A six-year police veteran described as a "hometown boy" has been shot to death in what authorities called an ambush killing.

Officer Tom Decker was responding to a report of a suicidal man late Thursday when he was shot twice after getting out of his squad car near an apartment behind a bar in downtown Cold Spring. He died at the scene.

Ryan Michael Larson, 34, of Cold Spring, was being held Friday on suspicion of second-degree murder. The county attorney's office was considering criminal charges.

Stearns County Sheriff John Sanner said his department got a call about 9 p.m. from Larson's family members that he might be suicidal. Cold Spring police went to his home once and couldn't raise anyone, then returned almost two hours later.

It was on the second trip that Decker was shot. He was wearing a bulletproof vest.