Minnesota officials released footage from the police body camera of a raid on a man’s home after he was shot dead by police last week, amid protests that police were too aggressive while carrying out his search warrant.
The video, released on Saturday by the Hennepin county sheriff, shows the officers involved in the “hit and announce” search warrant at Dolal Idd, 23, a few hours after he was shot and killed in a confrontation with police in the Wednesday.
The footage shows policemen arriving at Idd’s house around 2 am on Thursday, knocking on the door with guns drawn, shouting: “Police! Search mandate! Let me see your hands! “
Once inside, the police arrested more than half a dozen people, including children, women and a shirtless man, the video shows.
“We have kids up there, we have kids,” a woman told police. “We have a daughter down there, a 19-year-old daughter.”
Another woman asks, “Are you able to tell us anything about what is going on?”
One of the policemen replies that a police officer will explain everything.
“He’ll be talking to you in a second,” he says when the woman is agitated.
The search came after Idd’s death at a Minneapolis gas station around 5 pm on Wednesday – after police said he shot the police first.
The Bodycam video of this incident shows Idd trying to escape the police. He is cornered by three patrol vehicles and seen holding an object that appears to be a weapon when the police open fire.
Police said a gun was later recovered at the scene.
But the subsequent invasion of the home after Idd, who was a Somali, was shot, raised concerns among some community activists and elected officials.
“I see no respect for the family,” Minnesota lawmaker Hodan Hassan told the non-profit news site Sahan Journal. “I don’t see cultural sensitivity. And I don’t see compassion. ”
However, the sheriff’s office said it had released images of the police operation to show that the officers behaved in an appropriate and humane manner.
“Based on the viewing of the video, the sheriff praised his deputies for their professionalism and said that they acted appropriately, respectfully and followed the HCSO procedure for high-risk warrants,” the office said in a statement.
The police did not recover any weapons in the house, but said there were likely reasons to believe that there could be firearms in the house.
The Idd shooting was the first police-related death in Minneapolis since the death of George Floyd in police custody on May 25.