Minneapolis chief calls fatal shooting of man by police Wednesday night ‘justifiable and lawful’

Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said Thursday that he believes the fatal shooting of a man by officers the night before in south Minneapolis was “justifiable and lawful” because the suspect was armed and threatening people.

The identity of the man had not been released as of Thursday evening. The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) said it was investigating what it classified as a “use-of-force incident.”

The agency said it will have more to say once its preliminary investigation is complete.

Police said they received a 911 call just after 9 p.m. Wednesday of a man carrying a handgun and talking to himself near the 3000 block of 29th Avenue S.

At an overnight news conference at the intersection of E. 35th Street and Hiawatha near the shooting site, O’Hara said another 911 call came in about 16 minutes later. The caller said a man had a handgun and was “acting irrationally,” O’Hara said.

Officers chased the suspect on foot, the chief said. They identified themselves as police and ordered him to stop, but he refused, he said.

At some point after the chase, there was a “confrontation,” O’Hara said, when officers again saw the man was armed.

“The officers gave multiple clear commands to drop the gun, and the suspect did not comply,” he said. About that point, they shot him, O’Hara said.

Emergency medical personnel took the man to HCMC, where he was pronounced dead, he said.

Four officers responded to the 911 call, and three officers fired their weapons, O’Hara said. He said he did not know whether the suspect fired his gun, but he said it was recovered and it “appeared to be jammed.”

O’Hara defended the officers’ decision to shoot the man.

”It appears that we have a case of someone who is armed, threatening folks in two different places here and just not acting normally,” the chief said. “I have no reason to think that this is anything other than a justifiable and lawful use of force by police officers.”

O’Hara added, “I’m thankful no one else from the community was harmed by this.”

According to emergency dispatch audio, police were called to a report of a person with a gun behind the Moto Mart gas station at 3301 Hiawatha Avenue, where two officers checked the rear of the address.

”We’ve got the male. He’s going southbound on Hiawatha now,” an officer radioed. ”Foot pursuit, southbound Hiawatha!”

After an unintelligible transmission, another officer yelled, “Tone it!” That was followed by an emergency dispatch tone signaling that officers needed assistance.

”We need a location,” an officer said. ”3401 Hiawatha, in the rear, suspect’s down, gun’s away from him, we need EMS and Fire Code 3,” meaning they needed an urgent response. Next came ”providing first aid, all officers here are Code 4,” indicating that they were safe.

Moments later, an officer radioed, “I have the firearm that was pointed at officers.”

Another officer said over dispatch: “The suspect’s in critical condition; all officers are A-OK.”

The officers involved in the incident were placed on administrative leave, which is standard procedure, police said Thursday afternoon.

Police also said they intend to release officer body camera video at some point.

A neighbor who declined to give his full name said police cordoned his neighborhood along Snelling Avenue after the shooting. He said he watched officers canvass the scene for hours and heard a drone as it hovered overhead.

By midday Thursday, only scraps of yellow police crime scene tape that secured the perimeter gave a hint of trouble the night before.

In his 37 years living in his home behind Moto Mart, Jim said he has never known of a shooting like this happening so close.

”It’s normally a super-quiet neighborhood,” he said, adding that most neighbors know each other. “It’s always been that way.”

This is the second fatal shooting by police in Minneapolis in the past two weeks. On May 30, Mustafa Ahmed Mohamed, 35, was killed during a confrontation on S. Blaisdell Avenue after he shot and killed police officer Jamal Mitchell.

Mitchell was eulogized and remembered during a memorial service Tuesday at Maple Grove High School attended by thousands and viewed remotely by many more.

Since 2000, police in Minnesota have killed at least 239 people including eight this year and 10 in the past 11 months, according to a Star Tribune data base.

Star Tribune staff writers Kyeland Jackson, Abby Simons and Jeff Hargarten contributed to this report.