Apple Valley Man Charged With Manslaughter in Shooting Death of Friend

An Apple Valley man has been charged with manslaughter after authorities say he pointed a loaded .45-caliber semi-automatic handgun at his friend’s head on Saturday and pulled the trigger.

The victim, Benjamin Allen Hanson, 22, of Welch, MN, died Sunday.

Derrick Wallace Dahl, 22, is charged with second-degree manslaughter, which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $20,000 fine.

He is also charged with reckless discharge of a firearm in a municipality, a felony with a maximum penalty of two years in prison and a $5,000 fine, and misdemeanor charges of intentionally pointing a gun at another person and recklessly handling a gun. Both misdemeanor charges carry maximum penalties of 90 days in jail and a $1,000 fine.

According to the criminal complaint, Burnsville police were called to a home on East Crystal Lake Road just after 9 p.m. Saturday on a report of an accidental shooting. The caller told police that the victim had been shot in the head and was unconscious, but breathing.

When officers arrived, they found Dahl outside the home. He told police that he was inside while his friend was cleaning a gun, the complaint says; he said he didn’t witness the shot, but heard it and saw his friend fall to the ground.

Police yelled for the man inside the home to come outside. He told police that he, Dahl and Hanson were downstairs cleaning guns, and that he had his back to Dahl and Hanson. He said he heard a loud bang and turned to see Dahl with his hands near his face and Hanson on the floor, according to the complaint.

The witness called 911.

Police and paramedics went inside the house and found Hanson with a gunshot wound to his head, lying on the floor of a basement kitchenette, the complaint says. He was taken by ambulance to Hennepin County Medical Center.

Police found a semi-automatic handgun on the floor of a nearby closet, and also found another semi-automatic handgun on the counter and a black revolver near the sink, according to the complaint.

During a subsequent search of the home, officers found a variety of guns and a single spent shell casing marked “Speer 45 auto,” the same brand and caliber as the ammunition found in the gun that had been lying on the floor of the closet.

Dahl was questioned again at the Burnsville police station and said he was not in the kitchenette when the gun went off. Later, he said that he had been in the room when the gun was fired, and eventually he told police that he had pointed a handgun—which he thought was unloaded—at Hanson and fired it, according to the complaint.

Dahl told police that it was the first time he had ever handled a gun and that he knew nothing about them, the complaint says. He said that earlier, all three men had been pointing the empty guns at one another, “just playing around,” according to the complaint.

Hanson’s mother called Burnsville police on Sunday and told them her son had died.

Dahl remains in the Dakota County Jail in Hastings on a $100,000 bond.