In the late summer of 1978, a young White / Caucasian man named Richard Kim Magnuson, age 20, had been a Deputy Sheriff with the Roseau County Sheriff's Department in Minnesota for only two months. On the night of August 2, 1978, he was on duty when a call came in about a vehicle that had run through the Canadian border crossing at the Roseau Port of Entry. Unaware of the danger that lay ahead, Deputy Magnuson responded to the call, locating and stopping the suspect vehicle.
The driver of the vehicle was a 20-year-old man who had a dark secret. He had already murdered three young people in Canada before fleeing across the border into the United States. When Deputy Magnuson initiated the traffic stop, the suspect opened fire with a. 22 caliber rifle, shooting the young deputy ten times. The attack was sudden and brutal, leaving Magnuson with fatal injuries. His law enforcement career, which had just begun, was tragically cut short.
The suspect fled the scene, but his freedom was short-lived. He was apprehended by law enforcement a few hours after the shooting. The investigation quickly connected him to the murders in Canada. He was subsequently convicted of the murder of Deputy Magnuson and sentenced to life in the Oak Park Heights Maximum Security Prison in Minnesota. In 1992, he was extradited to Canada to face justice for his crimes there. On January 16, 1997, he was convicted of second-degree murder and manslaughter and received an indeterminate sentence. Should he ever be released from Canadian custody, his sentence requires his return to a Minnesota prison to continue serving time for Magnuson's murder.
