Brett Alan Thooft, a 36-year-old White man from Sioux Falls, South Dakota, died on May 1, 2017, after a weekend that ended in silence behind an apartment door in an industrial part of the city.
Investigators said Thooft had been at the apartment of Ronald Douglas Cook, 45, and that the two men knew each other. Sometime on Sunday, April 30, police believe an argument escalated into a physical fight. In the middle of it, authorities said Cook produced a.
40-caliber handgun and fired two shots into Thooft—one to the head and one to the chest—killing him there in the apartment.
What brought officers to the scene was not a gunshot call in the moment, but a warning left behind afterward. Police said a friend arrived the next morning to give Cook a ride to work and instead found a note saying that something bad had happened and that police should be called. Inside, investigators described a scene pointing to an apparent murder-suicide: Cook was found dead as well, and authorities said they believed he used the same handgun to take his own life on Monday, May 1. Police noted alcohol was likely a factor and reported finding a small amount of marijuana in the apartment.
Because the suspected shooter, Ronald Douglas Cook, was dead, there were no arrests, charges, or court proceedings stemming from the killing of Thooft; investigators publicly described the case as nearing its end shortly after releasing the men's identities and their account of what occurred.
Separate from the circumstances of his death, Thooft had previously been arrested in Sioux Falls in an unrelated incident in which police said a car was set on fire; a local report stated he was taken into custody nearby and charged with second-degree arson and reckless burning.
