Contact: Jana Kooren, jkooren@aclu-mn.org, 651-529-1693, 651-485-5925 (cell)
St. Paul, Minn – On Sunday August 5, 2018 St. Paul police shot a yet to be identified man in St. Paul.
The following statement can be attributed to Teresa Nelson, Legal Director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota:
Whenever police kill someone, it is a tragedy. A police shooting can affect the whole community. The residents of St. Paul along with the family of the unnamed individual deserve to know what happened in this tragic incident. The investigation should be transparent and done in a timely manner. The U.S. Department of Justice best practices dictate that within eight hours of the incident preliminary information should be released to the public. They also recommend within 24 hours of the incident authorities should brief community leaders and lay out a timeline of the investigatory process. Neither the individual’s name nor any timeline information has yet to be released despite being over 24 hours since the incident has occurred.
While the police did initially release a few details, including that the individual had a firearm, and that the officers body cameras were activated, the public deserves to know more.
The ACLU of Minnesota calls on the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension and the St. Paul Police to be more forthcoming and transparent about the killing. They should provide additional details such as identifying the victim, the name of the officer who shot and killed the individual and a timeline for the release of the body camera footage along with other details of the shooting.
The ACLU-MN is a non-profit organization that works to defend the civil liberties of all Minnesotans. Learn more at www.aclu-mn.org
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