Minnesota: Hennepin County sheriff's son rear ends fire truck, cited for marijuana

Hennepin County Sheriff Rich Stanek’s son, Ryan Stanek, 23, rear ended and severely damaged a Brooklyn Center fire truck late Thursday night, prompting a search of his vehicle where authorities found suspected marijuana.

The incident happened in Brooklyn Center on the 3900 block of 58th Avenue North around 1:30 a.m. No injuries were reported.

“Upon initially arriving on scene, I was able to speak with the fire fighters who stated that they were okay and after speaking with the fire fighters they pointed to a male who was walking around the truck [Ryan Stanek],” an incident report states. Ryan told officers he did not know how or why he had hit the fire truck, and said that he'd been “traveling forward and that because the fire truck was slightly impeding the lane of traffic in which he was driving, he had hit it.”

The incident report states Ryan provided no information regarding what he was doing at the time he was driving and struck the Brooklyn Center fire truck, which was about to leave the scene of a previous call.

Ryan Stanek was ‘acting very erratic’

“It should be noted that the male was acting very erratic at the time that we began to talk to him and appeared very scared which also added to the suspicion and the necessity to ensure the male did not have any items on him which could hurt himself, officers or any of the firefighters who were on scene at the time,” one officer stated in the report.

During the investigation, Officer Holt advised that he would be checking Ryan for weapons, “at which time the male immediately became verbally aggressive,” according to the incident report.

Marijuana, pipes found in vehicle

Law enforcement found no weapons in the vehicle, and no alcohol was detected in Ryan’s system. But Brooklyn Center police officers did find marijuana in the center console.

"I opened up the bag and saw multiple Ziploc bags containing a green leafy substance which I knew through my training and experience to be consistent with marijuana,” Officer Holt stated in the incident report.

Authorities also found pipes in the vehicle used most commonly to smoke marijuana.

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