Warrant: Drug task force suspected couple of selling meth before raid that left 5 officers injured

MINNEAPOLIS —

Drug task force officers suspected a Minnesota couple of selling methamphetamine when they raided their house in an operation that left five officers and one resident wounded last week, according to a search warrant released Wednesday.

Gunfire broke out last Thursday when Sherburne County Drug Task Force officers attempted to execute the search warrant at the home of Karl Thomas Holmberg, 64. He was charged the next day with six counts of attempted first-degree murder of a peace officer and six counts of first-degree assault of a peace officer.

It wasn't immediately clear from the documents available Wednesday whether investigators found any drugs at the home, but at least one more warrant had not been released as of Wednesday evening.

A second warrant released showed that police also looked for flammable and electrical materials and fire damage after the raid after seeing black smoke inside the residence as Holmberg exited, look back, then went back inside. Holmberg left again and was arrested as smoke came from the eaves of the house. The warrant said it appeared that either a headboard or a cabinet in a bedroom had been burning. The receipt said investigators took nothing but pictures of the scene and did not specify what was burning or how it ignited.

The first warrant application came from a task force member who said he got a tip from an informant that Holmberg and his wife, who has not been charged, were dealing meth. He wrote that he got an informant or informants to buy meth from the couple twice earlier this year.

And he said a check of the trash at the home in June turned up a plastic bag with methamphetamine residue, and a syringe needle cap that also tested positive. He wrote that a second “trash pull” last month yielded another plastic bag that tested presumptively positive. Tests also detected traces on a piece of plastic and a cigarette pack. A third check of the trash, on Oct. 2, found another bag that tested positive and several empty butane canisters, which can be used to heat drug pipes, according to the warrant application.

According to the criminal complaint, Holmberg told his wife it was “his day to die” when he learned that the officers were at their home. She told investigators he called her a “coward” when she refused to join him in fighting back, according to the complaint.

The state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, which is leading the investigation, said in an update Wednesday that the task force members went to the home in Glendorado Township near Princeton — about 50 miles (80 kilometers) northwest of Minneapolis — with a “knock-and-announce narcotics search warrant.” It said two officers returned fire during the initial confrontation at the Benton County home while a third fired a single “less-lethal” round nearly four hours later to help end it.

The bureau named two of the officers: Benton County Deputy Ron Thomas, saying he fired his pistol and has eight years of law enforcement experience, and Sherburne County Patrol Sgt. Austin Turner, who fired the less-lethal round and has eight years of experience. The BCA did not name a third officer, a Sherburne County deputy who fired his rifle, because he was working undercover, nor the other officers involved. One injured officer remained hospitalized in stable condition Wednesday. A sixth officer also went inside the home but was not struck

According to the BCA statement, Holmberg was finally taken into custody when Turner fired the less-lethal round and a dog was deployed. Holmberg suffered minor injuries. The BCA said investigators recovered 10 firearms at the scene along with ammunition and cartridge casings. Body camera videos from the incident have not been released. The BCA said it is still reviewing them.

Holmberg remained jailed Wednesday with bail set bail at $6 million without conditions, or $3 million with standard conditions such as a ban on possessing weapons or ammunition. His next court date is Oct. 24. Court records still don't list an attorney who could speak on his behalf, but show he has reapplied for a public defender after initially being denied. Calls to a number listed for the family were met with busy signals on Wednesday.

Court records show Holmberg was convicted of cocaine possession in 1986 and another felony drug possession in 2006.

Interviewed by police at the hospital, he said he didn’t think the officers serving the search warrant “had a right to be there and told them to leave,” according to the complaint.