On the eve of Friday, March 24, 2023, just before 5:20 p.m., while a state trooper was working traffice enforcment on Highway 52 near mile marker 25, in the City of Fountain, the trooper observed a Ford SUV traveling at a high rate of speed and activated their emergency lights to stop the vehicle.
The driver of the Ford turned onto Fillmore County 8 into the City of Fountain, failing to stop for the trooper’s emergency lights, continuing north onto Pine Street — near one of the city’s two water towers.
Lakendrick A. Mosley, 31 of Des Moines, Iowa, and Darwin L. Green, 27 of Fort Dodge, Iowa, exited their vehicle and ran from a Minnesota State Trooper within the downtown area of Fountain. There was a felony homicide warrant out of their arrests.
The residents and visitors of Fountain had no idea what was happening. The weather was beautiful, one of the first nice days of spring.
Kids were playing at the park, people were walking their dogs, and downtown was buzzing with people relaxing at the brewery and other dining establishments.
Law enforcement began searching neighborhoods. They were looking for two murder suspects, wanted for a homicide they allegedly committed on Christmas Day in Fort Dodge, Iowa. They had evaded law enforcement for nearly three months.
Meanwhile, residents noticed a swarm of law enforcement coming down Highway 52 from Rochester. Squads of Minnesota State troopers, Rochester Police Department, Chatfield Police Department, Preston Police Department, and Fillmore County Sheriff’s Office filled the streets of Fountain.
Mosley ran accross County Road 8, near the Fillmore County Museum. He was located under a deck and taken into custody by the trooper. He was apprehended almost immediately, booked in the Fillmore County Jail at 6:32 p.m. on Friday, March 24.
At 7:55 p.m. on March 24, a “Severe Alert” was issued to mobile phones in the area stating, “Fountain MN, Shelter in place Law Enforcement search for Blk male w/dreads call 911.”
Fountain quickly became a ghost town. The streets were pretty empty, which the exception of law enforcement.
A surveillance plane flew over the town for hours. Drones buzzed over residential rooftops. With K9 units leading the way, law enforcement searched any place where the suspect could hide on residential and commercial properties.
After three shelter in place alerts were issued to residents by law enforcement over a two hour period, a fourth alert was sent out at 9:36 p.m. on March 24, stating “Extreme Alert” and it read, “Fountain, MN Update– discontinue shelter in place, report suspicious activities to 911.”
Darwin Green was still on the run. For almost five hours, law enforcement scoured the little town of Fountain, population of 407, searching for Green.
At approximately 7:49 a.m., on the morning of Saturday, March 25, law enforcement received several calls about a man who fit the description of the suspect on the run, walking along Highway 52 just north of Preston, Minn.
A resident with a home alongside the highway discovered Darwin Green in his garage. He immediately called law enforcement, and they arrived shortly thereafter. Green was taken into custody without incident.
Green was apprehended that morning and booked in the Fillmore County Jail at 8:32 a.m.
Both Mosley and Green are being held in the Fillmore County Jail pending local charges as well as a warrant out of Webster County, Iowa.
For residents who did not received the emergency alert on their phone, Sheriff John DeGeorge stated, “The alert that went out was distributed by our Code Red community notification system. We use the Code Red system for emergency alerts such as these, as well as emergency weather warnings and alerts. It is free for people to sign up to get these notifications, and they can do so by texting ‘FillmoreMN’ to 99411, or by visiting the website at http://www.co.fillmore.mn.us/code-red-notifications.”
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