Minnesota sheriff's deputy killed by hospitalized suspect he was guarding

A sheriff's deputy was killed Sunday when the suspect he was guarding in a Minnesota hospital grabbed his gun and shot him, authorities said.

Drew Evans, superintendent of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, said during a news conference that at the time the suspect, who was in custody because of a domestic incident, was not handcuffed. During a struggle inside the suspect's room at St. Cloud Hospital, he said, several shots were fired, and security officers responded. "The suspect was tased with a Taser, and taken into custody," Evans said. "After he was taken into custody he became unresponsive. Medical personnel performed lifesaving operations on him and he died at that time."

Evans identified the Aitkin County deputy as Steven Martin Sandberg, 60, who had worked as an investigator for the past 20 years. The suspect was identified as Danny Leroy Hammond, 50. St. Cloud Hospital's vice president, Kurt Otto, said deputies had been asked to watch over Hammond because of the "seriousness" of the domestic incident he was involved in earlier in the week, The Associated Press reports. Evans did not say why Hammond was being treated, or how long he had been hospitalized, only revealing it had been longer than one day. Autopsies will be performed on both men, and investigators are interviewing hospital employees who were on duty at the time.

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