A judge on Wednesday sentenced the woman who bought the guns that her romantic partner used to kill three first responders in Burnsville to nearly four years in prison.

Shannon Gooden used two AR-15-style rifles that Ashley Dyrdahl purchased to kill officers Paul Elmstrand and Matthew Ruge and firefighter-paramedic Adam Finseth on Feb. 18, 2024. Police responded to the home that Gooden and Dyrdahl share on a report that Gooden was sexually assaulting someone.

Gooden was ineligible to own firearms because of a 2008 felony assault conviction. Dyrdahl, 36, pleaded guilty in January to two counts of straw purchasing.

“This tragedy has changed the molecular structure of my soul,” Burnsville Police Sgt. Adam Medlicott said during a two-and-a-half hour hearing in a St. Paul federal courtroom W

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