Guilty Plea For Shooting During Struggle With Rochester Police

Rochester, MN (KROC-AM News) - A Wabasha County man with a history of run-ins with law enforcement has entered into a plea agreement that calls for a 15-year prison sentence.

34-year-old David Collier entered a guilty plea on Friday to a first-degree assault charge involving the use of deadly force against a police officer after prosecutors substituted the charge for a count of attempted murder. In exchange, Olmsted County prosecutors also agreed to drop three other felony charges, including illegal possession of a firearm by a person convicted of a crime of violence and attempted disarming of a peace officer.

The Kellogg man was arrested in February of last year after Rochester Police were dispatched to the Extended Stay America Hotel near the Highway 52/63 interchange to investigate reports of people with guns on the property. A witness told the responding officers that a man with a gun was seen walking through the lobby and the officers located Collier in a laundry room.

Get our free mobile app

Police reported that Collier resisted when officers attempted to place him in handcuffs, and during the struggle, he reached into one of his pockets and pulled out a gun. Before the officers could disarm him, police say Collier managed to fire a single shot that sent a bullet into the floor. The criminal complaint says an officer got a hand on the barrel before Collier could aim to fire at police. Collier is also accused of pulling the trigger of a taser holstered on one of the arresting officers.

At the time, Collier was wanted on two active probation violation warrants. His criminal record includes felony convictions for burglary, fleeing police, drug offenses, and domestic assault. One of his more high-profile arrests occurred in 2015 when he led local authorities on a 15-mile-long high-speed chase in a stolen pickup that ended when a State Trooper fired three shots into the vehicle after Collier crashed head-on into a State Patrol squad car and then tried to ram another law enforcement vehicle.

He is scheduled to be sentenced in early April.

More Minnesota News:

• Florida Sting Investigation Leads to Rochester Man's Guilty Plea
• Rochester Man Faces New Charges on Same Day He Cuts Plea Deal
• Heaviest Snow Now Predicted to Hit Central & Northern Minnesota