MAPLETON, N.D. (KFGO) – The Cass County Sheriff’s Office has released the name of the Mapleton man who was shot and killed after an hours-long negotiation with law enforcement Monday. He has been identified as 35-year-old Andrew James Martinez.
The Cass County Sheriff received two 911 calls from Mapleton just after 10:30am, one was a report of gunshots and the other reported an individual possibly suffering from a mental health crisis.
When deputies arrived they heard gunshots in a home. The North Dakota Highway Patrol, a drone team, and the Metro Street Crimes unit were called to assist, and an alert was sent out to Mapleton residents to shelter in place.
Sheriff Jesse Jahner, the incident commander, described negotiations with the barricaded man as “up and down” over a long period, during which law enforcement learned of some “alleged criminal activity” that occurred earlier in the morning and may have contributed to the man’s actions and mental state. The man told negotiators he was going to come out with a firearm and despite being asked several times not to do so, sometime after 2pm the man exited with a gun, and officers fired at him. Life-saving measures were performed by law enforcement until on-scene emergency medical personnel could attend to him but the man died at the scene.
Jahner said four officers discharged weapons during the incident – all four were from the Fargo Police Department and were on scene as part of the Metro Street Crimes unit. It is not known which officer or officers fired the fatal shots and not clear if the victim fired any shots. Jahner said he did not believe the victims’s father and brother, who had been on scene attempting to help communicate with him, witnessed the shooting.
Jahner says the name of the victim will not be released until the man’s family has had the time to “grasp the situation.” The state Bureau of Criminal Investigation has taken over the case.
This is the third officer-involved shooting in Cass County in less than a month. Two have been fatal.
