FARGO — Sergeant Matt Ysteboe accidentally shot his hand with his own rifle during an active shooter situation in the early morning of Friday, Nov. 15, marking the third time an officer has been shot in the line of duty in Fargo.
Such incidents are rare in Fargo-Moorhead. City police spokesperson Jessica Schindeldecker said the only other time she could remember an officer being shot is when officer Jason Moszer died during a standoff situation in February of 2016.
There is another case from more than a century ago. According to the Officer Down Memorial Page website, officer Frederick Alderman was killed in the line of duty in 1882 when he was chasing a suspect who tried to pay a fine with stolen property.
The number of officers shot in Fargo is about the same as other cities of similar size. The ODMP lists only two officers from Berkeley, Calif., — which has a population of just over 120,000 — as ones who were killed in action.
Evansville, Ind., a city with just under 120,000, has had four officers die in the line of duty, and also one K-9, according to the ODMP .
ADVERTISEMENT
Moorhead has a population of just over 38,000, but more officers have been killed in action than in Berkeley, with three dying on calls. However, all of these cases happened more than 80 years ago.
The most recent of the three happened in 1930, when officer Roy Larson was chasing down a robbery suspect who was involved in shootouts with two other officers.
Even though these shootouts and standoffs are rare, police across the Fargo-Moorhead metro said they practice caution in any situation, especially those where people are armed.
