Charges: Suicide attempt ended standoff that closed I-35 in Fairbault; 44 pounds of meth found
The standoff that shuttered Interstate 35 and prompted shelter-in-place orders for hours in Faribault on Sunday ended when an armed man tucked his pistol under his chin and pulled the trigger.
But, according to new federal charges filed this week, Donald Ray Sanderson's head slipped back as he squeezed the trigger and the round fired into the air directly in front of his face. A SWAT team deployed gas and a police K9 brought the 41-year-old Rochester man to the ground as he ran toward a residential neighborhood.
The dramatic conclusion to a monthlong drug investigation that included a cross-country trip in a rental car and a high-speed, drug-fueled police chase yielded federal drug and gun charges against Sanderson this week. Charges were also filed against his 29-year-old passenger, Lindsay Wade Stolpa — who bailed out of the vehicle shortly after a spike strip caused a tire to fly off.
The Rice County Sheriff's Office said Wednesday that law enforcement, searching the rental car Sanderson drove, found the vehicle "littered with hypodermic needles" and recovered 44 pounds of methamphetamine, nearly 300 pills — most containing fentanyl — and equipment for packaging drugs. Both Sanderson and Stolpa, who told police Sanderson promised to pay her to accompany him on a drive to California and back, made their first court appearances in Minneapolis on federal drug distribution charges on Wednesday.
Sanderson is also being charged with one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm and has a lengthy criminal history that includes driving while intoxicated, domestic battery, felony threats of violence and introducing contraband into jail, among other convictions.
According to a federal criminal complaint:
Agents began investigating Sanderson in late June after fielding a tip from an informant claiming that Sanderson was possessing a large quantity of powder fentanyl. They learned that a woman called police in February that Sanderson, her boyfriend, was robbed at gunpoint and had a bag of cash stolen. He was also allegedly assaulted and robbed of $5,000, methamphetamine and fentanyl pills in Mankato in January.
Law enforcement started surveilling Sanderson's cellphone earlier this month and also discovered that he rented a Nissan Altima from an Enterprise Rent-A-Car in Rochester and due to return it on July 21. Surveillance video from a Kwik Trip gas station showed Sanderson and Stolpa arrive and leave together, and agents watched Sanderson's location as he drove to Utah, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and back toward Minnesota.
Agents tailed the two in Des Moines on July 21 and into Minnesota, and a Minnesota State Trooper activated its lights to stop the car near Clarks Grove. The car first pulled over to the side of the roadway but the vehicle fled as the trooper approached on foot.
The vehicle struck a spike strip deployed by law enforcement in Hope, Minn., yet continued driving even as the rubber of one tire flew off and left behind only a rim. Stolpa bailed at that point, and was arrested. She told agents that Sanderson promised to pay her to go on the trip west and noted that he had a firearm in the vehicle. She also said that she loaded up a hypodermic needle with methamphetamine that Sanderson injected himself with as they began fleeing from law enforcement.
Sanderson finally stopped and left the vehicle south of Faribault after trying to drive on the roadway's shoulder to get around backed up vehicles in a construction zone. He waved his firearm and yelled at agents to shoot him, before engaging in a standoff on Interstate 35 for "several hours." He also fired one round at the pavement of the interstate and later shot at a drone flying overhead.
Agents arrested Sanderson around 7 p.m., after he lost his pistol as it flew out of his hand during the failed attempt to shoot himself. He was later treated at a hospital for the methamphetamine use and K9 bite.
On Wednesday, U.S. Magistrate Judge David Schultz ordered Sanderson temporarily detained pending a July 29 detention and preliminary hearing. Schultz ordered Stolpa to be released into an inpatient treatment facility, but she will remain in federal custody until a facility accepts her.
