WASECA, Minn. — In January 2020, prosecutors in Minnesota charged Tyler Robert Janovsky with the attempted murder of three police officers following a shooting incident. The charges stem from an incident where officers responded to a call about a suspicious person in a residential area.
Tyler Robert Janovsky, 37, faces three counts of attempted first-degree murder of a peace officer in Waseca County District Court. The most severely injured officer was Arik Matson, 32, who was shot in the head.
According to CBS Minnesota, authorities allege that on a Monday night, officers responded to a call reporting a suspicious person with a flashlight in a backyard. Officer Matson, along with Sgt. Timothy Schroeder and Officer Andrew Harren, arrived at the scene. The criminal complaint details that officers made contact with Janovsky on the back balcony of a house. When Officer Harren attempted to approach Janovsky, the suspect fled onto the roof of an attached garage and then to the front of the home.
The complaint further states that Janovsky fired at Officer Harren, missing him. He then allegedly shot at Officer Matson, who was in the driveway, critically wounding him in the head. Officer Matson was airlifted to a hospital and remained in critical condition, although reports indicated some signs of improvement.
During the incident, Matson and Schroeder returned fire, hitting Janovsky twice. Janovsky sustained non-life-threatening injuries and was hospitalized.
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Prior to this incident, Janovsky was wanted on narcotics violations. Three weeks earlier, police had served a search warrant at his home, seizing methamphetamine, pseudoephedrine pills, other drugs, and a firearm. CBS reported that a brother warned Janovsky, and he fled out a basement door. Janovsky also has previous convictions for burglary, narcotic violations, and making terrorist threats. He was also convicted of being an accessory to murder in the 2001 strangulation of a 21-year-old man, admitting to driving another man to the victim’s home and waiting outside during the homicide, according to The Star Tribune.
Officer Matson had been with the Waseca Police Department since 2013 and was assigned to the patrol division. He was also a member of a regional drug investigative SWAT team and worked in a program designed to keep kids away from drugs, according to Chief Penny Vought.