Here is a story about the Accent Signage Shooting from the “Minneapolis Police 150th Anniversary” book published by Acclaim Press (currently out of print).
Sergeant Billy Peterson remembers the feeling in the pit of his stomach as he led his 1280 team toward Accent Signage on a September afternoon in 2012. “I just remember how surreal it was. This was the real deal.”
A disgruntled employee turned active shooter was making his way through the workplace.
“It was extremely stressful because of the horrific nature of how it transpired. We had gone into the loading dock and one victim was dead, a catastrophic shot to the head. Then we saw them removing a critical victim. We’re bypassing people who had essentially just been assassinated. I still remember their names to this day,” Sergeant Peterson explained.
It took 39 minutes to find the shooter, who had taken his own life, but not before taking the lives of six others. “On this call, it was just people, innocent people at work, trying to earn a living, trying to go about their day. Some of the victims in this, I don’t think, had any idea what was about to happen,” Responding Officer Ken Tidgwell would recount years later.
The entire building was cleared an hour and 39 minutes after SWAT teams first entered. Two victims survived.
“We learned from Columbine that street cops can’t sit on the outside and wait for SWAT cops to show up because lives are lost in those precious seconds and moments. From my standpoint, I was extremely proud of our street cops. One of the surviving victims said ‘I had given up.’ He believed that his life was over. He heard officers calling out ‘this is the Minneapolis Police Department’ and it gave him the will to live,” Sergeant Peterson said.
Sergeant Peterson still drives by the building where one of the worst mass shootings in the state’s history took place. He still gets chills as he recalls the longest hour and 39 minutes of his career.
Accent Signage Victims
Six victims were killed in the shooting – five at the scene and the sixth dying in the hospital the following day. They were:
- Keith Basinski, 50, a UPS driver making a delivery to Accent Signage when he was killed
- Jacob Beneke, 34, an Employee
- Rami Cooks, 62, a Manager
- Ronald Edberg, 58, an Employee
- Reuven Rahamim, 61, Company Founder
- Eric Rivers, 42, a Production Manager who died on October 10, having been taken off life support after it was determined that he could not survive his wounds.
Another company executive, Director of Operations John Souter, was hospitalized at Hennepin County Medical Center in critical condition for some time. Another employee, Battites Wesley, suffered a graze wound and was hospitalized in stable condition and released the following day from Hennepin County Medical Center.
A picture of some true heroes.