GRANITE FALLS — A Granite Falls couple is expressing their gratitude for the outpouring of support they have received as their 29-year-old son recovers from injuries suffered in an indiscriminate shooting in Brooklyn Park on Feb. 24.
“No putting it into words, the people that reach out,” said Dawn Rupp, speaking for herself and husband, Jerry.
“We want to express our thanks for everybody out there, for the donations, the thoughts and prayers. We are very grateful,” she told the West Central Tribune.
A Go Fund Me account ( bit.ly/ScottRupp) has been established to help their son, Scott Rupp, who is recovering in North Memorial Hospital in Robbinsdale after a bullet tore through the femoral artery in his left leg around 8:15 a.m. Thursday. The fundraiser was more than halfway to its $10,000 goal as of 2 p.m. Monday.
Their son was at his computer when he heard shooting and stood up just as a bullet tore through the wall of his town home and into his left leg. He used his belt as a tourniquet and called 911 for help. While on the phone for help, he crawled to the front door and was able to reach up and open it as Brooklyn Park police officers arrived.
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The officers also used tourniquets to stop the bleeding. Scott lost four pints of blood from the wound. His action to put on a tourniquet — and those of the arriving officers who also applied tourniquets — is credited with saving his life.
“If not for the quick thinking and action of the officers, 10 more minutes, he would have been dead,” Mark Bruley, a deputy chief with the Brooklyn Park Police Department, told the Star Tribune of Minneapolis.
Scott’s mother said her son attributes his love for the show “Band of Brothers” with giving him the know-how to apply his own tourniquet.
“He’s on the road to recovery, but it is a long road ahead,” said Dawn Rupp.
She said Monday that Scott was moved from intensive care to a trauma room. If all goes as doctors hope, he might be able to return to his Brooklyn Park town home on Wednesday, according to his mother.
Fox 9 KMSP reported that the suspect in the case fired 41 rounds into five homes in the Brooklyn Park neighborhood where Scott Rupp lives. Brooklyn Park officers arrested the 45-year-old after a vehicle chase. Video shows the car that the suspect is alleged to have been driving ramming into two squad cars.
The Brooklyn Park police reported that the suspect refused to cooperate and barricaded himself inside the vehicle once stopped. “SWAT and crisis negotiators were called to the scene and were able to convince the suspect to surrender without incident,” according to a statement on the Go Fund Me Page for Scott Rupp. The suspect was scheduled to appear in court Monday afternoon on three felony firearm charges, according to the Star Tribune.
Dawn and Jerry Rupp rushed to North Memorial Hospital to be with their son when they learned of the shooting. His spirits are good considering the circumstances, said his mother.
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Scott’s brother, Shaun Fischer, began the GoFundMe page and on it said it’s not known if the bullet that lodged in his brother's leg can be removed.
The bullets fired by the suspect struck Scott’s town home, garage and his vehicle in it.
Dawn Rupp said her son is a very strong person and that she and her husband are optimistic for his recovery. She said her son told them: “You’re supposed to feel safe in your own home and I don’t have that feeling anymore.”
