BELCOURT, N.D.-The suspect in a Rolette County shootout that took the life of a deputy is dead, authorities said Thursday morning.
Rolette County Sheriff Gerald Medrud said one deputy was shot and killed during a Wednesday shootout after a police chase that started about 6:30 p.m. in the Devils Lake area. Officers pursued a driver in a stolen pickup, and the male suspect then led four officers on a chase through Rolette County.
A shootout then began when officers caught up to the pickup at a back roads intersection near Belcourt, a city of roughly 2,000 residents about 80 miles northwest of Devils Lake in north-central North Dakota.
Medrud said one deputy from his department was killed. The suspect was also killed, but it's unclear if he was shot by law enforcement or if he took his own life.
The names of the fallen officer and suspect have not been released and no other officers were injured during the shootout, Medrud said.
The Bureau of Criminal Investigation is investigating the case.
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More information is expected during a 10 a.m. news conference at the Rolette County Courthouse in Rolla, which is about 6 miles east of Belcourt.
This would be the first time the Rolette County Sheriff's Office has lost an officer in the line of duty and the 57th for North Dakota, according to the Officer Down Memorial Page, an online database dedicated to tracking line-of-duty deaths. It's been almost a year since Fargo Police Officer Jason Moszer was killed while responding Feb. 10, 2016, to a domestic disturbance. The incident escalated into an eight-hour standoff with Marcus Schumacher, 49, who opened fire on officers. Moszer, 33, died the next day from a gunshot wound.
Schumacher killed himself after a police sharpshooter wounded him.
Prior to Wednesday's shooting, 31 North Dakota officers have died by gunfire.
