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DISTRICT 916: Students get real-life experience building home PAGE 10
Time to honor first responders for heroism, bravery and valor self in the bedroom and refused to come out. “The officers on the scene spent a great deal of time talking and negotiating with the subject to attempt to get them to come out of the room,” Swanson said. “This is not uncommon for any interaction that we've had with him, and officer Ryan Sheak, a SWAT negotiator, has great experience with that and had a great rapport with the subject.” The suspect continued to yell at the officers and after several minutes he suddenly came out of the room and fired gun shots at the officers. Sheak was struck by the gunfire, and officers fired back as the they retreated from the apartment. “There was quite a bit of chaos,
BY NOELLE OLSON EDITOR
PAUL DOLS | PRESS PUBLICATIONS
White Bear Lake Police Officer Ryan Sheak shakes Chief of Police Julie Swanson’s hand in a recognition ceremony at a White Bear Lake City Council meeting. Sheak was shot three times while attempting to serve an arrest warrant earlier this year. He received the Medal of Valor award for his bravery.
One of the darkest days for the city of White Bear Lake and the White Bear Lake Police Department has a happy ending. White Bear Lake Police Chief Julie Swanson and city officials recognized four police officers, seven firefighters and EMS staff for their heroic efforts in an officer-involved shooting earlier this year. Officer Ryan Sheak was critically injured when he was shot several times by a suspect on Jan. 24 while trying to serve an arrest warrant in an apartment in the 3100 block of Karth Road. Swanson said the suspect was well known to the officers and when officers arrived, the suspect was uncooperative and shut him-
SEE HONOREES, PAGE 7
You can’t take the mechanic out of the man BY DEBRA NEUTKENS STAFF WRITER
Most days, White Bear Lake’s former mayor can be found in his happy place: peering under the hood of a car and listening to the musical sound of an impact driver. Paul Auger is in his element at Knutsen Auto Service, his new hangout now that Auger’s Garage is closed. The business started in 1919 by his grandfather, Henry Louis Auger, on the corner of Fourth Street and Bald Eagle Avenue “sailed into the sunset” a year ago. It was time, Auger said. He was 69 after all, and his scary bout with a paralyzing illness in 2017 left him debilitated. Auger never regained use of his left hand, and although he can walk short distances
with the use of special braces on his lower legs, he is more comfortable in an electric wheelchair. Contracting Guillain-Barre Syndrome six years ago was life-changing for Auger, the city’s mayor from 1995 to 2010. He spent months in the hospital, his entire body paralyzed. It started with tingling in his foot. Within 24 hours, Auger was in intensive care hooked up to a mechanical ventilator to breathe. Every muscle in his body became immobile as white blood cells attacked the myelin sheath around his nerves, disrupting the electrical impulses to the brain and spinal cord. Even his eyes were stuck open, because he couldn’t blink. "It's not something I want to remember, but to have
something that tries to kill you but doesn't, and you recover to almost 100%, it's like divine intervention," he’d shared in an earlier interview. “It was like living in a twilight zone, but I didn’t die. Although I thought Father (Ralph) Talbot (the priest at St. Mary of the Lake) was administering last rites one day in my hospital room. I woke up after a vivid dream to see him looking in my eyes and putting something on my forehead. I tried to ‘will’ him my thoughts, to tell him, ‘I’m still here.’ We laughed about it later. He said he was giving me a blessing.” The experience with the mysterious condition has given Auger a positive outlook on life, he said. He won’t chance driving again due to a disconnect between his feet and brain, but Auger is OK
PAUL DOLS | PRESS PUBLICATIONS
A humorous sign is among the items Paul Auger brought over to Knutson Auto Service, his new hangout now that Auger’s Garage is closed.
with that. “After all the years I spent driving people around, I’m perfectly happy to sit in the passenger seat,” he said. Of course, he does drive an electric wheelchair around
town on daily excursions. As the self-proclaimed “boulevard superintendent,” the former mayor tools around SEE PAUL AUGER, PAGE 9
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