Authorities are investigating after Minneapolis police shot and killed a black man they say was firing a handgun as he walked outside.
The incident happened around 5.30pm on Saturday on the north side of Minneapolis.
After arriving at the scene of the shooting, Police Chief Medaria Arradondo urged calm as news spread that the man who was shot was black.
Some witnesses disputed the police account of the shooting, saying the man did not have a gun. As of Sunday morning, there had been no violence or arrests, the Star Tribune reported.
A crowd gathers near the scene of an officer-involved shooting which took place a few hours earlier Saturday in Minneapolis. Police say officers shot and killed a man who was firing a handgun as he walked down a city street
‘At the end of the day, we know that no matter what transpired in the moments leading up to the shooting, we know with certainty that the outcome is a tragedy,’ Mayor Jacob Frey said in a statement.
Authorities say two calls to 911 reported that a man was firing a handgun into the air and the ground. When officers arrived, they pursued a suspect on foot and the chase ‘ended in shots being fired,’ police said in a statement.
The man was pronounced dead at the scene.
Frey said in a statement that the body cameras of the officers involved were ‘on and activated.’
The Mayor said he will be focusing on the fatal police shooting in the city and not marching in a parade celebrating gay pride on Sunday.
Among the witnesses who said the man did not have a gun was Eva Watson. She said the man was starting to comply with officers when police shocked him with a Taser.
Watson said he then started running and yelling, ‘Don’t shoot!’ and she then heard more than a dozen shots.
The incident happened around 5.30pm on Saturday on the north side of Minneapolis. Police blocked off the surrounding area as they investigated
Authorities say two calls to 911 reported that a man was firing a handgun into the air and the ground. When officers arrived, they pursued a suspect on foot and the chase ‘ended in shots being fired’
Police form a line in the street as a crowd grew in response to an officer-involved shooting earlier Saturday
Katya Kelly, the sister of the man’s girlfriend, said he had a bottle in his hand as he and his girlfriend walked to her house.
Officials didn’t immediately identify the officers involved in the shooting. The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension is investigating.
A bureau spokeswoman and the head of the Police Officers Federation of Minneapolis didn’t immediately return telephone messages requesting comment from The Associated Press.
‘Honestly, I don’t know what’s going through the community’s minds, but I do know that we continue to be traumatized one time after another,’ Minneapolis NAACP President Leslie Badue said, according to Minnesota Public Radio . ‘It’s extremely unfortunate, and we just want answers.’
Minneapolis has been rocked by the past fatal police shootings of 24-year-old Jamar Clark in November 2015 and 40-year-old Justine Ruszczyk Damond in July 2017.
Minneapolis NAACP President Leslie Badue called for the attention of the crowd gathered at North 48th Avenue and Camden Avenue North before leading a prayer in response to an officer-involved shooting
A girl jumps rope outside a home along Bryant Avenue North near the scene of an officer-involved shooting on Saturday