BURNSVILLE TEEN SHOT BY APPLE VALLEY OFFICER EXPECTED TO BE PARALYZED

A Burnsville teenager was shot and wounded by a police officer early
Saturday on an Apple Valley cul-de-sac after the teen, who a family friend
said apparently was using LSD for the first time, scuffled with the officer.

The Apple Valley officer believed the 17-year-old boy was trying to get his
gun, authorities said.

The teen, whose name hasn't been released, was in fair condition Saturday
afternoon at Regions Hospital in St. Paul. Karri Kline, a family friend who
was at the hospital with the boy's father, said she was told he probably
will be paralyzed from the waist down. He was hit in the thigh, shoulder
blade and spine.

Attempts to talk with the teen or his father were unsuccessful Saturday.

Kline said the teen was at her house in the 15600 block of Heywood Way
hanging out with her 18-year-old son and five others Friday night. She said
her son told her that the group of four boys and three girls decided to
take LSD, a potent synthetic hallucinogen that is also known as "acid." A
couple of the partygoers had tried the drug before; one boy didn't take it,
she said.

"My son says, 'You know, Mom, we were just going to try it once, just one
time,'" Kline said. "But that's all it takes."

"I'm not excusing these kids for experimenting," she added.

Kline said that her son told her that his friend started "freaking out" and
that the group tried to get him under control. They couldn't, and he left
the house.

Patricia Kyono, who lives a half-block away, said she awoke about 3:25 a.m.
and heard someone yelling in a deep voice and saying something about the
devil. When she looked out the window, Kyono said, she saw the teen under a
streetlight.

"He was jabbering really loud in a really deep, deep voice, just rambling,"
she said.

"I thought he was probably loaded and had just come from a party -- he was
dressed all in black, and he had a skeleton [print] on his T-shirt," Kyono
said.

She said she called 911 and was told that another person had called to
report the same thing. She was told an officer was on the way.

By the time she hung up and looked out again, she said, the teen was
sitting naked in front of her house, which is in the 15600 block of Heywood
Court E. His clothes were piled next to him.

She said she went back to bed, thinking the officer would tell him to leave
or arrest him. But her husband, Paul, watched for the officer.

When police arrived, the teen had wandered off. The officer scooped up the
clothing. He was sitting in his car looking for identification in the
clothing when the teen ran up and confronted him, investigators said.

"It was like he was trying to get the officer," Paul Kyono said. "He was
ranting. He was not normal; it was like he was whacked out on drugs."

Investigators said the officer pushed open the door in an attempt to throw
the teen off balance. But the teen attacked the officer through the open
door, Police Chief Bruce Erickson said.

"A struggle over the officer's weapon resulted in the suspect being shot,"
he said.

Said Paul Kyono: "I heard three or four shots, and then I saw [the teen]
fall down."

Erickson declined to name the officer but said he has been on the force for
more than 20 years. The officer has been placed on on paid administrative
leave, which is standard procedure.

Paul Kyono said it looked as though the officer was in trouble. "I would
have shot the guy, too," he said.

But Kline said the teen she knows is kind, considerate and is like a "big,
Teddy bear."

"I think it's important to get across that this is not some criminal kid or
troubled kid. He is not a delinquent," she said. "This is a kid who freaked
out on LSD. ... He's a good kid who had one horribly tragic night of bad
judgment."

Kline said she was visiting a friend in Wisconsin on Friday night and was
not home, but she knew her son had invited friends over, "and he's never
given me any reason not to trust him."

Her son and the teen, a Russian immigrant who became a U.S. citizen a few
months ago, know each other from school and were good friends.

Kline said she, her son and two of his friends visited the teen in the
intensive care unit Saturday. The teen told them he is glad to be alive.
She also said he is "taking responsibility. He's apologized to my son for
his behavior." She added that she believes he has cooperated with authorities.

Hospital staff members told Kline there is a 90 percent chance the teen
will remain paralyzed, she said. The teen's father is devastated by the
shooting, she said, and the boy's mother is dead.

Kline said she has warned her children about drug use. And she said she has
a message for others contemplating it: "It only takes once, and you can't
be sure if you will be one of the people who responds that way."