Firearm Arrest Made In Fatal New Hope Shooting
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) - An arrest has been made in connection to the shooting at New Hope city hall that left the gunman dead and two police officers hurt.
The arrest is related to how Ray Kmetz acquired the gun used.
Police say Kmetz shot at the two officers Monday night when they were walking out of city hall.
Officers fired back, killing him.
Kmetz was prohibited by law from owning a gun and, police say, he had help in buying the gun used in the New Hope shooting.
Sheriff Rich Stanek said Michael Garant, admitted he bought the weapon Kmetz used to shoot the officers. Hennepin County Sheriff Deputies arrested Garant Thursday night.
"We've talked a number of times [about] straw purchasing -- somebody who is prohibited from owning a firearm facilitates the transfer of a firearm through someone else," Stanek said. "This may very well be what's happened in this case, which is why the arrest was made last night."
The Hennepin County Attorney's Office says that while Garant is still in custody, they don't have enough evidence yet to charge him. It's not enough to just admit to buying the gun to charge him.
"The evidence provided by law enforcement was insufficient to bring felony charges under state law," the attorney's office said in an email Friday evening. "However, the investigation continues."
The arrest happened at Garant's father's house in Golden Valley.
"They took him away, and then they start searching the house from the basement all the way up," Garant's father, Ronnie, said. "The search warrant said they were looking for any more weapons and any paperwork concerning weapons."
Ronnie Garant said his son used to snow blow Kmetz's driveway for him, but he didn't know he may have helped him get his hands on a gun.
"I don't know anything about how he got to know him, or just with the snow plowing or what," Ronnie Garant said.
The Hennepin County crime lab raised the serial number off the gun used in the shooting and tracked how it ended up with Kmetz.
It started with Duluth police, who sold the gun -- and two others found in Kmetz's car at city hall -- to an online auction house that sells guns, K-BID of Maple Plain, last summer.
Kmetz purchased the guns online.
But police say Garant is the one who picked up the guns in person at the Full Metal Gun Shop in Princeton for Kmetz last August.
Garant's background check checked out.
Ronnie Garant said police took his son's computer and cell phone.
Garant is still in jail tonight, while the investigation continues.
