Dakota County MAAG Team Responds to Police Standoff North of Northfield

Officers from Dakota County’s Multi-Agency Assistance Group were involved in a standoff at a residence north of Northfield Saturday.

The MAAG Team—known better as the county’s SWAT team—is assembled for high-risk assignments, such as the barricade situation that occurred in southern Dakota County on Saturday.

The seven-hour standoff ended shortly before 1 p.m when officers took a 34-year-old man into custody, Dakota County Sheriff Dave Bellows told the Northfield News. A second person was also detained.

The scene of the  standoff is roughly a 10-minute drive north of downtown Northfield and just north of the Rice-Dakota county line.

Law enforcement agencies contributing officers to the MAAG team include the Dakota County Sheriff’s Department and the Apple Valley, Farmington, Hastings, Inver Grove Heights, Lakeville, Mendota Heights, Rosemount, South St. Paul and West St. Paul police departments.

Squad cars from most of those agencies lined 315st Street about a mile west of Highway 3 early Saturday afternoon. The dirt road into the incident scene was blocked on the east by a Lakeville Police pickup truck and the west by a vehicle from Dakota County Parks.

A Lakeville Police community service officer standing sentry to the incident site said Northfield police officers had been on the scene for a time. 

An squad from ALF (Apple Valley-Lakeville-Farmington) Ambulance was on the scene until an ambulance from Northfield Hospital's Emergency Medical Services arrived in relief.