There are only two possibilities: Minneapolis police officer Efrem Hamilton was instinctively reacting to the threat of what he perceived was a carful of shooting suspects. Or he was a poorly-trained officer who recklessly opened fire on a carful of innocent people.
Those were the arguments presented to a jury Wednesday by the prosecution and defense at the opening of his trial. He faces charges of second-degree assault and two counts of intentional discharge of a firearm, all felonies.
Hamilton was put on leave after being relieved of duty a month after the Nov. 20, 2016 incident in downtown Minneapolis. He was later cleared of wrongdoing by a civilian panel that investigates police misconduct, but it's unclear whether Police Chief Medaria Arradondo has made a final decision in the disciplinary case.
When approached after the hearing, Hamilton's attorney Fred Bruno declined to comment, saying, "I'm on a gag order."
On the night of the shooting, Hamilton, who was working an off-duty policing job at the nearby Pourhouse nightclub, responded to the scene after a dispatch call went out about a large brawl-turned-shooting near Target Field authorities said. When a car that was trying to back away from the chaotic scene ran into his police SUV, he fired a single round at the victims' BMW, hitting its side. No one was hurt, but the incident prompted strong criticism from police reform groups, who questioned his decision to fire without warning and called for Hamilton's firing.
On Wednesday, prosecutor Tara Ferguson Lopez argued that Hamilton acted recklessly when he fired at the sedan, without warning.
"The defendant then opens his squad door, jumps out of his squad and immediately fires a gunshot into the BMW," she said. "A gunshot, no commands given before."
The bullet "came awfully close" to hitting Devyn O'Curran, who was sitting in the back, she said.
