(ABC 6 News) – Five years ago this November, then 21-year-old Devin Weiland barricaded himself inside his Albert Lea apartment building and used law enforcement and the community as target practice.

Related: Hearing for Devin Weiland brings witness list into question, other requests considered

As a result, Weiland was sentenced to 50 years in prison after a jury found him guilty of attempted murder and 2nd-degree assault.

Related: Weiland receives 50-year sentence in Nov. 2020 shooting

Despite the guilty verdict, that November night is one the Albert Lea community will never forget.

“It’s something that’s never going to leave us and the people that live in that building in that neighborhood and the community as a whole are never going to forget it,” said Albert Lea Police Lieutenant Darin Palmer.

It started with a 911 call that changed everything after the Shady Oaks neighborhood woke up to gunfire in the dead of night.

Officers arrived at the apartment complex off of 4th Avenue SW, but they did not realize the danger that was lying in wait.

That’s when shouts of “shots fired, I’ve been shot!” rang out over the police scanner.

“It’s the call you don’t want to get,” said Albert Lea Police Deputy Chief Darren Hanson.

The initial officer that arrived to the scene, Officer Kody Needham, had a bullet come through his side window, striking him in the chest and injuring him.

“His training and his experience, he had the forethought to realize what just happened. You’re there for a fireworks complaint, and you all of a sudden get hit with something, and you don’t know what it is,” said Lt. Darin Palmer with ALPD. “He didn’t freeze. You have that fight or flight, and he had flight and took off and got out of the way.”

Officer Needham’s life likely was saved by his bulletproof vest, while bullets ricocheted off of his fellow officers’ squad cars.

“We knew we had an active shooter. We didn’t know where the active shooter was, so that makes it more difficult. We didn’t know if he was mobile, or if he was barricaded somewhere. We just didn’t know exactly where his location was,” said Deputy Chief Hanson.

From his third-story window, Weiland used the darkness as a blanket, firing shots at anything that moved below, including those not wearing a badge.

The rain of bullets struck one neighbor in the arm. Another was shot through his car door as he was heading to work.

“We were running around our house, closing all the blinds, making sure all of our windows were shut because we didn’t want him to be able to see us. We didn’t know where he was in the apartment, so we didn’t want him to be able to shoot over here or try and shoot us. We were hiding in our bedroom all morning,” said one neighbor the morning after the shooting.

Officers quickly realized that they needed to act quickly in order to keep other potential victims out of harm’s way.

“One of the lessons that was learned at that point is to be able to make decisions under stress. I can’t sit and take 10 minutes, or 20 minutes, or an hour, to think about what I’m going to do. We need to do things now. The shooting is going on,” Lieutenant Palmer recalled.

Hours after the gunfire erupted, police determined the bullets were coming from above. As a result, officers sent drones into the air to scale the building and search for the shooter.

Meanwhile, Weiland searched for his next victim as the entire Shady Oaks apartment building was evacuated.

“We’re going room-to-room. We have keys, pound-pound, search it. If they’re sleeping, get them out of bed, they’re coming with us. We had guys giving piggy-back rides down the stairs,” Lt. Palmer said.

Stretching into the seventh hour of the standoff, teams deployed tear gas through Weiland’s window, but that only made the bullets come quicker.

Then, from 72 yards away, a sniper had a clean shot from his own window, and he was given the green light to take it.

That bullet disintegrated on impact with the window, with a piece hitting Weiland between the eyes.

After 90 rounds were fired, Weiland was ready to surrender and was taken into custody.

“It was a relief. It was a relief to finally get him in custody, that there was no one that died,” Lieutenant Palmer said.

ABC 6 News acquired footage never-before-seen outside of the courtroom following the shooting, as Weiland himself walked authorities through the events of that fateful night.

“It just happened out of spite, just like that, I snapped,” Weiland said.

Weiland said after a heavy night of drinking that led to a fight with a group of people, he armed himself inside his apartment, but one of his guns discharged.

“I said if they would take my guns away, this would be my last stand. I didn’t want it to come to that, but I just first started shooting a few rounds, so the cops would try killing me. I didn’t want to kill any cops. I didn’t want to shoot anybody. I remember shooting a couple of rounds in a truck and in the air. I thought the cops would be at my place in 30 minutes and it would be over like that,” Weiland said.

Weiland claims he had no intention of luring police to his building.

But yet, that initial 911 call came from Weiland himself, telling dispatchers to investigate fireworks.

While law enforcement below feared for their lives, Weiland claims he fell asleep during the standoff.

“I said ‘what the ___ happened?’ I didn’t know what the ___ happened, and I remembered. And next thing I know, I look down, and I see an armored car that’s shooting smoke grenades or tear gas through both windows. And if that hadn’t happened first, I would’ve surrendered right then and there,” Weiland said.

We’ll never know if that is true, but as Weiland faces 47 more years inside a Stillwater prison cell, the scars he leaves behind will stay for years to come.

“What we look like as a department changed greatly. It’s one of those things where every court appearance, every hearing, everything related to it, the officers that were first on scene that dealt with that trauma hands on, you can see it in their eyes. Trauma, they’re reliving that. When he was convicted, there was a sense of relief, but at sentencing, those officers had to go and give their victim impact statements, and it was traumatic for the ones that had to recount that and relive that,” said Deputy Chief Hanson.

It’s that trauma that still hangs over the Albert Lea Police Department to this day. After the shooting, many officers left the station entirely.

In the five years since, leaders at ALPD have made a lot of changes from new equipment, training, and how they deal with mental health issues.

Of the five Albert Lea police officers who arrived first on the scene that night, only two remain with the department today.

“The events are always going to be with us. Those of us that were working, it’s something you’ll never forget,” said Deputy Chief Hanson.

For some, forgetting is not a part of the plan. Instead, they hope to spur change.

“We do take our training very seriously because we know it can happen in Albert Lea. We’ve proved it’s happened in Albert Lea. We want our staff prepared and be able to handle any calls that are thrown their way,” said Deputy Chief Hanson.

In the wake of that November 2020 night, the department has upped its equipment. It has brought in a tactical vehicle, better night vision, armor, and breaching capability.

Even with the equipment upgrades, the department cannot fix what has already been damaged.

“Officer wellness is a very important thing for us. We have several programs. We have a psychologist that meets with every officer annually. Check up from the neck up type of program,” said Deputy Chief Hanson.

While officers try and heal, though, they realize they still have a job to do.

“There’s going to be calls every day. They’re going to assist people all day, and some people have other alternatives for why they’re calling you there,” said Lieutenant Palmer.

While they say time heals all wounds, we’re still no closer to finding a solution to stop the violence.

“We have people in all of our communities that have mental health problems, and we don’t have enough resources to help them. And this stuff happens, it happens everywhere all over the country,” Lieutenant Palmer said. “There isn’t any community that’s going to be safe from anything like this happening.”

That reality is why officers are always ready for that fireworks call to become something else entirely.

“What happened, it was a set up. We got ambushed when we went to that call. So that lives with people. That lives in your mind. It gets passed on from officer to officer,” said Lieutenant Palmer.

While Weiland stays frozen in time inside a prison cell, the Albert Lea Police Department is moving forward and will not forget.

While the Shady Oaks building now sports a new look, painted blue and covered in glass, those that call Albert Lea home still recall the memories the building holds.

“It’s something traumatic for our whole town. Thankfully, nobody died. Thankfully, nobody died, but it was, it ended up being two people and our officer that got shot. Because of the quick actions of our officers that were there, they made sure the two people that were shot lived,” said Lt. Palmer.

If you have a story ABC 6 News should take a look inside at, email our newsroom at news@kaaltv.com.