More Details on Fatal Shooting of Aitkin County Sheriff’s Deputy

The patient, 50-year-old Aitkin man Danny Leroy Hammond, was a subject of a domestic violence investigation and was being treated at the hospital for an undisclosed health condition. According to Tuner, he is the first deputy to lose his life in the line of duty in Aitkin County.

A criminal complaint says Danny Hammond locked his wife inside their house and aimed a pistol at her after she said she was leaving him.

Deputies went to Hammond’s residence and found him unresponsive.

Sandberg and Hammond were taken to the hospital’s emergency trauma center, where efforts to save them failed.

Turner said Hammond was not in restraints at the hospital.

Sheriff Turner said Sandberg’s wife and daughter are overwhelmed by the community and law enforcement support from near and far. His condition began to improve Thursday and Sandberg went to the hospital to monitor the suspect.

It wasn’t until she was able to convince him to allow her to go to her father’s house that she was able to call 911, leading to his arrest.

Deputy Sandberg spent a lifetime helping others – for proof, all you had to do was look up and down the street. Law enforcement officials had been searching for him after his wife reported being threatened and injured by Hammond the previous day. A criminal complaint says Hammond held his wife hostage, pointed a gun at her, and forced her to eat food he says was poisoned, before she escaped.

Deputies went to Hammond’s residence, where they observed a television, which had a bullet hole through its front, in the bed of a pickup inside the garage.

Investigator Sandberg and Hammond were taken to the Ramsey County Medical Examiner’s Office for autopsy. The gun discharged; a bullet hit the television set.

According to court records obtained by KARE, Hammond was convicted in 1990 for felony terrorist threats and his wife had an order for protection against him which was active until November 2016.

For the felony third-degree burglary conviction, Hammond was sentenced to 18 months in prison.

Sandberg, 60, had been with department since 1981 and an investigator for 20 years. Otto said the hospital had asked the sheriff’s office to send deputies to monitor Hammond because of the “seriousness” of the domestic incident. In that case, six counts of felony criminal sexual conduct were dismissed.