MOORHEAD - Police here are looking for two black males in a black or navy blue Dodge Intrepid after a report of a person injured in a shooting Wednesday in the 1100 block of 17th Street South.
Lt. Tory Jacobson said the victim was taken to a hospital by a friend with at least two gunshot wounds of unknown severity. The victim reported the shooting as he was driven to the hospital, Jacobson said.
WDAY-TV identified the victim as Anthony Sands, of Moorhead, after speaking with neighbors.
Sands, once a Minnesota State University Moorhead lineman for the football team, was one of a dozen charged in April 2010 after a series of thefts at Fargo's Best Buy.
Jacobson said investigators weren't immediately sure what led up to the shooting or where it occurred, but he said it involved a house at 1107 17th St. S.
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"We have investigators scattered around here now," Jacobson said at about 4:30 p.m.
In a news release a short time later, Jacobson described the males as suspects and said the victim told police the men left in the Intrepid heading north on 17th Street South. He said one of the males was reportedly wearing a blue puffy coat and hat and the other wore dark-colored clothes.
Officers had been dispatched to the area on reports of gunshots at about 3:45 p.m. when the victim called 911.
Police alerted both Concordia College and Minnesota State University campuses about the incident. MSUM sent a campuswide email alert about 4:20 p.m., saying that police were looking for two black males in a blue or black Dodge Intrepid.
MSUM urged students to call police with any sightings of possible suspects, and in one email warned the pair may be armed with a silver handgun and a long gun.
At 6:22 p.m., MSUM sent an email to students and others saying the alert was canceled but residents should remain mindful of personal safety and call 911 if they notice anything suspicious.
Sanford Hospital staff said late Wednesday evening they did not have any information for a patient with Sands' name.
Sands was kicked off the football team in March 2010 after the school learned of the theft charges along with an arrest for driving while intoxicated in Moorhead earlier that month.
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Of the dozen charged in the Best Buy theft ring, Sands was among at least nine other student athletes. Ten of the 12 charged were North Dakota State University students.
Adetimisola Ogundipe and Paul J. Larson worked as security guards for Best Buy and allowed at least 10 people to remove high-end electronics from the store.
Sands eventually pleaded guilty to one count of felony theft in July 2010 in Cass County District Court which was later reduced to a misdemeanor charge, according to court records.
A 2009 MSUM football roster listed Sands as a 6-foot, 6-inch, 285-pound freshman from Roseville, Minn.
Concordia College students Brianna Glynn, 20, and Jennifer Freiday, 20, came to check out the scene after receiving a text alert from school security. Freiday said the alert was "terrifying" since two women from north central Minnesota both found it unusual to have a shooting so close to campus.
Kevin Karki, a sophomore at MSUM who lives about a block away from the incident, said he didn't hear anything. The Nepal native said he was surprised to hear someone was shot in Moorhead.
Jacobson said police were on the shooting scene and at the hospital investigating.
The general scene of the shooting is just west of Grace United Methodist Church, about three blocks south of the east edge of MSUM's campus.
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A Grace United Methodist member said the church remained open for its weekly soup and sandwich dinner Wednesday night.
