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Trooper
Skalman died due to gunshot wounds received during a traffic stop near Forest
Lake MN.
Glen A. Skalman, 29, Forest Lake,
died Sunday morning, Dec. 27 of gunshot wounds suffered while acting in line of
duty as a Minnesota Highway Patrolman. He was born Aug. 23, 1935, in St. Paul.
He is survived by his wife, Mary
Ann, 27, and three children, Gary A., Susan L., and Steven G.,; his parents, Mr.
And Mrs Andrew H. Skalman, two bothers, Arlen and Donald and an uncle, Clarence
Bagstad, all of St. Paul.
Funeral services were held
Wednesday, Dec. 30 at 1:30 pm in Gustavus Adolphus Lutheran Church, St. Paul, of
which he was a member. Interment was in Union cemetery, Maplewood.
Mr. Skalman attended Erickson grade
school and is a graduate of Johnson high school, St. Paul.
Prior to becoming a Minnesota
Highway Patrol Officer three years ago, he was employed by the Great Northern
Railway in St. Paul.
He was a member of the U.S. Navy
from June 16, 1957 to Nov. 15, 1961. He also belonged to the Minnesota Highway
Patrol Officer's Association and the Minnesota Police and Peace Officer's
Association.
Trooper Skalman died as a result of
being shot five times in the head and neck by a motorist on Thursday, Dec. 17th.
The following article was published
in the LEMA Newletter, Volume 1, Number 4, December 2001
On December 17 on Highway 61, three
miles north of Forest Lake in Chisago County, Trooper Glen Skalman, SP326, age
29 was patrolling the highway when he came upon a bus driver who was forced into
the ditch by an erratic driver near Wyoming. Skalman stopped to assist.
He detected that the driver of the vehicle may be under the influence and asked
the driver of the car to sit in the passenger side of his squad while he ran a
routine license check on the vehicle and driver. Just after 4:00 p.m.,
while the suspect was sitting in the squad, he opened fire on Trooper Skalman
shooting him nine times with a 22-caliber revolver. The car was then seen
leaving at a high rate of speed. The squad was parked in front of the home
of Mr. Kunshier who witnessed the car speed away and went out to see if
something was wrong. As he walked to the squad car, he saw that Trooper
Skalman had been shot. He grabbed the squad radio, and told dispatch
"something happened to a trooper." Sergeant Jim Crawford was the first to
arrive on the scene and found Trooper Skalman laying half outside his car.
Crawford asked Trooper Skalman if he knew who shot him, and Trooper Skalman
pointed to his note pad with four license plate numbers written on it. An
immediate search began to locate these vehicles. Sgt. Stan Johnson arrived
and noticed the suspect's vehicle left a puddle of transmission fluid. He
followed the trail left by the car. The vehicle was later located
abandoned in the Carlos Avery area along County Road B (now County Road 2).
Trooper Skalman was taken to Forest
Lake Memorial Hospital and then transferred to St. Paul Ancker Hospital in
critical condition, where he underwent surgery. He died, Sunday at 10:10
a.m., 10 days later. He never regained consciousness.
A search was conducted from
Soderville in Anoka County to Minneapolis. Charles Kinsey, a research
biologist at the Carlos Avery Game Farm said a man approached him and said he
was cold and his car had broken down. He asked for a ride to the "Seven
Corners" area of Minneapolis, which Kinsey gave him.
The suspect was arrested four hours
later in the 700 block of Fremont Avenue North in Minneapolis. Officer
Richard Oly, Homicide Detective Russell Krueger and Detective Inspector Wayne
Sherman received a tip the suspect was there. The suspect was transferred
to the Anoka County Jail, pending a warrant from Chisago County. He had
the revolver with him and a bottle of barbiturates when he was arrested.
The suspect, Edward William Brown,
28, 3117 Harriet Avenue, Minneapolis, denied the shooting. Married and the
father of an infant daughter, he was a former patient at St. Peter Hospital and
served time in the St. Cloud Reformatory for burglary. He also had two
larceny convictions. He was wanted by Crystal Police for a $53 bad check
warrant issued almost a year prior. He was charged with aggravated assault
and held with a $10,000 bond. After Skalman died, a grand jury was called
to review possible murder charges. Brown later pled guilty to
second-degree murder and was sentenced to a maximum of 40 years in the
Stillwater State Prison. Brown had served six and one half years of his
sentence when he earned a weekend pass. Brown failed to return and was
subsequently located and put back in prison. A couple months later he was
paroled.
Special thanks to:
Retired Chief Jim Crawford, Minnesota State Patrol, Retired Captain Dick Smith,
Minnesota State Patrol. Excerpts of this article taken from the
publication "We Will Remember", and the Forest Lake Times.
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