Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Police probe fatal shooting
MINNEAPOLIS — Minnesota state authorities were investigating Sunday after Minneapolis police shot and killed a black man they say was firing a handgun as he walked outside.
Some witnesses disputed the police account of the Saturday shooting, saying the man did not have a gun. Late Sunday, people gathered outside a Minneapolis police station to protest.
“At the end of the day, we know that no matter what transpired in the moments leading up to the shooting, we know with certainty that the outcome is a tragedy,” Mayor Jacob Frey said in a statement. Authorities said two calls to 911 reported that a man was firing a handgun into the air and the ground. When officers arrived, they pursued a suspect on foot and the chase “ended in shots being fired,” police said in a statement. Frey said in a statement that the body cameras of the officers involved were “on and activated.”
Among the witnesses who said the man did not have a gun was Eva Watson. She told the Star Tribune newspaper that the man was starting to comply with officers when police shocked him with a Taser. Watson said he then started running and yelling, “Don’t shoot!” and she then heard more than a dozen shots.
“He didn’t have a gun or anything,” Watson said. “He was just sitting there. He got killed for nothing.”
Katya Kelly, the sister of the man’s girlfriend, said he had a bottle in his hand as he and his girlfriend walked to her house.
The Minneapolis NAACP wrote in a Facebook post that witnesses said he had been drinking out of a cup. The group called for body camera footage to be released.