Minneapolis police shot and killed a man Wednesday night during a traffic stop in the city’s Powderhorn neighborhood.
Police officers stopped a man suspected of a crime at around 6:15 pm outside a Holiday gas station on East 36th Street and Cedar Avenue South, where “shots were exchanged,” according to Department Elder spokesman John Elder Minneapolis Police Department. The suspect was pronounced dead at the scene.
During a press conference early in the morning, Minneapolis police chief Medaria Arradondo said witnesses told investigators that the suspect shot the police first. Arradondo said the shooting was captured by police body cameras and that the images will be released Thursday.
“I want our communities to see this so that they can see for themselves,” he said.
A woman who was a passenger in the vehicle was unharmed in the shooting, as were the officers involved, Elder said.
Elder did not immediately know what crime the man was suspected of; he declined to say whether a gun was recovered at the scene. No additional details about the man who was shot, including his run, were released Wednesday night. His identity was pending determination by the Hennepin County coroner’s office.
Arradondo said the traffic stop was carried out by members of a police community response team – long-standing units that respond to things like drug investigations and firearm crimes.
The Minnesota Criminal Investigation Department was processing the scene on Wednesday night and will investigate the shooting – the first time anyone has been killed by the Minneapolis police since the death of George Floyd on Memorial Day.
At 9 pm, dozens of people gathered nearby in the cold of 20 degrees, some protesting the police and accusing her of murder.
Arradondo urged those present to express themselves peacefully.
“We want to do everything we can to protect everyone’s First Amendment rights to gather and demonstrate freely,” he said. “But… we cannot allow destructive criminal behavior. Our city has been through a lot. “
In a statement on Wednesday, the mayor of Minneapolis, Jacob Frey, promised to obtain information about the shooting as soon as possible, in coordination with the state investigation.
“Last year’s events marked some of the darkest days in our city,” said Frey. “We know that a life has been interrupted and that trust between communities of color and police authorities is fragile. … We must all be committed to obtaining the facts, seeking justice and maintaining peace ”.
The shooting took place less than a kilometer from where Floyd, a black man, died at the hands of the Minneapolis police seven months ago. His death, under Officer Derek Chauvin’s knee, sparked several nights of protests and riots in Minneapolis and St. Paul.
Chauvin and three other officers involved were quickly dismissed by the Minneapolis department and charged with Floyd’s death. They are scheduled for trial in March.
In response to the killings of Floyd and other blacks by the police this year, including Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Ky., And Rayshard Brooks in Atlanta, protests spread across the country, reaching coastal cities familiar with demonstrations such as Portland, Oregon and New York , but also small towns across the Midwest and South.
Several cities responded by seeking police reforms and budget cuts. Minneapolis City Council voted this month to divert $ 8 million from the Police Department to other services in the city, about 4.5 percent of the department’s proposed budget.
However, an impulse by some members of the City Council to replace the department with a new public security unit failed last summer.
Frey and Arradondo, who objected to ending the department, offered several policy changes since Floyd’s death, including limiting the use of so-called detonation ban warrants, reviewing force use policies and requiring officers to report their attempts to de-escalation situations.