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Minneapolis police have released body camera footage of a traffic stop that resulted in a man shot to death, the first such death in the city since George Floyd’s murder in May.
The swift move was aimed at containing public anger over the murder, which has sparked anxiety over further protests seven months after the widespread unrest that followed Floyd’s death at the hands of the police.
The shooting happened Wednesday on the south side of the city. Police said the man, identified by his father as Dolal Idd, was a suspect in a serious crime and witnesses said he shot first.
The city released a short clip of an officer’s body camera in two versions, one of which slowed down for easy tracking. The video showed the man trying to get away from police before his vehicle was cornered, and then it showed him looking at officers through the driver’s side window. It was difficult to make out more details.
The driver’s window is smashed, an officer is heard cursing, and at least a dozen shots are fired.
Medaria Arradondo, the chief of police, said a weapon was found at the scene. A woman in the car was unharmed; no officer was injured. At a press conference, Arradondo was asked if the officers used reasonable force and said they reacted to a deadly threat.
“When officers experience gunfire, they are trained to respond,” Arradondo said. Later, when pressed on whether he was clear that the man in the car fired first, he said: “When I saw the video that everyone else was watching, and certainly the slowed-down real-time version, it certainly appears that the individual inside the vehicle shoots your weapon to officers first. “
The state Office of Criminal Detention is handling 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 have not given him more information about what happened. He said several officers carried out a search warrant at his home Wednesday night.
“Police are brutality,” he told the Star Tribune. “I want to do justice.”
Idd was a Somali-American.
The shooting occurred less than a mile (1.6 km) from the corner of the street where Floyd, a black man, died in May after a Minneapolis officer pressed his knee into Floyd’s neck for minutes, even as Floyd pleaded I couldn’t breathe Floyd’s death sparked days of sometimes violent protests that swept across the United States and resonated around the world.
In Minneapolis, Floyd’s death also sparked a sea change in the long-criticized police department.
Mayor Jacob Frey and Arradondo have offered several policy changes since Floyd’s death, including revising use of force policies and requiring officers to report their attempts to reduce situations. And earlier this month, the city council approved transferring $ 8 million from the police department’s budget toward violence prevention and other programs.
Frey said in a statement Wednesday night that he was working with Arradondo to obtain information about the shooting and vowed to get it out as quickly as possible in coordination with the state investigation.
“The events of the past year have marked some of the darkest days in our city,” Frey said. “We know that a life has been cut short and that trust between communities of color and law enforcement is fragile. … We must all commit to knowing the facts, seeking justice and maintaining peace. “
All four officers involved in Floyd’s death were fired and promptly charged. They are scheduled for trial in March.
