COLD SPRING, Minn. — A police officer has been shot and killed while conducting a routine check on a resident in central Minnesota.

Stearns County Chief Deputy Bruce Bechtold says the male officer was killed late Thursday behind an apartment above a bar in Cold Spring, near St. Cloud.

A suspect has been arrested.

Police have not released the names of the officer or the suspect.

Bechtold says he believes the suspect was in the house that the officer was called to check.

The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension is investigating.

The last Stearns County officer killed in the line of duty was in 1996 when he was shot while attempting to arrest three robbery suspects.