‘It’s hard, because Scott’s not here,’ widow of Mendota Heights officer says 10 years after his death

Nick Ferraro, Pioneer Press
Updated ·8 min read

Michelle Patrick starts to feel stressed come early July. So she makes a point of spending as much time as she can at her Alexandria-area lake home, where she and her late husband, Scott, spent many days with their two daughters.

The Lake Osakis home brings her happy memories before the sad ones resurface on July 30. That’s the day Scott — 10 years ago Tuesday — was fatally shot during a traffic stop in West St. Paul during his daytime patrol shift with Mendota Heights police.

“Sometimes, it still feels like yesterday,” Michelle said last week of her high school sweetheart’s fatal encounter with Brian Fitch, who was a career criminal and wanted fugitive at the time. “Other times, it feels like it has been much longer.”

So much has happened since then, many milestones that Scott, who was 47, never got to experience: Michelle’s retirement from the U.S. Postal Service; daughter Erin becoming a chef; and daughter Amy’s time as an on-call firefighter and her recent college graduation.

There have been somber times, too. Scott’s father died in February 2015 and Michelle’s father died nine months later. The family dog, “Buddy,” a goldendoodle that Scott surprised them with on Christmas Day 2006, also has passed.

“It’s hard, because Scott’s not here,” Michelle, 58, said. “And, of course, the 30th is definitely hard … when it always feels like it just happened.”

Final day

It started out as an ordinary day at the Patrick household in Mendota Heights. Scott walked out the door for his shift at 7:30 a.m., and Michelle soon followed. Their teen daughters slept, enjoying their summer vacation.

Just after 11 a.m., Scott stopped to see 17-year-old Erin over her lunch break at Mendakota Park, where she was working for the city at a kids camp.

Less than an hour later, at 12:20 p.m., Scott Patrick pulled over a green Pontiac Grand Am on Dodd Road, just south of Smith Avenue and near the city’s border with West St. Paul. Fitch was a known drug dealer and ex-con with outstanding warrants, though the officer had no way of knowing that because the car was registered to someone else.

As Patrick walked to the driver’s side, Fitch stuck his arm out the window and struck Patrick with all three bullets fired — in the leg, abdomen and head. Seconds after the car sped away, a woman was heard on Patrick’s squad car video shouting, “Call an ambulance. Hurry!” He died at the scene.

Neither the video nor eyewitnesses could pin down the driver, but police got on Fitch’s trail quickly and a sprawling manhunt ensued.

Michelle Patrick recalled that she was at her work desk when 13-year-old Amy, who was home, called in a panic. She said Erin had called and told her to make sure the doors were locked because police were actively looking for someone. Erin knew because city workers had moved Erin and the kids into a fire station for safety.

“I’m like, ‘Well … I’m at work. You’re going to have to call your dad and have him figure it out.’ And I hung up the phone,” Michelle Patrick said. “But then I’m sitting there thinking that if there’s an intruder around, he’s probably a little busy.”

Patrick left her desk and called Amy back to say she’d be home as soon as she could. While heading back to her desk, her supervisor approached and said, “Michelle, there’s some people here for you.”

She was brought into a conference room, where she saw Officer Jenny Larrive and the police department’s chaplain. “And that’s when Jen told me,” she said. “And I’m like, ‘I have to get home.’ ”

Fitch had ditched the car but was apprehended in St. Paul’s North End that night after a shootout with police. During the arrest, Fitch was shot eight times. A gun recovered next to him matched the bullets that killed Patrick, along with a shell casing found in the Grand Am.

Fitch had been imprisoned for a Washington County burglary in June 2013 but was released into a drug treatment program the following February. He was kicked out less than three months later and slipped away from law enforcement supervision.

A jury in February 2015 convicted Fitch of first-degree murder, and the now 49-year-old is serving a life sentence at the Oak Park Heights prison. During the trial, his then-girlfriend testified he’d told her he’d shoot a police officer if stopped.

There’s one emotion Michelle Patrick doesn’t feel. “Anger doesn’t help,” she said. “To hang onto anger means you could have done something different, right? There wasn’t anything I could have done differently.”

Life all planned out

Scott Patrick was raised on St. Paul’s West Side and graduated from Humboldt High School in 1985. He had a big family — 10 brothers and half-brothers.

“I sort of helped raise him, so in some ways, he inherited part of my sense of humor,” said Mike Brue, a half-brother who was 10 years older. “He wasn’t a joke teller so much, but he found humor in situations.”

Because teachers assigned desks by last names, Scott and Michelle (her maiden name is Peterson) sat near each other at Humboldt. In 11th grade, he asked her out by giving her an application that included his birthday, address, Social Security number and references.

“He’s like, ‘Here’s an application, I’d like to date you,’ ” Michelle said. “It was like, ‘Oh, that’s cute. And I will check your references.’ ”

They never stopped dating and married four years later. After selling the family’s home last year for a move to North St. Paul, Michelle came across the application tucked inside a photo album.

Scott showed an interest in law enforcement growing up — he consumed cop shows such as “Adam-12” — and joined teen police programs while at Humboldt.

After college training in Alexandria, he patrolled the State Fairgrounds, then Shakopee as an officer starting in 1992. He joined Mendota Heights police three years later and went on to become the department’s most senior officer — and the only one to die in the line of duty.

Scott talked about the perils of the job, Brue said.

“I remember a couple of times when some other officers had been shot and killed on duty, we talked about that very real possibility,” Brue said. “And, he talked about certain aspects of law enforcement, covering and helping families in the event of an officer’s death.”

Brue saw his brother in uniform while on duty just one time. It was the fall before his killing, and it happened to be when Brue took the photo that’s featured prominently on the 5-foot-tall polished granite memorial dedicated at Market Square Park in Mendota Heights in 2018.

Patrick was on patrol and saw his brother taking high school graduation photos of Erin at Mendakota Park along Dodd Road.

“When he pulled up — and I know he didn’t like getting his photo taken all that much — I swung my telephoto around and snapped off a quick shot of him,” Brue said.

Patrick is smiling, his thumb at his chin.

For Brue, one of the toughest parts of his brother’s death has been the impact it’s had on Michelle, Erin and Amy. He also said it never gets easier knowing that his brother, who was notoriously frugal, had set himself up nicely for an early retirement.

“His entire life seemed to be set up to do the best he can and enjoy doing work that he really wanted to do, then retire early and enjoy family life,” his brother said.

Permanent memorial planned

People still leave flowers, candles and other things at the killing site to pay tribute to Patrick.

As with every year around this time, Neil Garlock will stop by the site before Tuesday’s public gathering for Patrick with a can of blue spray paint. He’ll go over the “MHPD” and “2231,” Patrick’s badge number, which someone first put on Dodd Road a year to the day after he was killed.

Garlock was Patrick’s field-training officer with Mendota Heights police for three months, then his sergeant. He retired 61 days before Patrick’s killing.

“I consider that location sacred ground for the two communities of West St. Paul and Mendota Heights,” Garlock, 67, said last week. “And it is my duty and my obligation to memorialize his life.”

Plans are in the works for a plaza with a permanent memorial for Patrick near the site, as part of a road alignment set for next summer. City officials say the memorial and plaza will be completed in 2026.

Before Tuesday’s gathering, Patrick will do what she’s done every year on the anniversary of her husband’s death. She will place three roses — one each for her, Erin and Amy — at his tombstone at Acacia Park Cemetery, then at the Market Square memorial and where his life ended so suddenly.

Scott Patrick annual gathering

An annual public gathering will be held at noon Tuesday at Dodd Road and Smith Avenue marking 10 years since Patrick’s death.

A moment of silence will be held at 12:20 p.m., marking the time Patrick was shot.

Speakers include Michelle Patrick, Dakota County Sheriff Joe Leko and retired Mendota Heights police officer John Larrive.

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