Several officers with dogs were walking late in the morning in tall grass just west of the Hennepin Technical College campus, which was locked down until mid-afternoon. Others were in a nearby marshy area near the Xcel Energy Training Center.
In the early afternoon, several officers were seen going door to door near the intersection of Boone Avenue N. and Brooklyn Boulevard.
Earlier, communication between police near the crime scene and dispatch indicated that a struggle between a male and a female preceded the shooting at the day care and that a male wearing gloves fled the scene on a bicycle.
The suspect is described by police as a black man in his mid-20s and riding a BMX-style bicycle. He was wearing blue jeans, a navy blue sweatshirt with a gray hood and two 1-inch stripes down the back. Anyone with information is asked to call police at 763-493-8222.
"At 6:28, I heard screaming," said neighbor Hakeem Hughes, 18. "I didn't know if it was arguing. I thought it must be kids playing in the back yard, but it's kind of early for that. It was a girl that was screaming. I don't know if it was a woman or a kid."
Hughes added that "nothing usually happens" in his neighborhood. "I wasn't really expecting that, because they're really nice people. I'm just shocked people can just go into a house and kill three people like that."
Another area resident, Heidi Woelfel, said she's lived in the neighborhood for 13 years. and knows most of the people on the street. She said she feels very safe, although she found it unsettling that intensive police activity was going on at the time her 16-year-old daughter was getting on the school bus. Still, she said: "I know most of these people, and this is a good neighborhood."
The Minnesota Department of Human Services says that Brown's day care is licensed to handle up to 12 children. She previously served for five years as day care director for the Osseo Area School District's alternative learning center in Brooklyn Park.
The well-kept property where the victims were found has a fenced-in back yard with lots of toys in the back yard.
Hennepin Technical College, to the southwest, was under lockdown for several hours. The lockdown was lifted in mid-afternoon and classes resumed at 3 p.m.
Annette Roth, a spokeswoman for the school, said students and staff members were notified via cell phone and e-mail to not come to the campus. A later notification said further information about the lockdown would be released midafternoon.
"All the doors are shut, and nobody is allowed in," Roth said around 7:30 a.m.
Roth added that officers were patrolling the area for a suspect, and that the shooting has nothing do with the school.
Dozens of students were milling around midmorning after being informed at about 7:15 of the lockdown. Many left, but several stayed on campus.
Jeff Welsh, 39, of Brooklyn Park, had an early-morning culinary class. "It was just surreal. The speakers came on and they announced there was a lockdown and that was it. None of us knew what was going on," he said.
Will Heath, 18, Andover, got to campus at about 6:40 a.m. for the same class. "We walked in, we got set up and walked into the kitchen and they told us there was a lockdown. They didn't say much else. But pretty soon there were all kinds of rumors and we heard there was a triple homicide."
Another school nearby, North Hennepin Community College, followed the advice of police and did not initiate a lockdown, school spokeswoman Tina Henry said.
"Hennepin Tech was advised to go into lockdown due to the suspect's last-known location," Henry said.
College Park Drive resident Linda Huntington said she can see "lots of crime lab vehicles and lots of police" at a home in her block.
Residents described the neighborhood as typically quiet and said the shooting has left them rattled.
Samuel Dower said a couple lived there. Dowar has talked to them before, but he doesn't know their names. "My main question is what happened," he said, standing in front of a nearby house.
Another neighbor, Lisa Johnson, said she didn't hear shots but thought she heard glass breaking at the home. Her daughter, Elisha Johnson, 20, said she was worried that the suspect was still on the loose. "That's the scariest part for me," she said.
Paul Walsh • 612-673-4482
Paul Levy • 612-673-4419
Stephanie Audette is a University of Minnesota student reporter.
© 2011 Star Tribune
