Last weekend eight EPPD officers participated in the Ballin in DC (Dakota County) Annual Charity Basketball Tourney which is a fundraiser for MN COPS (Concerns of Police Survivors).

They joined players on 15 other teams representing 46 Minnesota and Wisconsin law enforcement agencies.

The tourney raised just over $23,000 for MN COPS, a nonprofit organization that provides resources to assist in the rebuilding of the lives of surviving families of law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty. For the first time since Minnesota state law began recognizing PTSD-related suicides among law enforcement officers as line-of-duty deaths, the Ballin tourney honored officers whose deaths reflect that designation.

This year the tourney honored Felicia Reilly, a retired St. Paul officer who died March 1, 2025 from injuries sustained in a 2010 line-of-duty assault; retired Lakes Area Police Officer Jen Zerwas, who died by suicide July 12, 2025; and Le Sueur Officer Karl Haugen, who died by suicide Aug. 18, 2025.

We would like to thank Scheels and Eden Prairie Center for donating items to the tournament’s silent auction and the Eden Prairie Crime Prevention Fund for their sponsorship of the EPPD team.