Sheriff’s Deputy, Former MSUM Football Player Shot Dead at St. Cloud Hospital

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A deputy who once played on Minnesota State University Moorhead’s football team is dead after being shot by a suspect in a domestic incident.

60-year-old Steven Sandberg, an Aitkin County deputy, was shot and killed by 50-year-old Danny Hammond at a St. Cloud hospital.

Police and hospital officials declined to say at a news conference why Hammond was being treated at the hospital.

They said the hospital had asked the sheriff’s office to station a guard in Hammond’s room because of the seriousness of the domestic incident, which was earlier in the week.

These pictures are of the procession taking Deputy Sandberg’s body to the Ramsey County Medical Examiner’s office.

“At some point there was a struggle between the suspect in the room and the deputy that was overseeing this individual early this morning (10/18). During that struggle the deputy his firearm was taken by the suspect in this incident and the deputy was shot. Several shots were fired during that struggle and then security officers were able to get into the room, and the subject was tased with a Taser, and taken into custody. After he was taken into custody he became unresponsive. Medical personnel performed lifesaving operations on him and he died at that time,” says Drew Evens, MN BCA Superintendent.

Right now, officials don’t know what triggered the struggle.

We’re told Deputy Sandberg had been with the sheriff’s office since 1991.

He leaves behind a wife and daughter.

He was on MSUM’s football roster in the 1970’s.