Apple Valley Man Sentenced to 90 Days, Public Speaking for Accidental Shooting Death

An Apple Valley man will be spared a major prison sentence for accidentally shooting a friend, but he will be forced to relive the experience, publicly, at least once a year for the next 10 years. 

On Thursday, Judge Erica MacDonald stayed a recommended 48-month sentence for Derrick Wallace Dahl, 23, for the shooting of 22-year-old Benjamin Allen Hanson. Instead, Dahl will serve 90 days in jail, with credit for time served, and then face 10 years of probation. One of the conditions of Dahl's probation is that he participate in educational and outreach programs, which must include speaking to young people at least once every year for a decade.

The shooting occurred at a Burnsville home on the night of July 23, 2011. According to the original criminal complaint, police found Dahl standing outside when they arrived at the address on East Crystal Lake Road. Hanson was in the house, lying on the floor of a kitchenette, unconscious but breathing. Dahl initially claimed that he did not witness the shot, just heard it. He said he saw his friend fall to the floor and left the house. 

Dahl's story conflicted with the tale recounted by another man at the scene, the reporting party. He said the the three had been cleaning guns that day. The witness said his back was turned to Dahl and Hanson while he watched TV. Then he heard a loud bang, turned and saw Dahl standing over Hanson, who had fallen to the floor.

Inside, police found a gun was lying near the spot where Hanson had fallen, a Kimber semi-automatic .45. The Kimber had a magazine inside, and the gun's hammer was in the cocked position, ready to fire, with the safety off. A live round was in the chamber, six rounds in the magazine.

In his first formal statement to police, Dahl again said that he was not in the room when the gun discharged. Eventually he admitted that he'd shot Hanson. Dahl said it was the first time he'd ever handled a gun, and that earlier the three of them had been pointing empty guns at each other, "just playing around." Dahl told police he saw the witness take the magazine out of the Kimber, unload one bullet from the chamber, and set the gun back on a nearby counter.

Dahl said he went to look through a cabinet. When he turned, the gun was still sitting on the counter. Thinking the weapon was unloaded, Dahl cocked the .45-caliber semi-automatic pointed it at Hanson's head and pulled the trigger. Dahl said that he didn't know the gun had been reloaded, that it was an accident.

Hanson died the following day.

Dahl was originally charged with manslaughter in the second-degree, reckless discharge of a firearm in a municipality, intentionally pointing a gun at another person, and recklessly handling a firearm. He pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the second-degree on May 23. In exchange, the state dismissed the remaining charges.

Though sentencing guidelines call for a minimum of 48 months, the prosecution agreed to stay the prison sentence, County Attorney James Backstrom told Sun Thisweek in May. 

“I agreed to the downward departure because this was an unintentional act of negligence,” Backstrom said at the time. “It think it’s reflective of the significant danger associated with mishandling firearms. But it was not an intentional act on Mr. Dahl’s part.”

On Thursday, Backstrom extended sypmathy to Hanson's family.

"This was a preventable death that could have easily been avoided if two of the most basic gun safety maxims had been followed: You should always assume a gun is loaded and you should never point a gun at another person," Backstrom said in an official statement. 

Hanson's obituary in the Red Wing Republican-Eagle describes him as an avid fisherman, who loved sports, especially baseball and hockey. Hanson worked at Apple Valley Ford, but had hoped to pursue a career in computer programming after graduating from District 196 in 2007.