Body camera footage released by the Minneapolis Police Department on Thursday showed that a man shot dead during an attempted traffic stop on the city’s south side fired at police officers first.
Police said 23-year-old Dolal Idd died in an exchange of gunfire started by himself on Wednesday night outside a Holiday gas station. Police said the officers pulled Idd’s car over for a “felony stop,” implying that the man was suspected of a felony-level crime.
What the 27-second clip shows appears to be consistent with the police department’s account of the deadly confrontation. In the video, officers approaching Idd’s white car on foot can be heard ordering the driver to stop his vehicle and to put his hands up. Idd ignored repeated police commands, pulled out a handgun, and opened fire through a rolled-up window, which shattered outward. The clip abruptly ends as more than a dozen shots are fired.
Police Chief Medaria Arradondo released the footage during a press conference early Thursday evening amid demonstrations demanding more transparency in the death of Idd. Arradondo said the video is the only footage his department is able to release at this time, but the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension will be recovering more videos and other evidence through their investigation into the shooting.
“Clearly, at least from my view of the video … my officers were reacting to that deadly threat,” Arradondo said. “The investigation will uncover more details, but if the question is should the officers not react in a deadly force situation and knowing that community members’ lives are at stake as well, the officers are trained to protect community members’ lives and their own.”
Arradondo said he met with the Idd’s father and showed him the footage before releasing it to the public. He gave his condolences to the man’s family and offered his sympathy and understanding to the officers involved.
According to Arradondo, the traffic stop was carried out by members of a police community response team (CRT). The CRTs usually respond to quality-of-life issues, such as drugs, carjackings, and other street-level crimes.
The Holiday gas station where the gunfight took place is about a dozen blocks from the intersection where George Floyd died last May in the custody of Minneapolis police. The death of Floyd sparked protests and riots that spread across the nation and prompted the city to reduce the budget of its own law enforcement force.
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