{"id":116149,"date":"2021-06-09T17:26:34","date_gmt":"2021-06-09T17:26:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fin2me.com\/?p=116149"},"modified":"2021-06-09T17:26:34","modified_gmt":"2021-06-09T17:26:34","slug":"a-black-man-was-fatally-shot-by-deputies-in-minneapolis-authorities-say-theres-no-bodycam-video-activists-call-it-reckless","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fin2me.com\/business\/a-black-man-was-fatally-shot-by-deputies-in-minneapolis-authorities-say-theres-no-bodycam-video-activists-call-it-reckless\/","title":{"rendered":"A Black man was fatally shot by deputies in Minneapolis. Authorities say there’s no bodycam video. Activists call it ‘reckless.’"},"content":{"rendered":"
Activists in Minneapolis are calling for the U.S. Marshal for the District of Minnesota to be fired<\/strong>and an investigation into the fatal shooting of Winston\u00a0Smith Jr., which sparked several days of protests and renewed scrutiny of the\u00a0body camera policy for federal agents.<\/p>\n Local activists groups have demanded\u00a0Ramona Dohman step down as head of the U.S. Marshals Service in the state and\u00a0protested outside her home Tuesday. Dohman, a 37-year law enforcement veteran, was nominated by President Donald Trump and sworn in June 2019.<\/p>\n “The system in this state is fundamentally flawed, and the federal oversight is also fundamentally flawed,” said Jaylani Hussein, executive director for Minnesota’s\u00a0Council on American-Islamic Relations, at a\u00a0news conference\u00a0Tuesday. “We need transparency and accountability.”<\/p>\n Smith,\u00a0a 32-year-old Black father of three, was fatally shot when officers on a\u00a0U.S. Marshals Service task force tried to\u00a0arrest him last week\u00a0on a warrant for illegal possession of a firearm, according to a statement from the agency. Smith, who was parked in\u00a0a car, “failed to comply with officers\u2019 commands” and “produced a handgun resulting in task force members firing upon the subject,”\u00a0the statement said.<\/p>\n Two sheriff’s deputies\u00a0\u2014 one from Hennepin County and one from Ramsey County \u2014 shot Smith, according to the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, which is leading the investigation. State investigators said a handgun and spent cartridge found inside the car indicate Smith\u00a0also fired his gun.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Protesters demonstrate outside of the home of U.S. Marshal Ramona Dohman, Tuesday, June 8, 2021, in Minneapolis, in protest of the fatal shooting of Winston Boogie Smith Jr., the week before. The two sheriff\u2019s deputies who shot and killed Smith while assigned to a U.S. Marshals Service fugitive task force had been told they could not use their body-worn cameras. That's despite a change in Justice Department policy to allow cameras months before the shooting. (Photo: Carlos Gonzalez)<\/span><\/p>\n Demonstrators have been protesting in Minneapolis almost every day\u00a0after Smith was killed.\u00a0The city has been on edge since the murder of George Floyd last year by a former Minneapolis police officer\u00a0and the fatal police shooting of Black motorist Daunte Wright in nearby Brooklyn Center in April, both of which sparked\u00a0mass protests.<\/p>\n Monique Cullars-Doty, co-founder of Black Lives Matter Minnesota, called the\u00a0task force’s actions “completely reckless” and said not using\u00a0body cameras was “an intentional lack of transparency and an intentional lack of accountability.”<\/p>\n No video footage of the incident has been released. The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension said there is no squad camera footage of the shooting, and the U.S. Marshals Service does not allow body cameras for officers on this task force.<\/p>\n The U.S. Marshals Service said, however, that while deputy marshals do not yet wear body cameras, the Justice Department permits state, local and tribal task force officers to do so. In October, the Department of Justice approved the use of body cameras for officers serving on federal task forces.<\/p>\n The Hennepin County Sheriff\u2019s Office\u00a0issued a body camera to one of the\u00a0deputies involved in the shooting, but sheriff\u2019s officials were told it could not be used while the deputy was working on task force operations, according to a department\u00a0spokesperson.\u00a0<\/p>\n ‘I will protect my brother’s name’: <\/strong>Family of Minneapolis man killed by deputies demand accountability<\/span><\/p>\n Meanwhile, U.S. Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco announced Monday federal agents would be required to wear body cameras when executing search warrants or making pre-planned arrests. She also ordered they release the footage in a timely manner in the event of “serious bodily injury or death.”\u00a0<\/p>\n The U.S. Marshals Service, FBI,\u00a0Drug Enforcement Administration, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives\u00a0will have 30 days to draft policies that meet\u00a0the new requirements, Monaco said in a memo.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Nekima Levy Armstrong and and other protesters demonstrate outside of the home of U.S. Marshal Ramona Dohman, Tuesday, June 8, 2021, in Minneapolis, in protest of the fatal shooting of Winston Boogie Smith Jr., the week before. The two sheriff\u2019s deputies who shot and killed Smith while assigned to a U.S. Marshals Service fugitive task force had been told they could not use their body-worn cameras. That's despite a change in Justice Department policy to allow cameras months before the shooting. (Photo: Carlos Gonzalez)<\/span><\/p>\n But there is still confusion about the process for local task force officers\u00a0and the length of time it will take to actually allow them to be worn in the field.<\/p>\n Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher\u00a0said in a statement Monday\u00a0that the day after\u00a0Smith’s death, he received an addendum from the Marshals Office that he believed would\u00a0allow the use of body cameras.<\/p>\n Fletcher said he was later told by Dohman\u00a0“it could take a while for this to get approved” and deputies were still not allowed to use body cameras.<\/p>\n A spokesperson at Dohman’s office said she would not comment and directed all questions to the U.S. Marshals headquarters.<\/p>\n Monday, Fletcher barred his deputies from participating\u00a0in the U.S. Marshals North Star Fugitive Task Force, the same task force involved in the Smith shooting, “until body cameras are actually authorized.”\u00a0<\/p>\n In nearby jurisdictions, Anoka County Sheriff James Stuart and Hennepin County Sheriff Dave Hutchinson followed suit and\u00a0announced\u00a0they’re suspending work by their deputies with the task force.\u00a0<\/p>\n Other local police departments have previously refused to join task forces altogether because of the body camera issue.<\/p>\n The Minneapolis Police department does not participate in any task forces where officers are not allowed to use their body cameras, spokesman John Elder said.\u00a0<\/p>\n St. Paul police officers stopped participating in the fugitive task force in 2019 because police chief\u00a0Todd Axtell was unwilling to “give up that necessary tool of transparency.”<\/p>\n Body cameras are supposed to enable\u00a0the public to see what happened\u00a0when someone is killed by police. This doesn’t always happen because\u00a0police departments often get to decide what the public sees and when, experts told USA TODAY.<\/p>\n For those who “thought body-worn cameras were to catch bad officers and prove bad conduct, I think they have been largely disappointed,”\u00a0said\u00a0Scott Greenwood, a prominent constitutional rights attorney.<\/p>\n Although Marshals and task force members are more likely to use their guns, they are harder to hold accountable than average cops if something goes wrong,\u00a0an investigation by The Marshall Project\u00a0and the USA TODAY Network\u00a0found.<\/p>\n Local district attorneys don\u2019t have the legal power\u00a0to prosecute federal agents, including police officers serving as task force members, and the\u00a0Justice Department can shield them from litigation.\u00a0<\/p>\n Teddy Tschann, a spokesman for Gov. Tim Walz, told the Star Tribune that the governor’s office reached out to the White House and the Department of Justice\u00a0about Smith’s death “and has been pushing the federal government to provide Minnesotans with as much information as possible.”<\/p>\n Contributing: Christine Fernando,\u00a0Tami Abdollah<\/em>\u00a0and Uriel J. Garcia, USA TODAY;\u00a0Simone Weichselbaum and Sachi McClendon, The Marshall Project; The Associated Press<\/em><\/p>\nWhy is there no body camera footage?<\/h2>\n