Algona man arrested in fatal police shooting

By KENT THOMPSON
An Algona man is in custody today following the fatal shooting of an Algona police officer.
On Wednesday, Sept. 13, at approximately 7:53 p.m., Officer Kevin Cram, 33, of the Algona Police Department was on patrol duty in the city of Algona when he was made aware of an active arrest warrant for Kyle Ricke.
The arrest warrant was for harassment in Palo Alto County. Officer Cram knew of a possible location for Ricke and headed to that area. Officer Cram was in the 1100 block of S. Minnesota Street in Algona when he observed Kyle Lou Ricke, 43. After advising Ricke he was going to be placed under arrest, Ricke shot Officer Cram. Officer Cram was located by other officers and EMS, and taken to the Kossuth Regional Health Center in Algona where he was pronounced deceased.
Algona authorities immediately issued a Blue Alert and asked people to stay in their homes with the doors locked. The announcement curtailed some homecoming week activities at Algona’s Bishop Garrigan High School.
Officers from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office and Humboldt Police Department lent assistance in Kossuth County after the incident.
The sheriff’s office in Brown County Minnesota reported that Ricke was taken into custody near the town of Sleepy Eye, MN, about 100 miles north of Algona, around midnight Wednesday.
The Brown County Sheriff’s Office says Ricke was taken into custody without incident, around 11:50 p.m. Wednesday, with assistance from the Minnesota State Patrol Air Unit and the Sleepy Eye Police Department.
Ricke has been charged with murder in the first degree in Kossuth County and will be extradited at a later date.
An autopsy on Officer Kevin Cram will be performed by the Iowa Office of the State Medical Examiner in the near future.
Officer Kevin Cram was a 10-year veteran of Iowa law enforcement, serving for the Nora Springs Police Department from 2013-2015 and the Algona Police Department from 2015-2023.
“Kevin Cram died a hero. He died because he chose to be a beacon of light. He died because he was willing to stand in the gap between good and evil,” Stephan Bayens, director of the Iowa Department of Public Safety said in an 11 a.m. news conference this morning.
“He was an outstanding officer but he was much more than that,” Bayens said of Cram. “He was a dad, a husband, a son and a friend who was murdered by a coward.
“The vile act will not stand. The local law enforcement community is shaken but will remain strong and will do what Kevin was called to do, to protect and serve. The loss is tragic, heartbreaking and devastating,” Bayens said.
Ricke had appeared in Kossuth County court earlier in the day Wednesday for an initial appearance hearing on a charge of third-degree harassment, a simple misdemeanor. A non-jury trial was set for Friday, Nov. 3, at 10 a.m., in Kossuth County magistrate court.
Ricke pleaded guilty to a domestic abuse assault causing bodily injury charge in 2013, in Palo Alto County, a serious misdemeanor.
No other criminal charges had been filed against him.
Iowa Department of Criminal Investigation Assistant Director Mitch Mortvedt said the arrest warrant did not indicate if Ricke was expected to be armed. He did not disclose if there were any witnesses to the shooting.
“That information is part of the investigation,” Mortvedt said.
The DCI officer asked that the public and members of the media respect the privacy of Officer Cram’s family and the Algona Police Department during this difficult time.