Minnesota Supreme Court Rules That Threatened Person Must Retreat Before Brandishing a Weapon

The state’s high court, in a 4–2 decision, found that a person who is being attacked or threatened must retreat if ’reasonably possible’

A customer shops for a pistol in Tinley Park, Ill., in a file photo. Scott Olson/Getty Images

The Minnesota Supreme Court ruled in a split decision that a person who is being attacked or threatened must retreat if “reasonably possible” instead of brandishing a weapon.

The court upheld two second-degree convictions of assault with a deadly weapon against a man who was armed with a machete who alleged that he was threated by another man with a knife at a light rail station in Minneapolis in 2021.