AUTHORITIES FATALLY SHOOT MAN IN FARMHOUSE DURING DRUG RAIDS

HANCOCK, MINN. - Authorities fatally shot a man Friday during a series of
drug raids near this west-central Minnesota city and in Minneapolis.

Officers with the federal Drug Enforcement Agency, the state Bureau of
Criminal Apprehension, Minneapolis police and the Minnesota Gang Strike
Force searched residences in Pope and Stevens counties and in Minneapolis.

At a farmhouse in Langhei Township near Hancock, Robin Merl Emmert, 37,
fired four times at Minneapolis police officers with a shotgun, said Tim
McCormick, resident agent in charge of the DEA's Minnesota office. Officers
shot back, killing Emmert.

Marijuana and chemicals used in making methamphetamine were found at the
180-acre farm, though the search hadn't been completed, McCormick said.

Members of the DEA task force arrested four people at a house in Hancock.
They also searched a home in Framnas Township in Stevens County, as well as
a house in north Minneapolis, McCormick said.

The raids were part of an investigation stemming from an explosion July 12
at a Minneapolis residence. Two men were burned, one seriously, in that
blast, which police said was caused by people trying to make
methamphetamine. Police said the men were moving large plastic jugs of
compressed anhydrous ammonia from a truck parked behind the fourplex when it
exploded.

McCormick said a federal indictment was expected soon against six people in
the narcotics investigation.