Apple Valley police: Woman killed in shootout that included her son and her ex-boyfriend

Nick Ferraro, Pioneer Press
·4 min read

Police say a domestic-related shootout in an Apple Valley neighborhood Sunday night left a 49-year-old woman dead, her ex-boyfriend wounded and her son wounded and jailed.

Apple Valley Police Chief Nick Francis said Monday investigators are working to figure out what led to the gunfire, which erupted outside the woman’s home and struck at least two nearby residences.

“We don’t know who started this, but everybody involved was known to each other,” he said.

Authorities have not released the woman’s name.

Her 25-year-old son, Billy Joe Pryor Jr., was hospitalized with gunshot wounds and released to police Sunday night. In an interview with investigators, Pryor admitted to firing a gun, but declined to provide other details, according to Francis.

Pryor was booked into the Dakota County Jail early Monday on suspicion of first-degree assault-great bodily harm. He remains jailed, pending possible formal charges.

The woman’s ex-boyfriend remained hospitalized Monday with gunshot wounds. He is in serious condition and expected to survive, Francis said.

‘MULTIPLE PEOPLE WITH WEAPONS’

Officers were called to the 900 block of Oriole Drive at 6:23 p.m. on reports that “multiple people with weapons were shooting at each other.”

When officers arrived, they found the woman dead outside her home. She had multiple gunshot wounds. A handgun was found in her hand, Francis said.

Pryor was rushed to the hospital.

Witnesses told investigators a car fled the shooting scene before police arrived.

The driver, who was identified later as the woman’s 39-year-old ex-boyfriend, soon showed up at M Fairview Ridges Hospital in Burnsville. Officers went to the hospital and saw a gun in the car, which is being processed for evidence, according to Francis.

Investigators with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension recovered numerous bullet casings at the scene.

“We’re working through ballistics and physical evidence to try to figure out whose gun wounded which person,” Francis said. “But it stands to reason that the reason this happened is a domestic relationship, whether it’s mom, son, ex-boyfriend or any of those.”

According to police records, the woman and the ex-boyfriend had a civil dispute over property at the home in June 2021.

“They each were saying they wanted property from the other half and weren’t agreeing to what was whose property,” Francis said. “There were no charges or arrests. They were told they have to agree to what is their property or go through the courts.”

Francis said it is unclear whether Pyor was living with his mom at the time of Sunday’s shooting.

Court records list Pryor living on Oriole Drive in February 2021, when he was convicted in Hennepin County of carrying a pistol without a permit. The case stemmed from a traffic stop in Edina. He was sentenced to two years of probation in lieu of a 180-day jail sentence.

INCIDENT ‘HEARTBREAKING’

Francis said the shooting “is heartbreaking for this family that’s involved and it’s very concerning for the neighbors right around there.”

“Obviously, this is a situation that could have very well injured or killed other people nearby in the neighborhood,” he said. “It was a nice night out. People were outside. So we’re very thankful there were no residual injuries to neighbors or passerby.”

Erin Maye Quade, a former state representative and current state Senate candidate in District 56, said the shooting happened on her block.

“I’ve lived in this community my whole life, and to see the epidemic of gun violence come so close to my home is unsettling,” she wrote in a Tweet. “The frequency of shootings in this country is unacceptable and preventable. We need leaders who will fight for policies that reduce gun violence instead of letting this epidemic continue unchecked. I’m grateful more people weren’t injured.”

Francis said it is a reminder that no suburb is immune to gun violence and domestic assault.

“In this situation, it appears that those two things are intertwined,” he said. “We’re not yet sure of all the pieces of the puzzle. But it certainly wasn’t random and it looks like it was related to a previous relationship.”

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