Minneapolis police released body camera footage of a traffic stop that ended with a man shot to death, the first death in the city since the assassination of George Floyd in May.
The swift action was aimed at containing public anger over the murder, which generated anxiety about further protests seven months after the widespread unrest that followed Floyd’s death at the hands of the police.
The shooting took place Wednesday in the southern part of the city. Police said the man – identified by his father as Dolal Idd – was suspected of a crime and that witnesses said he shot first.
The city released a brief clip of an officer’s body camera in two versions, one of which was slowed down to facilitate follow-up. The video showed the man trying to escape from the police before his vehicle was blocked, and then showed him looking at the police through the driver’s window. It was difficult to distinguish more details.
The driver’s window shatters, an officer is heard cursing, and at least a dozen shots are fired.
Medaria Arradondo, the police chief, said a gun was found at the scene. A woman in the car came out unscathed; no officers were injured. At a news conference, Arradondo was asked whether the police used reasonable force, and he said they responded to a deadly threat.
“When police officers are being shot, they are trained to respond,” said Arradondo. Later, when he was pressured to see if it was clear to him that the man in the car shot first, he said: “When I saw the video that everyone is watching, and certainly the slower real-time version, the individual certainly appears inside of the vehicle fires your gun at the cops first. “
The state’s Criminal Seizure Department is conducting an investigation into the incident.
Bayle Gelle, of Eden Prairie, told the Star Tribune on Thursday that the dead man was her son, Dolal Idd, 22. Gelle told the newspaper that the authorities did not give him more information about what happened. He said several police officers executed a search warrant at his home Wednesday night.
“The police they are brutality,” he told the Star Tribune. “I want to get justice.”
Idd was a Somali-American.
The shooting took place less than a mile from the corner where Floyd, a black man, died in May after a Minneapolis officer pressed his knee to Floyd’s neck for minutes, even when Floyd claimed he could not breathe. Floyd’s death led to days of sometimes violent protests that spread across the United States and resonated around the world.
In Minneapolis, Floyd’s death also led to an impulse for a radical change in the criticized police department.
Mayor Jacob Frey and Arradondo have offered several policy changes since Floyd’s death, including reviewing the policies on the use of force and requiring officers to report their attempts to mitigate situations. And earlier this month, the city council approved the transfer of $ 8 million from the police department’s budget for violence prevention and other programs.
Frey said in a statement on Wednesday that he was working with Arradondo to obtain information about the shooting and promised to get it out 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 ”.
All four officers involved in Floyd’s death were fired and quickly charged. They are scheduled for trial in March.