Three black teenagers say they feared for their lives when a Minneapolis Park Police officer pulled a gun on them while responding to a bogus 911 report that they were armed.
The July 10 incident at Minnehaha Park drew widespread attention after a bystander recorded part of it and posted a video to Facebook that's been viewed over 2.8 million times.
The officers were responding to a female 911 caller who falsely reported that four teens were following her boyfriend and wielding knives and sticks. Park police released the four after finding they were unarmed and hearing witness accounts that contradicted the caller's story. The department has since said the call was "misleading" and apologized to the boys.
At a news conference Monday called by the Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, 14-year-old Aden Aden said he and his friends were just trying to have fun when a white kid confronted them. Witnesses have corroborated that account.
Suhaib Ahmed, 14, attends a news conference in Minneapolis on July 16, 2018. Ahmed is is one of the three black teenagers who say they feared for their lives when a Minneapolis Park Police officer pulled a gun on them while responding to a bogus 911 report that they were armed. The July 10 incident at Minnehaha Park drew widespread attention after a bystander recorded part of it and posted a video to Facebook that's been viewed over 2.8 million times. (Tim Nelson /Minnesota Public Radio via AP)
"When I was at the park, I was just trying to have a good day with my friends," Aden said. "And this white kid came up to us saying racial slurs towards us, and when the cops came, they just pulled guns to our faces. And I felt like I was discriminated (against) and I felt like it was not supposed to happen, and I hope it never happens to anyone again."
Fourteen-year-old Suhaib Ahmed said the officers frightened them. "I was scared he was going to shoot me."
Police said in a news release last week that one of the officers "unholstered his firearm and pointed it in the general direction of the four suspects."
Three of the boys attended the news conference. A fourth did not attend due to a family emergency.
Aden Aden, 14, attends a news conference in Minneapolis on July 16, 2018. Aden is is one of the three black teenagers who say they feared for their lives when a Minneapolis Park Police officer pulled a gun on them while responding to a bogus 911 report that they were armed. The July 10 incident at Minnehaha Park drew widespread attention after a bystander recorded part of it and posted a video to Facebook that's been viewed over 2.8 million times. (Tim Nelson /Minnesota Public Radio via AP)
The woman shooting the video says she saw a boy about 17 years old confront the younger boys and threaten them with a knife. She points out that one of the black teens is being bitten by mosquitoes and that the officer won't allow him to put his shirt back on. Two of the boys can be seen in the video with their hands cuffed behind their backs as they are ushered into the back of a patrol car.
The families of the boys, who are Somali-American, are considering legal action, said Jaylani Hussein, executive director of the Minnesota CAIR chapter, who called the 911 call a hate crime. He did not describe the nature of the proposed legal action.
The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board, which announced it will form a civilian advisory review council amid the public outcry, said Monday that the incident remained under investigation and pointed out that making a false 911 call is a crime. A board spokeswoman did not immediately return a call Wednesday seeking an update on the investigation.
Park Police Chief Jason Ohotto said last week that his department hadn't identified the caller or her boyfriend, and no arrests have been announced.
DENVER (AP) — Prosecutors on Wednesday urged jurors to convict a former Colorado sheriff's deputy of murder and other charges for shooting and killing a 22-year-old man in distress after they say the deputy needlessly escalated a standoff with him.
The 2022 death of Christian Glass in a small mountain community drew national attention and prompted calls for police reforms focused on crisis intervention. A second officer indicted in Glass' death previously pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor. Six other officers have been charged with failing to intervene.
In the closing arguments of Andrew Buen's trial, the defense argued that Buen shot Glass to protect a fellow officer, which made the shooting legally justified. Buen's lawyer, Carrie Slinkard, said he had not comitted a crime.
Glass called 911 for help after his SUV became stuck on a dirt road in Silver Plume. He told a dispatcher he was being followed and made other statements suggesting he was paranoid, hallucinating or delusional, and experiencing a mental health crisis, according to the indictments.
When former Clear Creek County Sheriff's Deputy Andrew Buen and other officers arrived, Glass refused to get out of his vehicle. Officers’ body camera footage showed Glass making heart shapes with his hands to the officers and praying: “Dear Lord, please, don’t let them break the window.”
In their closing arguments, prosecutors said Buen decided from the start that Glass needed to get out of the vehicle and shouted commands at him 46 times over about 10 minutes. The prosecution contends Buen did not have any legal justification to force Glass out, not even if it was a suspected case of driving under the influence.
Bean bag rounds and Tasers failed to make Glass exit. He then took a knife he had offered to surrender at the beginning of the encounter and flung it out a rear window broken by a bean bag toward another officer, Randy Williams, according to Buen's indictment. At that point, Buen fired five times at Glass.
Glass just reacted after being treated “like an animal in a cage being poked and prodded,” and the knife never touched Williams, District Attorney Heidi McCollum said in court in Idaho Springs.
Slinkard faulted prosecutors for not looking into whether Glass had behavioral or psychological issues that could explain his behavior, whether drugs had played a role, or whether both factors could have contributed.
Buen is charged with second-degree murder, official misconduct and reckless endangerment.
Glass' mother, Sally Glass, has said her son suffered from depression, had recently been diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and was “having a mental health episode” during his interaction with the police.
Chief Deputy District Attorney Stephen Potts, who described Glass as a “terrified boy,” said it did not matter what prompted the crisis.
“He was in a crisis of some kind. Is this how we expect people in crisis to be treated?" he said shortly before jurors began deliberating.
Last year, Glass’ parents won a $19 million settlement that included such policy changes as crisis intervention training for Colorado law enforcement officers responding to people in distress.
FILE - Simon Glass, left, and his wife, Sally Glass, speak during a news interview in the offices of the couple's lawyers, May 23, 2023, in Denver. Prosecutors on Wednesday, April 24, 2024, urged jurors to convict a former Colorado sheriff's deputy of murder and other charges for shooting and killing Christian Glass, a 22-year-old man in some kind of crisis, after they say the deputy needlessly escalated a standoff with him. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski, File)
FILE - Simon and Sally Glass comfort each other during an emotional news conference about the death of their son, Christian Glass, Sept. 13, 2022, in Denver. Prosecutors on Wednesday, April 24, 2024, urged jurors to convict a former Colorado sheriff's deputy of murder and other charges for shooting and killing Christian Glass, a 22-year-old man in some kind of crisis, after they say the deputy needlessly escalated a standoff with him. (AP Photo/Thomas Peipert, File)
