Multiple law enforcement sources confirmed to 5 INVESTIGATES that 53-year-old Jesse Werling was the man who shot police officers and Roseville homes near West Owasso Boulevard and Victoria Street North at around 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday. An officer who responded was shot in the face but is in stable condition, according to Roseville Police Chief Erika Scheider. Verling later died at the hospital, according to police. Roseville police had responded to Werling’s home about 15 times in the past and had previously announced his name for “mental health precautions related to police resistance and danger,” according to a police report obtained by 5 INVESTIGATES. Court records in Minnesota and Wisconsin reveal that Verling had a history of violent outbursts and threatening behavior. Werling had twice committed to mental health treatment – once in 2018 and again in 2019 – and had been declared mentally ill, which should have prevented him from owning a gun. Law enforcement vehicles show up Tuesday, April 5, 2022, near the intersection of Victoria Street North and West Owasso Boulevard in Roseville. (KSTP) Officers said they “did not feel comfortable” approaching Werling last month because they were worried he might have a rifle with a sniper rifle stolen from his mother’s gun safe in her North Hudson apartment. Werling’s mother reported the incident to police on March 9, after appearing at her doorstep at 2:30 a.m., allegedly “insane.” Verling was never charged with stealing the rifle. It is not clear if this rifle was used to fire more than 100 missiles at police and neighboring houses during Tuesday night’s shootings. The police issued a hosting order and called the SWAT unit. The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Investigation continues to investigate. “We are still trying to figure out what motivated us and what exactly led to this,” Scheider said Wednesday. Werling was well known to law enforcement in the suburbs of St. Louis. Paul to West Wisconsin. Stillwater police responded to a call in December 2020 after Werling tried to kick a neighbor’s steel door as a mother and 2-year-old child hid in their basement. “His behavior in the past has been varied and unstable,” the family told a Washington County judge. The court issued a restraining order against Werling, who was facing a charge of damage to first-degree property. His next appearance in court was scheduled for May 4. In 2018, Verling appeared at a Good Friday service at the Family of Christ Lutheran Church in St. Louis. Joseph of Wisconsin, wearing a traffic vest and several cameras, according to police reports. The pastor said Verling, who was “regular in the church,” was behaving “a little more abnormally than usual.” Asked by 5 INVESTIGATES about the Roseville shooting, Pastor Chad Czischke replied, “It’s just sad to know he got to this point.” Verling was also arrested in 2015 after threatening to take his ex-wife to the “underworld”, court records show. Using St. Louis County Diversion Program Croix, Werling avoided a larger charge of disorderly conduct and was instead found guilty of violating the decree. Prosecutors in that case pushed for the guns to be kept away from Verling. Court records show Verling said he had no weapons, but his father did – and they shut them down. “Only until this is done to me and until you probably know what is going on next,” the judge told Werling, “no weapons.”
