Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O'Hara issued a statement Sunday in response to emails that show the Police Department (MPD) and city officials knew about an officer's use-of-force incident before the department hired the officer.
Minneapolis police chief says he never saw video of new hire's use of force
July 10, 2023 at 12:40AM
O'Hara's statement said that it was the video of the incident he didn't know about, not the incident itself.
"I did not know of the existence of video capturing a use-of-force incident involving this individual until after receiving a media inquiry," he said of the news reports, including a Star Tribune story published Sunday.
The story cited internal emails obtained by the Star Tribune showing that the officer, Tyler Timberlake, had informed the city of the incident during his background check in September 2022, seven months before a news article drew attention to the hire.
O'Hara has declined requests for an interview, instead releasing the statement.
"Upon learning of the existence of video and seeing it myself, I immediately ordered an investigation into MPD's hiring processes," he wrote.
The city officially hired Timberlake in January. In April, the Minnesota Reformer reported he had faced a federal lawsuit and criminal charges after subduing a man with a stun gun.
Body-camera footage, which appeared in national news stories, shows Timberlake, other officers and paramedics responding June 5, 2020, to a report of a man in a Mount Vernon, Va., neighborhood who said he needed oxygen. The recording shows the man, Lamonta Gladney, pacing in circles and responding confusedly to their questions.
Although others try to coax Gladney into an ambulance, Timberlake shoots the man with a stun gun, sending him to the ground writhing in pain.
The Fairfax County police chief later lambasted Timberlake's conduct, saying the footage "erodes the public's trust of police officers."
A jury acquitted Timberlake on three misdemeanor counts of assault and battery. Last year, Fairfax County settled a lawsuit with Gladney for $150,000.
On April 20, responding to news reports, O'Hara said Timberlake would not be deployed as an officer pending an investigation.
He told reporters at the time that he was "extremely concerned" to have "just learned" that a recruit had been involved in a high-profile use-of-force incident in a past law enforcement job.
In Sunday's statement, O'Hara didn't deny knowing of the incident, but that he hadn't seen the video until it was called to his attention before taking action against the officer.
Timberlake's employment was terminated July 5.
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Acknowledging he couldn't discuss personnel matters publicly, O'Hara said the hiring process for officers "involves a background investigation and also screening by a hiring roundtable."
"Candidates who advance past those steps of the process are eligible for an interview as the last step of the process," he said. "On my second day of employment with the MPD, I observed Mr. Timberlake's interview," he said.
Timberlake was hired thereafter.
"I was hired to become the MPD chief in order to reform the department and restore faith and pride in the MPD patch," O'Hara said. "To imply that I had known about this video at the time of hire and later lied is false."
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