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MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — Police in Minneapolis have released body camera video on Thursday from a traffic stop that ended with a man shot dead, the city’s first police-involved death since George Floyd died while being restrained by officers in May.
BREAKING: @MinneapolisPD released body camera footage of wednesday night’s officer involved shooting that left 23 year old Dolal Idd dead after being shot by police. #wcco
⚠️ WARNING⚠️: graphic video and language pic.twitter.com/7wSMjSLsnL— Marielle Mohs (@MarielleMohs) December 31, 2020
Police said the man was a suspect in a felony and that he died in an exchange of gunfire Wednesday on the city’s south side. Chief Medaria Arradondo said witnesses said the man fired first. The body camera footage appears to support those accounts.
On Thursday morning, a man arrived at the scene of the shooting, saying the man killed was his son, 23-year-old Dolal Idd. The man, Bayle Gelle, said that authorities arrived at his Eden Prairie home in the middle of the night, telling him his son had been shot without giving much detail. He is calling for the gas station where the shooting happened to release its surveillance footage to prove that his son was innocent.
Dolal Idd (Credit: Bayle Gelle)
“He was just sitting in the car,” Gelle told reporters. “And bullets were shot at him, and no reason. Why are we here? Because why were they shooting? Because of color. He is a Black man.”
The shooting stirred anxiety about renewed protests, seven months after unrest following Floyd’s death. The latest shooting happened about a mile from where Floyd died while being restrained by officers.
“We want to know why my sweet son gets shot and killed,” Gelle said. “We need justice, we need justice.”
Gelle was not a witness to the shooting.
Arradondo says he quickly released the body camera footage so that the public can see what happened for themselves. The quick release of footage in this case is the result of a recent policy change that no longer allows officers involved in a shooting to review the footage before writing their reports. For comparison, it took weeks before the body camera footage was released in Floyd’s death.
RELATED: Minneapolis Police Fatally Shoot Man During South Side Traffic Stop
Police spokesman John Elder said Wednesday’s incident happened about 6:15 p.m. at a Holiday gas station as officers were carrying out a traffic stop in the city’s Powderhorn neighborhood. Police did not provide details of the supposed felony nor release any information about the man, including his race.
Elder said medical personnel pronounced the man dead at the scene. A woman in the car was unhurt, Elder said. He declined to say whether police recovered a gun at the site of the shooting. However, sources told WCCO that investigators found a gun on the suspect.
Elder said no officers were hurt. He said he didn’t know how many officers were at the scene carrying out the traffic stop or how many were involved in the shooting.
(credit: CBS)
The state’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension is handling the investigation.
Dozens of people gathered at the scene in the hours after the shooting, including some who interrupted Elder and sharply questioned him as he delivered a media briefing.
“We’re prepared, we’re holding [the Minneapolis Police Department] accountable,” said a protester named Miguel. “We have boots on the ground, eyes on the ground so they don’t have space to move, they don’t have time to hide what they’re doing. They have to respond to the community now, and truthfully.”
Arradondo said the traffic stop was carried out by members of a police community response team — longstanding units that respond to situations such as drug investigations and gun crime.
RELATED: Fatal Officer-Involved Shooting Calls Attention To Demand For Changes To MPD
Earlier this month, the City of Minneapolis also agreed on a new budget plan that will reallocate $8 million from the MPD toward violence prevention and other programs. But per Mayor Jacob Frey’s request, the department will not reduce the number of officers on their force. Frey threatened to veto the city budget if the number of 888 officers were reduced.
Frey said in a statement late Wednesday that he was working with Arradondo for information on the shooting, and pledged to get it out as quickly as possible in coordination with the state investigation.
“Events of this past year have marked some of the darkest days in our city,” Frey said. “We know a life has been cut short and that trust between communities of color and law enforcement is fragile…We must all be committed to getting the facts, pursuing justice, and keeping the peace.”
All four officers involved in Floyd’s death were fired and charged in his death. They are scheduled for trial in March, though the state is now pushing to have the trial moved to June due to COVID concerns.
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