By Dan Nienaber
Le Center — During a break between rain showers Tuesday, Kris Hoehn held a large can of Natural Ice beer in his hand as he acted out the last seconds of 24-year-old Tyler Heilman’s life.
Hoehn stood by one corner of the Kasota apartment building where the fatal shooting took place, showing how Heilman, his friend since grade school, confronted the man who had followed them into the nearby parking lot. He rolled on the ground where he said Heilman and the man, now identified as Le Sueur County Sheriff’s investigator Todd Waldron, wrestled under a window.
Kneeling on the ground before standing up with his arms in the air, Hoehn described how he says Heilman backed off after he realized he was fighting with a deputy. “Bam, bam, bam,” were the words he used to describe the gunshots that followed.
“I’m done, I’m done man,” Hoehn said as he covered his chest, repeating Heilman’s last words.
Then he stumbled back and around the east corner of the building, opposite from the side of the building where his gruesome performance started. Friends who were watching fought back tears, as did Hoehn.
He fell to the ground next to some flowers, a beer can and a couple of cigarettes that marked the spot where Heilman died at about 4 p.m. the day before. Heilman was wearing only swim trunks because the group had been swimming in the Minnesota River at the Kasota public access.
“He went from playing down at the river, living the life, to being shot down in what is practically his own backyard,” Hoehn said. “He was a 24-year-old guy with a young son (3-year-old Haydin).”
Authorities asked people to withhold judgment while the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension investigates. During a press briefing in Le Center Tuesday, Andy Skoogman, the Minnesota Department of Public Safety spokesman, gave this description of what happened:
Waldron was investigating an unrelated matter in Kasota when he started following the Buick around 3:30 p.m. Monday. He was in plain clothes with a concealed firearm. His badge was attached to his belt. The vehicle he was driving was not marked and he didn’t use emergency lights or sirens at any time.
The driver Waldron was following, later identified as Heilman, was erratic and using excessive speed as he drove through the small town, at one point leaving the road to drive up a sliding hill. Waldron called for help from a marked squad car.
Before the backup arrived, Waldron followed the car and its occupants into the apartment parking lot off Ridgely Street, or Le Sueur County Road 21. He got out of his car to confront Heilman and a verbal altercation turned physical.
“Our preliminary investigation shows four shots were fired,” Skoogman said.
Waldron, 37, is a 10-year veteran of the Sheriff’s Department, starting as a patrol officer in 1999 and becoming an investigator in 2004, Skoogman said. He received minor injuries during the altercation and has been placed on paid administrative leave, which is common after shooting incidents.
The information is preliminary because the investigation is ongoing and expected to last from six to eight weeks.
There were many questions Skoogman said he couldn’t answer.
He didn’t know if Waldron’s badge was visible or if he announced he was a deputy. There were no weapons in the Buick, but Skoogman wouldn’t say if drugs or alcohol were found. He didn’t know if Heilman attempted to reach for Waldron’s weapon, a move that would have justified deadly force, during the altercation.
“We’re asking the entire community to withhold judgment, at this point, until all the facts are in,” Skoogman said.
He said no one else was injured in the incident but couldn’t confirm whether bullets shot from Waldron’s gun went into one of the apartments just a few feet away from where the shooting occurred.
Josh Pritchard pointed to a hole in the wall, where he said BCA investigators removed a bullet. It was one of two that came through Pritchard’s bedroom wall, he said.
One ricocheted off a dresser. If the other bullet would have passed through the inner wall where it became stuck, it would have gone into the bedroom shared by his two sons, 4-year-old Jordyn and 2-year-old Jadyn.
Heather Pritchard, Josh’s wife, said she was home and heard the gunfire. She told Jordyn to get down on the ground before crawling across the floor to make sure Jadyn, who was sleeping within feet of where the one bullet was found, hadn’t been hurt. She was shocked to find someone lying dead outside her sons’ bedroom window and to learn a deputy had fired the shots.
“Even if he had a good reason to do it, he shouldn’t be shooting outside someone’s window,” Heather Pritchard said. “He was endangering people’s lives.”
A short time later, after BCA investigators arrived, Pritchard said she was told to leave her apartment with her sons. They weren’t offered a place to stay and weren’t allowed to return until about 1 a.m.
Anyone with information is asked to call the BCA tipline at 1-877-996-6222.
