Public safety workers mourn slain Minnesota first responders [Video]

Minneapolis, Minn. –

Thousands of law enforcement officers, firefighters and paramedics packed a Minnesota church on Wednesday to hail as fallen heroes three first responders who were gunned down while responding to a report of a domestic incident at a home with seven children inside.

The Minneapolis suburb of Burnsville has been in mourning in the week and a half since police Officers Paul Elmstrand and Matthew Ruge, both 27, and firefighter-paramedic Adam Finseth, 40, were slain. Investigators say Shannon Gooden, 38, opened fire on them without warning during a standoff at his home, then later killed himself.

Sgt. Adam Medlicott, 38, who was wounded but survived, recalled with humor how Elmstrand, as a rookie, once referred to a getaway car as a “go-away vehicle,” and how Ruge didn’t know what to do on a call when a young woman in crisis resisted going to treatment, and admitted afterward that he messed up. …