Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty visited the Brooklyn Park Police Department in 2023 to observe roll call and go on a ride-along. Ahead of her visit, she asked if anyone in the department had ideas for how her office could better work with police.
Andrew McComb had an idea: Change how the Attorney’s Office conducts reviews of cases involving law enforcement.
The meeting with the 22-year veteran police officer was a jumping off point for Moriarty’s office to finalize a new process for how it will review cases involving law enforcement officers, she told the Minnesota Star Tribune this week.
The new policy aims to reach a case decision within 60 days of an investigation into law enforcement being turned over to the Attorney’s Office. In the past, that decision could take more than a year.
“My goal was to put together a process where we could be transparent both for the person who made that complaint and the officer,” Moriarty said. “We have that policy.”
In 2020, McComb was shot while trying to arrest a man suspected of violating a protection order. He also shot the suspect, Tyrice Laws, who was later convicted of attempted murder of a peace officer and sentenced to 11 years in prison.
Still, because it was an officer-involved shooting, the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension started an investigation into McComb’s actions, along with his fellow officers on the scene. The completed investigation was turned over to the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office, which, at the time, was overseen by Mike Freeman.
For months, McComb heard nothing. More than a year later, as Laws’ trial was set to begin, the Attorney’s Office asked McComb to be a witness. It was a vertiginous request. McComb was being asked to testify about the shooting while still being under investigation for his conduct in that shooting.