MINNEAPOLIS — Nearly a dozen Minneapolis police officers were suspended, fired or received other reprimands for alleged misconduct during the unrest following the 2020 killing of George Floyd, according to newly released documents.
Police officials have been slow to release disciplinary reports stemming from the department’s response to sometimes violent protests that erupted after Floyd’s killing by Derek Chauvin, a white former officer who knelt on Floyd’s neck. black man for nearly 9 and a half minutes in May. 25, 2020. A bystander’s video captured Floyd’s subdued cries of “I can’t breathe.” His death forced him to confront police brutality and racism.
The department generally does not disclose the outcome of disciplinary cases until they have gone through the entire review and appeal process. It took more than a year to acknowledge even a written reprimand against an officer for speaking without authorization to a GQ magazine reporter about the “toxic culture” in the department after Floyd’s death.
The unsealed reports, sometimes heavily redacted, are posted on a department dashboard on disciplinary decisions resulting from a series of incidents. Some of the most serious sanctions handed down in unrest-related cases stem from a police assault on May 30, 2020. Jaleel Stallings.
Officials with the police officers’ union, the Minneapolis Police Officers Federation, did not immediately respond to a call seeking comment Friday.
Many details in the Stallings case have been revealed in previous trials, but the reports detail some of the reasons former interim police chief Amelia Huffman gave for her firing. Officer Justin Stetson and suspend the others. In the redacted report on Stetson, Huffman wrote that he used “unreasonable force” that could have resulted in “even more serious” injuries.
Stallings, an Army veteran with a gun permit, fired three shots at an unmarked police van after Stetson shot him with a “less lethal” 40mm bullet, the report notes . The police enforced a curfew that night. When Stallings realized it was police officers, he dropped his gun, lay down on the ground and did not resist. But Stetson kicked him in the face and head several times and slammed his head against the sidewalk, Huffman noted.
Stallings – who suffered a fractured eye socket, as well as cuts and bruises – argued in subsequent trials that he believed civilians had attacked him and that he fired in a legitimate manner. defense. Stetson pleaded guilty last year to assault and was placed on probation. The city agreed in 2022 to pay Stallings a $1.5 million settlementafter Stallings was acquitted of an attempted murder charge.
Other disciplinary actions stemming from this incident included a 120-hour suspension for Officer Tyler Klund for kicking Stallings and for punching a man in the head who was with Stallings that night, and for failing to activate his body camera. Huffman also issued 80-hour suspensions to officers Michael Pfaff and Michael Osbeck for their actions against the other man. Pfaff used his Taser on him nine times in less than a minute, she said.
Officer Kristopher Dauble was suspended for 40 hours for firing 40mm rounds at pedestrians about a block from where police confronted Stallings. Huffman said he was glad no one was hurt.
Sgt. Kevin Angerhofer, who was supervising SWAT teams in the area that night, was suspended for 60 hours for failing to conduct an adequate review of the force.
An earlier report, signed by Medaria Arradondo, who was police chief when Floyd was killed, gave details of the attempted firing of Sgt. Ronald Stenerson, who sprayed a chemical agent in the face of Vice News reporter Michael Anthony Adams while he was already lying on his stomach, holding his press credentials for officers to see. Stenerson did not document his actions and did not activate his body camera, according to the report. The Star Tribune previously reported that Stenerson challenged his firing and remained on the job before later resigning.
Arradondo said Stenerson’s actions were all the more egregious because he was a supervisor, so his conduct “cannot be tolerated or accepted.”
Reports also show that current police chief Brian O’Hara last May issued suspensions of 10 to 40 hours against three officers who confronted protesters blocking the Interstate 35W bridge over the Mississippi River in downtown Minneapolis on May 31, 2020.
This week, city leaders announced that Minneapolis had achieved its emergency management objectives set in the wake of Floyd’s murder. City leaders received an 86-page after-action report with 27 recommendations on how the mistakes of 2020 would not be repeated.
“I am proud to say that to date, of the 27 recommendations made, all have been complied with,” said Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey.
Last summer, the Department of Justice revealed the results of a two-year investigation into MPDwhich found that the city and its police department engaged in practices that disenfranchise residents – particularly Black and Native American residents.
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