Accused Cook County Courthouse gunman Daniel Schlienz died Tuesday morning in a Duluth hospital after being taken there Monday night for treatment of what the St. Louis County Sheriff's Department described as "flu-like symptoms."
Schlienz, who was in a highly supervised area of the St. Louis County jail in Duluth, initially put in a request to be seen the night of Dec. 25 after complaining of illness, but was not given immediate medical attention, Sheriff Ross Litman told the News Tribune.
"Given the hour of the day and the holiday, medical staff were not in the facility," Litman said. "When they arrived on the morning of the 26th, he was seen and treated for flu-like symptoms," he said, which were nausea, vomiting and body aches.
When his condition worsened on Monday, Schlienz, 42, was taken to Essentia Health St. Mary's Medical Center by Gold Cross ambulance at about 7:45 p.m., and he died at about 8 a.m. Tuesday, with family members present, according to the sheriff's office.
If Schlienz's condition on Dec. 25 had appeared to be more severe, he would have been brought to an emergency room, or the jail's on-call physician would have been brought in, Litman said.
Schlienz's father, Gary Schlienz, said he was called at 3 a.m. Tuesday morning by someone from the hospital and was told to come there because "your son is dying," Gary Schlienz told the News Tribune.
"He was already gone when we got there. They had him on life support," he said. "It was such a shock ... He did not look like he was supposed to look. He was not Dan."
The St. Louis County Medical Examiner's Office conducted an autopsy Tuesday and ruled the cause and manner of death as "undetermined" pending additional lab tests, which could take several weeks to complete. Foul play is not suspected, Litman said.
There were no signs of any injury from someone else or self-inflicted. The investigation is pointing toward a physiological or medical condition and not a traumatic cause of death, Litman said.
"But we just don't know that for sure until we see the autopsy results. It didn't appear to be any outside influence. It appeared he became sick and got worse very quickly," Litman said.
Schlienz's death remains under investigation by the St. Louis County Sheriff's office.
Litman said he was not aware of any medical condition that Schlienz had before Monday.
Schlienz did not appear to be sick before the courthouse shooting on Dec. 15, said John Lillie, Schlienz's defense attorney in the criminal sexual conduct case that was tried in the Cook County courthouse that day.
"I didn't notice any kind of coughing or wheezing or anything like that. Maybe a runny nose or a cold, but certainly nothing serious that stuck out during the trial,'' Lillie said.
Palmer Berglund, who is married to Schlienz's mother, Ginger Berglund, said Schlienz was "coughing terribly" Monday.
"He was very sick yesterday afternoon," Berglund said on Tuesday.
Ginger Berglund declined to comment Tuesday.
Litman said only two inmates in his nine years as sheriff had died of a medical condition in a hospital, and only one other died of a medical condition while incarcerated at the Haines Road jail since it opened in 1995.
"Given the number of bookings we do every year, the thousands of inmates, it's a remarkable testament to the professionalism of the staff," Litman said. "They pay attention to the condition of inmates and look out for their well-being regardless of who they are."
Litman noted that Schlienz had been taken to the Cook County Hospital in Grand Marais after the Dec. 15 courthouse shooting and was not treated for anything serious at that time.
Cook County Sheriff Mark Falk declined to comment on Schlienz's death Tuesday morning.
Lillie, who intervened to help victims of the shooting after having defended Schlienz in the earlier court case, said the death adds more sorrow to an already traumatic series of events.
"I feel terrible for his parents who already had so much sorrow to deal with and now have to deal with this," Lillie said. "Whether this brings closure to the victims, I don't know. Maybe it will make it worse. It's just a bad situation all around."
Schlienz was being held in the Duluth jail pending $2 million in bail for the Dec. 15 courthouse shooting of two people in Grand Marais.
Schlienz was charged Dec. 19 in state district court in Duluth with two counts of attempted first-degree premeditated murder for the courthouse shootings of Cook County Attorney Tim Scannell, 45, and Grand Marais resident Gregory Thompson, 53. The charges could have brought sentences of between three and 20 years under state guidelines if Schlienz had been found guilty.
Schlienz's next court appearance had been scheduled for Jan. 10. Schlienz also had been charged with assault in the fourth degree for attacking Cook County bailiff Gary Radloff, possession of a weapon by a felon and obstructing arrest.
The investigation into the courthouse shooting is still open, said Doug Neville, spokesman for the Minnesota Department of Public Safety.
"We're not going to treat it any differently. The BCA is still going to complete the investigation," he said. "They are still going to complete a report and submit it to the attorney general as they would have had (Schlienz) not passed away."
Schlienz, of Grand Marais, had just been found guilty on several counts from a five-year-old criminal sexual conduct case when the shooting occurred about 4:15 p.m. Dec. 15. He had been released on continued bail after the jury verdict was announced, officials said, because he was not expected to be sentenced to incarceration.
According to the criminal complaint, Schlienz met briefly after the verdict with his mother and his attorney in a small room outside the courtroom. He told officers that he had earlier gone to his truck where he retrieved a .25-caliber handgun before re-entering the courthouse for the verdict. He walked toward County Attorney Scannell's office, where Thompson, a witness in the trial, was just leaving
The complaint said Schlienz shot Thompson in the leg, entered the office and shot Scannell in the chest, left the office to shoot Thompson again in the knee area, then re-entered the office, where he shot Scannell in the pelvis and in the leg.
It took four people several minutes to subdue Schlienz. Law enforcement officials also used a Taser on Schlienz several times before he was handcuffed and forced into a squad car outside the courthouse.
Both Thompson and Scannell left the hospital within a few days.
According to the complaint, Schlienz later told officers in a statement that he meant only to confront Scannell about the case, but when he heard Thompson thank Scannell for prosecuting, he decided to shoot both men. According to the complaint, Schlienz told officers that he had a plan to shoot but not kill Scannell if he was found guilty.
Schlienz's girlfriend said Schlienz told her he had "a plan'' if he was found guilty, the complaint said.
Schlienz is a former boxer who in 2006 entered an Alford plea on charges that he sexually assaulted two 15-year-old girls and one 17-year-old girl. In 2007, he moved to withdraw the plea, a motion that was initially denied by the sentencing court. The Court of Appeals in January ruled that his plea withdrawal should have been accepted and reversed his conviction, which paved the way for the trial.
Daniel Schlienz's father has said he had no warnings that his son might harm others.
"I apologize to everybody for this and I wish to God it hadn't happened,'' Gary Schlienz said on the night of the shooting.
On Tuesday, Schlienz said the death of his son was "traumatic."
"I thought the other part was bad. This is really bad," he said. "I'll never see him again. It's really tough."
Copyright 2011 - Duluth News Tribune, Minn.
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
