Minneapolis authorities release 911 transcript from Thurman Blevins shooting

Minutes before police encountered Thurman Blevins on a north Minneapolis street corner last month, a woman called 911 to report a wiry man in a tank top walking through her neighborhood, firing a gun.

"[T]here's a guy walking around shooting off his gun and he looks intoxicated and um, that's just not safe around here," the unidentified woman told the 911 dispatcher. "He just blew off a shot like five minutes ago and before that he got off another shot 20 minutes ago."

As the dispatcher tried to engage her, the woman described the man as about 6 feet tall and weighing 180 pounds, according to a transcript of the call, released Monday on the city's website.

Parts of the five-minute call were inaudible, while other sections of the transcript were redacted.

Blevins, who is black, was killed June 23 in the Camden neighborhood, after leading officers on a brief foot chase that ended in an alley off N. 48th Avenue, between Aldrich and Bryant avenues. A gun was recovered at the scene, authorities said.

The two officers who shot him, Ryan Kelly and Justin Schmidt, have been placed on administrative leave pending the investigation, according to the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.

Both of the officers were previously the subject of multiple civilian complaints, but none of the complaints resulted in discipline, according to records maintained by the Office of Police Conduct Review.

Police spokeswoman Sgt. Darcy Horn on Monday confirmed that only one 911 call had been made, and not two as has been widely reported. Otherwise, she declined to comment.

"As that's part of the investigation, we wouldn't be commenting on it," she said.

During the 911 caller's short conversation with the dispatcher, she repeatedly pleaded with the dispatcher to send help.

"You gotta move around before he shoots somebody!" the caller said, adding that the man had fired at least two rounds, which sent bystanders ducking for cover.

In response to a question about where the man was walking, the caller said he was walking north on Bryant, approaching 46th Avenue.

"So he was northbound on Bryant from what street?" the dispatcher asked.

"Uh, 46th and Bryant, and he's walking back and forth to Lyndale. He's walking back and forth," the caller said.

The 911 caller goes on to describe his haircut as a "bald head taper with designs in it," and said he was wearing a "white or gray" tank top and firing off what appeared to be a 9-millimeter silver handgun, the transcript said. She said the gun had "chrome at the top," according to the transcript.

At one point, the dispatcher asked whether an ambulance was needed.

The caller responded: "Uh no, I don't think. Like I said, I don't think he had shot anybody. He just shooting in the air. And he shot another one in the ground."

The conversation went back and forth for several minutes, as the dispatcher tried to soothe the caller, while asking for more information.

But, when a dispatcher asked for the woman's name, she balked and said she could be killed for making the call.

"Oh, no, no, no, no ma'am, I don't want to be labeled as a snitch," she said, according to the transcript.

As with most police shootings around the state, the case is being investigated by the BCA.

Minneapolis officials said that all information related to the case would be released on a dedicated page on the city's website, but many of the details of the case remain unknown or unclear because of the ongoing BCA investigation.

A Fire Department incident report also was posted online. It showed that a fire engine was dispatched to the scene at 5:35 p.m. and arrived less than five minutes later. Blevins, 31, was pronounced dead at the scene.

Ron Edwards, a longtime civil rights activist and friend of Blevins' family, said the release of the 911 transcript answered few of the questions that have surfaced.

"I still maintain that the big piece that is missing here is the bodycam video and audio," Edwards said. The video will help clear up several questions, including: "What statements were made when they got out of the squad and chased him?"

Last week, Mayor Jacob Frey said he plans to release the officers' body-camera footage after he consults with Blevins' family and the BCA wraps up its witness interviews. Officials have given no clear timeline for when that might be.

The police union said that 39 officers who responded to the scene are scheduled to be interviewed by investigators.

The mayor's announcement came in response to calls for the footage to be released, at several protests and by all 13 City Council members.

The union has defended the two officers, saying they acted reasonably in the face of an armed suspect. But family members and several witnesses have said Blevins had only a bottle in his hands and was running away from police before the shooting.

Both sides hope the raw footage will settle the dispute.

But Justin Terrell said that while releasing the video is a step toward improving transparency and earning back community trust, it won't necessarily address the psychological trauma that follow police shootings.

"The body camera evidence is part of the story, it is not the full story," said Terrell, executive director of the Council for Minnesotans of African-American Heritage. "And we want people to have the full and not the half, and here the full story is how the community wrestles with this, so we need more community conversations in the neighborhood to talk about how everybody is affected by this."

Libor Jany • 612-673-4064 Twitter:@StribJany