Friend of fallen Burnsville police officer Paul Elmstrand seeks to honor his legacy
BURNSVILLE, Minn. — We're learning more about one of the three Burnsville first responders who died Sunday in the line of duty.
Tuesday afternoon, families and fellow first responders lined a route through the southwest metro for officers Paul Elmstrand and Matthew Ruge.
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They were working alongside firefighter and parademic Adam Finseth, who also died. Sgt. Adam Medlicott was also shot but survived.
WCCO spoke Tuesday with Luke Lavelle, one of Elmstrand's close friends.
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The two met eight years ago at church in Medina. He says Elmstrand's favorite song was Aerosmith's "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing."
"Such a loss to the world and it doesn't seem fair. It's cliché but it's the best ones that go too early," Lavelle said.
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He says when someone met Elmstrand, they also met his wife, Cindy. Lavelle calls their marriage a "storybook romance."
"They've known each other as long as they can remember," he said. "Seeing only one of them was like thunder without lightning. I mean it's like, they were just one unit."
A unit that got bigger with the birth of their two children. Lavelle said that greatly affected Elmstrand's work in law enforcement.
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"Especially in this culture right now there's a lot of animosity toward police, and he'd talk about that a little bit, too, but it's like he never really took a side. He just always talked about like, 'I'll be the example of what people want to be for change,'" he said. "You could tell he understood the frustrations and you could tell he understood what he could do to make a difference."
With Elmstrand's death, Lavelle knows it's up to friends and family to continue making that difference, and keeping his friend's memory alive forever.
"I don't think there's enough positive male leadership and role models for kids right now, and he was like that hero that they could all look up to," he said. "If I could have a fraction of that kind of energy in my job, it would honor his legacy."
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