Minneapolis police on defensive after neighbor allegedly shoots man who had reported numerous threats

The shooting and serious wounding of a south Minneapolis man this week who repeatedly reported his long-running fears to police of being harmed by his neighbor erupted into a dispute among city leaders about whether enough was done to prevent the violence.

John Herbert Sawchak, 54, was charged Thursday in Hennepin County District Court with second-degree attempted murder, first-degree assault, stalking and harassment in connection with the shooting Wednesday in the 3500 block of Grand Avenue S.

The case brings to three the number of warrants issued in Hennepin County for Sawchuk’s arrest in connection with threats to 34-year-old Davis Moturi and other neighbors, according to the charges. Sawchak was not in custody and remained at large as of Friday evening.

Moturi was shot once in the neck, according to the charges. The bullet reportedly fractured his spine and broke two ribs. Further information on his condition was not immediately available Friday.

The shooting occurred 10 days after Sawchak appeared outside Moturi’s home and pointed a gun at him, the criminal complaint read.

A thread of emails that Moturi shared with the Minnesota Star Tribune, other media outlets and local and state government officials details how he repeatedly tried in vain to get help. One aide noted on July 9 how Moturi said a restraining order had been violated six times and that police reports on the incidents “are inaccurate and or incomplete, omitting the weapons, threats and witness testimony.”

Later, Moturi wrote: “I am on the verge of losing my job due to the continued stress of this situation. We are living in hell.”

In an Oct. 14 email, Minneapolis police Lt. Adam Lepinski wrote to Moturi that “the issue with arresting Sawchak is he doesn’t seem to leave [his home]. If he did, we would have arrested him already.”

Lepinski detailed how he had been on the block “at least 20+ times” waiting for Sawchak to come out, but never saw him.

“We have done surveillance in the morning, afternoon and evening hours,” Lepinski wrote. “ I know you said Sawchak leaves really early in the morning on a bike — but we haven’t seen that happen yet.”

A SWAT-style arrest “is not something we would do ... because our procedure is to ‘surround and call out,’ ” he wrote. “I’m fairly confident Sawchak wouldn’t come out, and SWAT isn’t going to enter the home given Sawchak has weapons, and the warrant is only for threats of violence.

“I am confident this idea would result in SWAT de-escalating the situation and leaving without an apprehension. My guess is that this would aggravate the situation and only make it worse.”

Lepinski then asked Moturi to call him when he saw Sawchak: “I’m not trying to put the burden on you, but I hope you understand we can’t sit out there on surveillance everyday, because my team has so many other tasks.”

On Oct. 17, Moturi wrote that Sawchak pointed a firearm at him the previous Monday, there had been no response for hours and it was likely the 30th time he had called 911.

“I have done everything in my power to remedy this situation, and it continues to get more and more violent by the day,” he wrote. “There have been numerous times when I’ve seen Sawchak outside and contacted law enforcement, and there was no response.

“I am not confident in the pursuit of Sawchak given that Sawchak attacked me, [police] officers had John detained, and despite [a restraining order] and multiple warrants — they still let him go.”

On Friday, five City Council members sent a letter to Mayor Jacob Frey and Police Chief Brian O’Hara expressing their “utter horror at [the Police Department’s] failure to protect a Minneapolis resident from a clear, persistent and amply reported threat posed by his neighbor.”

The council members accused police of failing to submit reports to the County Attorney’s Office even though Sawchak reportedly threatened his neighbor while armed and at times screamed racial slurs at him. Sawchak is white and Moturi is Black.

The council members — Andrea Jenkins, Elliott Payne, Aisha Chughtai, Jason Chavez and Robin Wonsley — contended in their letter that the Police Department told the County Attorney’s Office that police did not intend to execute the warrant for “reasons of officer safety.”

At a Friday afternoon news conference at Fifth Police Precinct, O’Hara said officers had been working to arrest Sawchak since at least April. But, he said, “no Minneapolis police officers have had in-person contact with that suspect since the victim in this case has been calling us.”

The chief said Sawchak is mentally ill, has guns and refused to cooperate “in the dozens of times that police officers have responded to the residence.”

O’Hara dismissed the option of carrying out “a high-risk warrant based on these factors [and] the likelihood of an armed, violent confrontation where we may have to use deadly force with the suspect.”

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

O’Hara denounced public attacks on his department’s handling of the allegations against Sawchak.

“Because of the intense attention that this incident has drawn, my officers are in even greater danger when trying to make an arrest,” the chief said. “If the suspect did not know before that we were looking for him, he certainly knows now. … We are not going to bust the door down, guns blazing and get into a deadly force situation. That’s not going to happen.”

The charges filed Thursday detailed this week’s shooting and reviewed seven other times Sawchak allegedly threatened Moturi dating back to October 2023, soon after Moturi and his wife moved into the neighborhood.

According to the criminal complaint:

On Wednesday, Moturi’s wife came home from work and found her husband in the fetal position on the ground near an entry. He was taken to a hospital, where a small puncture wound was found on the back of his neck and a bullet lodged near his spine.

Caroline Moturi told police her husband had been outside that day using a chainsaw to prune a tree near their property line. She said that in the previous week, Sawchak had told her husband, “Touch my tree again, and I will shoot you,” according to the complaint.

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.

Caroline Moturi said Sawchak often watched them from a second-floor window of his home. The gunshot that struck her husband “appears to have a downward trajectory,” the complaint noted.

When Caroline Moturi returned home that night to pack and stay elsewhere, Sawchak reportedly harassed her verbally and shined a strobe light on her as she left.

On Thursday, the Moturis reviewed home security video, which showed Davis Moturi working near the tree with his back to Sawchak’s home. A faint crack or popping could be heard, followed by Moturi collapsing to the ground.

Sawchak has been the respondent in multiple petitions to the court for orders of protection. The most recent was filed Friday by the County Attorney’s Office in a “petition for extreme risk protection order.”

The order details Sawchak’s history of mental illness, such as when he was found incompetent in 2016 and 2017 to proceed in a second-degree assault case.

He has been the subject of 13 harassment restraining orders since 2007, including in April when Moturi alleged an armed Sawchak threatened to put him in the hospital.

Moturi’s April petition said that as he was installing a camera on the side of his home, Sawchak “didn’t like that ... and attacked me with a bladed garden tool.” Moturi called 911 and gave a statement and the videos to officers.

Moturi said the harassment had continued for six months. He said mail was destroyed, feces poured in his mail slot and onto his property, photos taken of his wife and an air horn sounded outside their window late at night.

“We are living in constant fear of John due to his previous threats, his vocalized hatred of black people, and acts of violence committed against me,” Moturi’s petition reads.

“I am confident that he will continue this behavior because he appears to be mentally ill, avoids speaking to responding law enforcement and knows he can continue this behavior without consequence.”