Humboldt County shooting ruled suicide

DAKOTA CITY - The shooting death of a Dakota City man has been ruled a suicide.

Lucas A. Pflibsen, 18, died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound around 3 a.m. on March 29, according to Humboldt County Sheriff Dean Kruger.

Earlier that morning, a second man was stabbed in the leg in Livermore, according to a previous statement from Kruger.

That man was identified Monday as Caylan Amen, of Fort Dodge, by the Division of Criminal Investigation.

Ray Fiedler, of the DCI, said the two incidents were related. He confirmed Monday that Pflibsen stabbed Amen and later shot himself. He said the two men were close in age.

Amen was treated at Trinity Regional Medical Center and released, having received a few stitches, Fiedler said.

Kruger said Pflibsen shot himself in the area of 230th Street and Penn Avenue, about two miles east of Dakota City. He was airlifted to Mercy Medical Center in Des Moines where he died.

Kruger also had said that another person was with Pflibsen at the time of the shooting.

An earlier statement from Kruger indicated the incidents stemmed from a boyfriend-girlfriend squabble. However, Fiedler said after further investigation Pflibsen and the unidentified girl were determined to be ex-boyfriend and girlfriend.

Pflibsen, the son of Garth and Sharon Pflibsen, graduated from Humboldt High School in 2008.

Investigators are still awaiting the autopsy results conducted at the state Medical Examiner's Office on March 30.