‘We will always remember them’: Memorial group supports families of first responders killed in Burnsville

[MUSIC PLAYING] INTERVIEWER: The deaths of two Burnsville police officers and a firefighter paramedic killed in the line of duty continue to reverberate across the country. Officers Paul Elmstrand and Matthew Ruge and firefighter/paramedic Adam Finseth are being remembered as heroes who made the ultimate sacrifice when responding to a 911 call for help. It was a domestic call that led to an hours-long standoff with a male suspect. In the wee hours of Sunday morning, the man shot the two officers and the paramedic helping one of those officers. A third officer still in the hospital.

Now their families, the Burnsville residents, and the first responder community find themselves grieving the losses. Last night, hundreds of people gathered at a vigil for the three men.

SUBJECT: My heart just broke. There are no words. What do you say? I mean, we've said it so many times, our hearts and our prayers and our sorrows go out to these people. And it's just devastating. I wish I could just surround the whole community with a big hug, because that's what we need.

INTERVIEWER: One of the first to support the families of the fallen is the Minnesota Law Enforcement Memorial Association, or LEMA. This morning, officials with that group met with the officer's families to offer their support and begin the work to honor the first responders when they are laid to rest. Joining us right now is a board member of LEMA, who is also the Olmstead County Sheriff, Kevin Torgerson. Sheriff Torgerson, thanks for your time.

KEVIN TORGERSON: You bet. Thank you.

INTERVIEWER: Where were you yesterday and what were your first thoughts when you heard about the deaths of the first responders in Burnsville?

KEVIN TORGERSON: Well, I was home, getting ready for church. And as always, I'm checking in on our people, and obviously the news broke. I saw it through some social media contacts.

And I've been around this thing so many times, and yeah, my immediate thoughts go to, obviously, the officers, their families. Was there children involved, and their families, and then the agency and the community. It's just a huge hole in their hearts and a huge hole in their community right now.

So that's LEMA's mission since 1974. We've been in place since 1991. We've had an Honor Guard that basically pulls all the things together and tries to shine a little light in their dark tunnel that they're in right now, because it's a dark place they're in. And we try to get some help to them.

INTERVIEWER: And of course, not only the families, but colleagues and just everybody in the law enforcement community. The faces of all the law enforcement and first responders who are outside HCMC yesterday, when the bodies were brought out, it was just heartbreaking.

KEVIN TORGERSON: Yeah, it is. And you look at that, and I was talking to someone else this morning and asking some of the same questions is, what do you do? How do you feel? And you look at it and my career has spanned now almost 44 years, and I've been there. I've done that and been on ERU teams, swat teams, been on domestics.

And that's the thing officers do and their families do, is we've been in those situations. And for the grace of God, I'm still here and unfortunately those three young men are not. And we've got to honor them. And they went there to solve a problem. They went there to help people and the worst thing possible could happen, did happen.

And yeah, we've got to lend support. It's going to be a tough road for everybody in Burnsville, the fire department, the police department, the community. I mean, I saw the news conference last night and the city manager, every word he spoke was-- he was shaking. And man, you just feel for that because it just takes over your body. Grief and trying to find a way to fight through it and move forward is a very difficult place to be.

INTERVIEWER: I know you've been in the rooms with the families of fallen law enforcement, which has to be incredibly difficult. What kinds of support do they need?

KEVIN TORGERSON: Well, everything right now. They're just really in complete and total shock. I've talked with family members that I've been in the room with during those first few days and leading up to and through the funeral and even afterwards.

And years later, they'll tell me, I don't even remember you being there, Kevin. I don't remember what we talked about. I don't even remember what we what I said because they just are overwhelmed with grief, overwhelmed with the shock of what happened, and trying to figure out what's tomorrow going to be like, what's next week going to be like. And they just don't know. And so again, we are in place to just try to lend a little bit of comfort and lend a little bit of what's the next steps and kind of lead them through that and hold their hand, basically, as we as we all move forward.

INTERVIEWER: I don't know if the officers had young children. But I understand that LEMA, because, of course, grieving doesn't stop at the funeral. It just keeps going and it's cyclical. It ebbs and flows, as you know.

Does LEMA helps the little kids? I always feel so bad for the families of these fallen officers, especially the young kids.

KEVIN TORGERSON: Yeah, we do. There's several different organizations that step up besides LEMA. There's Concerns Of Police Survivors. It's COPS, obviously, is the acronym.

They really do step up. They're very focused on the survivors, the families, the kids. So LEMA and COPS here in Minnesota, the COPS chapter have been arm in arm in this mission since as long as I can remember. And they do a great job of that and supporting them, reaching out to other family members.

The unique thing, and unfortunately the sad thing, is there are other people who have been through this with young children and spouses left to try to figure out now what do we do and where do we go from here. So we'll keep them in contact and COPS will be there right from the get-go here. In fact, they're probably already engaged with them to some degree at this point, letting them know they're there for help and support, and again, hold their hand as they move forward, not just this week, leading up through the funerals, whenever the funerals are set. We're working on that right now with some of our board and some of our Honor Guard members.

So once we get past the funerals and everybody has to try to find a way to get back to work and get back to life, those families continue on. And we don't want to let them just be left alone, so LEMA and COPS steps in. There's scholarships that are available as kids get older. We do a Shop With LEMA thing every Christmas with young children until they're into college, and just try to be there and support them and make sure that we have never forgotten them.

Because that is the biggest fear, and I've heard this so many times. It just breaks my heart terribly each time I hear it, and that is these families, their loved one is now gone. And when families join our agency here in the Sheriff's office in Olmsted County, we talk about that with our family members and say, you guys have joined our family, too. And it's really important that they know that we're here for them, and we're here for them through the good and the bad.

And that's the one thing they say over and over is that they don't want their loved one's service to be forgotten. And we constantly tell them, year after year, day after day, month after month, they will never be forgotten. We will always remember them and keep them close. So we try to uphold that as much as we can so that we can keep them moving forward. It's a tough road.

INTERVIEWER: It is a tough road. And I know that in the last year, LEMA has been a part of at least, by my count, I believe, what, six funerals in our region in the past year or so, which seems like-- that seems like a higher rate. And I don't know if that is, from your experience. How tough is it for you and the whole law enforcement community to have to keep going to funeral after funeral after funeral?

KEVIN TORGERSON: Well, it's tough. We get very in this period of time, and I was a commander of the Honor Guard for several years and on the Honor Guard for, I think, 24 years. So you get once it happens, you get very mission-focused and that helps.

And it always helped me in that sense, in my way of grieving and supporting the families and the agencies, is get very mission focused on here's what we have to do. We're going to form this group. We're going to get these people involved. We're going to reach out for resources here and there.

And it's always been so easy because communities and the state in Minnesota have been so very helpful and supportive in these times. But LEMA just kind of brings it all together logistically and forms the groups to pull this thing off. And it's still very tough because you get those moments where you do have that private time with family or private time with the agency, chiefs or sheriffs. They're trying to lead their people and they, too, are sitting there going, how do I do this? What do I do?

And that's what LEMA's for. That's what we've been doing all these years is, again, with our experience and the support that we have, trying to help them through that process. So it has been tough these last few years here, with the western Wisconsin deaths and Fargo and then Pope County last year for us in Minnesota.

On average-- people ask that routinely. On average, unfortunately through our history, it's been about 1 and 1/2 officers killed in the line of duty each year in Minnesota, which is actually quite low compared to some other states. But LEMA also supports officers who are still on duty and die. There's a funeral, I believe, tomorrow for an officer from a South Metro agency who died of cancer recently, and we're going to be helping with that too in the midst of all of this. So we do a lot more than just the line of duty deaths, but obviously that is the most important part of all of this.

INTERVIEWER: Wow. This is a lot for you to handle coming up here in the next few days and weeks. I appreciate your time, Sheriff. Thank you so very much.

KEVIN TORGERSON: You bet. Thank you for your time and thank you to everybody who's shown the care and support. It truly means a lot.

INTERVIEWER: All right. We've been talking to Olmstead County Sheriff Kevin Torgerson, who's also a member of the board of LEMA, and LEMA is the Minnesota Law Enforcement Memorial Association.