Accomplice To Shooting In Edina Hospital Parking Ramp Pleads Guilty
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- The accomplice to the shooting of a doctor inside an Edina hospital parking lot last fall has pleaded guilty.
Lucinda Peterson originally pleaded not guilty to charges of first-degree aggravated robbery, aiding an offender to avoid arrest and aiding an offender -- accomplice after the fact. An amended plea entered Monday shows Peterson pleaded guilty to aiding an offender to avoid arrest, as well as two counts of financial transaction card fraud.
Peterson and Matthew Rush were arrested at a Bloomington hotel in September and later charged.
According to a criminal complaint, Rush attempted to rob a doctor at gunpoint in the parking ramp of M Health Fairview Southdale Sept. 14. During a struggle, the gun went off and the doctor was hit in the head. He was able to get inside the hospital for help.
Surveillance video showed Rush standing in a stairwell in the ramp before the shooting, and a silver car leaving the scene. That car was later found at a hotel in Bloomington, with Rush inside. Peterson was arrested inside a hotel room.
Phone numbers used to make hotel reservations showed that both Peterson and Rush's phones were in the area of Fairview Southdale Hospital when the shooting happened.
Peterson will be sentenced April 5. Rush is scheduled to go to trial April 19. He is charged with robbery, assault with a dangerous weapon and attempted murder.
