Officers answered a call regarding an assault and were then alerted that the suspect “had returned to the area and was confronting paramedics and disrupting their ability to render aid”, a statement from police read.
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Dillon said her 10-year-old son was among those who saw an officer shoot Jamar Clark.
Officers attempted to calm the suspect, who was not in handcuffs, but a physical altercation ensued, police said. Police say a auto chase in north Minneapolis ended with the suspect moving his vehicle toward an officer, who fired at the auto, but didn’t hit anyone.
Clark’s relatives, including several sisters, gathered in a room on the seventh floor intensive-care unit at Hennepin County Medical Center Sunday afternoon where a physician told them that Clark is brain dead, according to one family member.
Other accounts from witnesses say the suspect was in handcuffs when police shot him.
People in the neighborhood took to Twitter early Sunday using the hashtag #JamesAndPlymouth to dispute the police department’s report, saying the victim was handcuffed at the time of the shooting.
Nekelia Sharp, a witness, said it started when the man got into an argument with his girlfriend. There were literally dozens of witnesses looking from the apartments as well when it happened.
“That man was shot in cold blood while he had his hands behind his back”.
A video posted on Facebook showed a police officer leaning over the man. Bystanders can also be heard taunting police.
The two officers involved in the shooting have been placed on administrative leave, and the BCA investigation is ongoing. All the witnesses were yelling they shot the man while he was already down and handcuffed.
It was the second time this weekend that Minneapolis police fired at a suspect.
[Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images]Mayor Hodges and Police Chief Janee Harteau have called for an independent investigation of the incident. “He shouldn’t have to come and tell me piece by piece what happened”, Dillon said. We need to know the truth.
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The Minneapolis chapter of the NAACP plans to hold a news conference about the shooting at 11 a.m. Sunday, followed by a march in solidarity with the victim at 3 p.m. “Everyone involved needs that and deserves that”, Harteau said.
