Monday funeral set for slain Red Lake police officer
The funeral for Red Lake Nation police officer Ryan Bialke, who was fatally shot in the line of duty, has been scheduled for 1 p.m. Monday in Red Lake, Minn.
The officer's family has requested that media not attend the service, which will be held in the Red Lake Humanities Center. Interment will be at Greenwood Cemetery in Bemidji.
Bialke, 37, was killed Tuesday morning as he and other officers attempted to serve a warrant on David Donnell Jr. at Donnell's home in Redby, a community of 1,300 people on the Red Lake Indian Reservation, some 250 miles northwest of the Twin Cities.
Donnell faces a federal charge of second-degree murder and four charges of assault with a deadly weapon in connection with Bialke's death. According to a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court this week, police went to Donnell's house on a welfare check after a relative of Donnell's girlfriend reported that he was suicidal.
While en route, officers learned that there was an active tribal warrant against Donnell. After he refused to come out of his house, police decided to break down the door. Bialke "was hit by gunfire from inside the house," according to the complaint, and died at the scene.
Donnell fled into the woods and was arrested a short time later at a neighbor's house nearby. Police said he confessed to the crime after receiving a Miranda warning.
Bialke, the father of four, was a native of Buffalo, Minn.
John Reinan • 612-673-7402
