The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension says 4 St. Paul cops fired handguns or rifles in an incident Monday at Snelling and University avenues.
They identified them and two other officers Wednesday who fired nonlethal rounds within the shooting of a person who police say pointed a gun of their direction.
Earl Bennett, 40, stays hospitalized in critical but stable condition, the BCA said Wednesday. Bennett is a suspect in two homicides and two other serious shootings at a Minneapolis sober home and a homeless encampment on Sunday and Monday, in accordance with Minneapolis police.
The BCA, which is investigating, identified the officers involved as Officer Chase Robinson and Sgt. Lamichael Shead, who each fired their handguns; Officers Shawn Marlowe and Blake Steffen, who each fired rifles; and Officers Austin Borowicz and Peov Suon, who each fired nonlethal rounds.
Robinson and Marlowe have 10 years of law enforcement experience, Shead has eight years, Steffen has 4 years, and Borowicz and Suon have three years, in accordance with the BCA.
The officers are on administrative leave, which is standard in such cases.
Shooting at busy intersection
St. Paul cops were called to Pierce Street near University Avenue just before 7:45 p.m. Monday. Several people reported shots had been fired in the realm.
An officer reported that he saw a person, identified as Bennett, walking south on Snelling Avenue toward University Avenue with a gun in his hand, in accordance with a criminal grievance against Bennett filed Tuesday in Ramsey County.
“We have now no information to point any of our officers knew his identity or of his past actions prior to encountering him,” said Sgt. Mike Ernster, a St. Paul police spokesman.
The officer also reported that Bennett wouldn’t drop the gun and kept walking. He held the handgun to his own head, walked in the course of traffic lanes and on the median between lanes on Snelling Avenue. He stopped in the course of light-rail train tracks. A witness reported that Bennett told the police to shoot him.
Officers negotiated with him to place the gun down, but he wouldn’t, Ernster said.
An officer fired nonlethal rounds at Bennett to get him to drop the gun. Bennett pointed his gun at officers, and officers fired at him, in accordance with the grievance.
A 9 mm handgun that Bennett dropped after he was shot didn’t hold a magazine; it had a round of ammunition in its chamber, the grievance said. The handgun has been tied to casings fired within the Minneapolis homicide.
Community advocates called on Tuesday for officials to instantly release body camera footage.
Chauntyll Allen, with Black Lives Matter Twin Cities, posted a Black Lives Matter announcement Wednesday on Facebook, saying they need answers. She requested that individuals call Mayor Melvin Carter, together with their city council member and the police chief, to demand body camera footage is released.
A suggested call script said that no matter what Bennett was accused of, “he deserved to be arrested unharmed in order that he could stand trial, not shot on the street multiple times. SPPD must follow the law and hold its officers accountable.”
Carter responded in a comment on Allen’s post that he’d tried calling her Tuesday and Wednesday, but hadn’t been capable of reach her.
“As has been our practice since I took office, bodycam footage shall be released as soon as possible once the primary round of witness statements have been collected,” he wrote.