Starting in 2001, Silvera and his wife spent two years in the Peace Corps, working on urban planning and small business development in the Honduran city of Concepcion de Maria. Ruben Hernandez, the Peace Corps country director for Honduras, said Silvera is remembered as quiet and sweet. "He is thought of fondly here at Peace Corps Honduras," Hernandez wrote in an e-mail.
Police Officer Shawn Silvera (RPCV Honduras) killed in crash
Suspect allegedly veered at officer
Investigators: Cop didn't have to die
BY JASON HOPPIN
Pioneer Press
A man who fled police Tuesday could have avoided killing a Lino Lakes police officer, investigators said Wednesday. Instead, they said, he veered toward Shawn Silvera, who was well off Interstate 35W trying to place a device on the road to stop the stolen car the suspect was driving.
Silvera, 32, who had trained to be a police officer since he was a teenager, was killed as he tried to place Stop Sticks on the freeway south of County Road 23.
The Anoka County attorney's office could file charges today. Steven Stanke, 26, of Sioux Falls, S.D., was booked into the Anoka County jail Wednesday after spending the night in the hospital.
Silvera's law enforcement career started in high school, when he was a Police Explorer with the Coon Rapids Police Department. He worked as a community service officer in Coon Rapids from 1992 until 1996, joining the Lino Lakes Police Department the next year.
Starting in 2001, Silvera and his wife spent two years in the Peace Corps, working on urban planning and small business development in the Honduran city of Concepcion de Maria. Ruben Hernandez, the Peace Corps country director for Honduras, said Silvera is remembered as quiet and sweet.
"He is thought of fondly here at Peace Corps Honduras," Hernandez wrote in an e-mail.
The couple returned in July 2003, and five months later, Silvera's wife gave birth to a baby boy. Silvera lived with his family, including a second young child, in a new house in Forest Lake, less than two miles from where he was killed. A police officer stationed outside the home Wednesday asked reporters not to disturb the family.
Stanke had outstanding South Dakota warrants for three felonies, said Michelle Boyd of the Minnehaha County sheriff's office in Sioux Falls. Two of the warrants were drug-related, and the third was for being a habitual criminal, a charge leveled at those with extensive criminal histories.
Hopkins police arrested Stanke in 2003 after responding to reports of a disturbance. According to a Hopkins police report on that incident, Stanke was intoxicated and fought with officers as they tried to take him into custody.
Tuesday's fatal chase began after the Chisago County Sheriff's Department received a tip that Stanke was in the area. A deputy found him just after 5 p.m. in Wyoming, Minn., driving a 1996 Chevrolet Beretta reported as stolen. When Stanke failed to yield, the deputy initiated the pursuit southbound on I-35.
The chase reached speeds of more than 90 mph and covered 13 miles in about nine minutes. Officers from Chisago County, the Wyoming Police Department and the Minnesota State Patrol took part.
As the chase crossed into Anoka County, Silvera positioned himself on the wide, grassy median. He was to deploy Stop Sticks, a row of spikes used to end high-speed chases safely by slowly letting the air out of a suspect's tires. Instead, Anoka County investigators said, Stanke veered the stolen Beretta toward Silvera.
Silvera died at the scene. He was the first officer from Anoka County killed in the line of duty in recent memory, and the third Minnesota law enforcement officer to die this year. St. Paul police Sgt. Gerald Vick was shot, and Wadena police officer Peter Resch died of an apparent heart attack while responding to a call.
Tuesday's chase appears to meet Chisago County policy, which states a chase is justified when a vehicle fails to yield to an officer, but lists several factors to consider in continuing the chase.
Don Davis, a former Minnesota commissioner of public safety, said the decision to chase and Silvera's decision to roll out the Stop Sticks appear to be justified.
"The officer was trying to conclude the chase safely," Davis said. "What a tragedy."
Britt Johnsen and Bob Shaw contributed to this report.
Jason Hoppin can be reached at jhoppin@pioneerpress.com or 651-228-2120.
