Minneapolis police arrest suspect in neighbor shooting following late-night standoff

After days of no arrests and mounting pressure by elected officials, Minneapolis Police on Sunday staged a massive, late-night operation to apprehend a man suspected of shooting and critically injuring his neighbor last week following months of escalating harassment.

Police blocked off a portion of Grand Avenue S. from 35th to 37th Street and several adjacent blocks as officers with tactical shields surrounded a home occupied by 54-year-old John H. Sawchak. For hours, a SWAT negotiator pleaded with Sawchak via loudspeaker to communicate with authorities and surrender.

“John, this is serious,” the negotiator repeated late Sunday night, as restless onlookers gathered behind the police tape. “Please pick up the phone.”

“I know you’ve been having problems with the neighbors.”

When Sawchak failed to respond, MPD shattered his windows and used heavy machinery to tear holes into the home’s upper floor. Police arrested him just before 1:30 a.m. Monday, concluding a chaotic, five-hour standoff that disrupted much of south Minneapolis’ Lyndale neighborhood.

“Ultimately, the individual safely emerged from the house prior to us [deploying] gas,” Chief Brian O’Hara said at an early morning news conference, flanked by Mayor Jacob Frey. “That was our next step that we were prepared to do.”

He hailed the complex operation as “an example of what de-escalation looks like.”

Sawchak, who has a history of mental illness, was charged last week with second-degree attempted murder for shooting and gravely injuring 34-year-old Davis Moturi, who lives next door to him on the 3500 block of Grand Avenue S.

On Oct. 23, Moturi was shot once in the neck while pruning a tree near the property line. The bullet fractured his spine and broke two ribs. The previous week, Sawchak allegedly told Matori, “Touch my tree again, and I will shoot you,” according to the criminal complaint.

For months, Moturi had called 911 and emailed police investigators about Sawchak’s repeated threats, including an instance earlier this month when Sawchak pointed a firearm at him.

In records provided to the Star Tribune, Moturi once wrote to police: “We are living in hell.”

Despite several pending warrants for his arrest, Sawchak remained at large. WANTED fliers plastered on neighborhood telephone poles several months ago declared Sawchak ‘armed and dangerous’ and advised residents to call 911 should they see him.

On Thursday — one day after the shooting — Sawchak was charged in Hennepin County District Court with second-degree attempted murder, first-degree assault, stalking and harassment in connection with the shooting.

Police claimed they had been working to detain Sawchak since April, but regular surveillance outside his house never led to in-person contact. Due to the presence of firearms in the home, O’Hara dismissed the option of carrying out a high-risk warrant, which he feared could lead to a violent confrontation where officers “may have to use deadly force.”

The preference, he said, was to arrest Sawchak outside, but “in this case, this suspect is a recluse and does not come out of the house.”

City Council members criticized MPD for their handling of the case, expressing outrage at the department’s inability to protect a resident “from a clear, persistent and amply reported threat posed by his neighbor.”

The Moturis have reported to police at least 19 incidents of vandalism, property destruction, theft, harassment, hate speech and other verbal threats, including threats of assault, involving Sawchak since last fall — shorty after the couple moved in. Sawchak is white and Moturi is Black.

Over the weekend, as frustration continued to boil over about the lack of a resolution in the case, several more council members released statements demanding that MPD move in to make an arrest.

“Our Chief of Police is hiding behind excuses, and our Mayor…is just hiding,” Council Member Emily Koski wrote on X.

Less than two hours later, from the scene of an unrelated fatal shooting at a homeless encampment, O’Hara acknowledged that his police force failed to protect Moturi and issued an apology.

“In this particular instance, we failed this victim 100% because that should not have happened to him,” O’Hara said Sunday evening. “The Minneapolis police somehow did not act urgently enough to prevent that individual from being shot. And to that victim, I say I am sorry that this happened to you.”

But he vehemently pushed back on allegations that his officers didn’t care or failed to act in this case when, he said, dozens of attempts had been made to contact Sawchak and safely secure his arrest.

It marked a notable tone shift from Friday, when O’Hara delivered fiery remarks defending the department’s cautious handling of a mentally ill recluse with a violent criminal history. The situation “escalated, in part, by actions precipitated by the victim,” he said, referring to Moturi’s decision to cut the tree.

On Monday, following Sawchak’s arrest, O’Hara elaborated that Sawchak planted that tree with his mother and “he apparently had a deep attachment” to it. But police had no reason to believe he would shoot Moturi from inside the house.

Police sat watch over the house for several days this weekend, O’Hara said, waiting for him to emerge. He never did. Law enforcement ramped up their efforts around 8:30 p.m. Sunday, cordoning off the area and calling in a SWAT negotiator. Drones circled the building overhead as police busted out windows and delivered a cell phone that they hoped Sawchak would use to communicate with police.

He refused to surrender — until they announced their intention to gas his home.

Sawchak is expected to be booked into the Hennepin County jail Monday following a police interrogation.

Moturi was reportedly released from the hospital on Sunday night.

Night editor Nicole Norfleet contributed to this story.