Federal prosecutors said on Wednesday they would not bring charges against two Minneapolis police officers involved in the shooting death of a 24-year-old black man, due to insufficient evidence. The circumstances of the case set off weeks of protests in the city, including an 18-day tent encampment outside the police department’s 4th Precinct on the north side.
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To proceed with federal criminal civil rights charges against the officers, prosecutors would have to show “beyond a reasonable doubt” that the officers “acted willfully” in depriving Clark’s Fourth Amendment right to be free from an unreasonable seizure, which includes unreasonable physical force.
“Some saw Mr. Clark with handcuffs on while he was standing, some saw Mr. Clark with handcuffs on in front of him, and others behind him”, Luger said, adding that some witnesses said they saw no handcuffs, while others said they only saw handcuffs on Clark while he was on the ground.
When they were on the ground, according to the police account, Ringgenberg said Clark had gotten his hand onto his gun and began urging Schwarze, his partner, to shoot. He was handcuffed and then shot while trying to talk to her as paramedics were taking her away, Ms. The encounter lasted barely more than a minute from the time the officers arrived.
“Given the lack of bruising, the lack of Mr. Clark’s DNA on the handcuffs, and the deeply conflicting testimony about whether he was handcuffed, we determined that we could not pursue this case based on a prosecution theory that Mr. Clark was handcuffed at the time he was shot, ” Luger said. He also concluded that Clark’s DNA was located on the grip of one of the officer’s weapons, indicating that he grabbed for it.
Speaking at a press conference Wednesday, Lieutenant Bob Kroll said, “I don’t see Black Lives Matter as a voice for the black community in Minneapolis”.
The FBI led the federal investigation, which was reviewed by the US attorney’s office in Minnesota and prosecutors from the Justice Department’s civil rights division. “In light of this, and for the reasons explained below, this matter is not a prosecutable violation of the federal civil rights statutes”, Luger said.
An internal police investigation is also expected once the results of the federal investigation are released.
Janee Harteau, the police chief, said in a statement that she had “full faith in this independent investigation”.
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He noted that statements from witnesses on this point conflicted and undermined “the degree to which they could be used to either disprove the officers’ accounts or to. establish that Clark was handcuffed”. “A young man has died and it is a tragedy”, Luger said. His death sparked weeks of protests and an 18-day occupation outside a police precinct. Justice Department spokesman Ben Petok said community groups have been invited to a meeting at federal offices Wednesday afternoon and that the news conference is for accredited members of the media only. In addition, the federal probe said that neither an autopsy nor an independent autopsy review found that Clark’s wrists had injuries suggesting he was handcuffed.
