Federal officer shoots man in leg after ‘ambush’ in Minneapolis, DHS says
A federal officer shot a Venezuelan man this evening in Minneapolis after what was described as an “ambush," the Department of Homeland Security said.
The officer had been conducting a targeted traffic stop at 6:50 p.m. local time when the man left in a vehicle, which crashed into a parked car, and then fled on foot, the department said in a statement.
As the officer pursued the man, who the department said was in the country illegally, he assaulted the officer, according to the statement.
During that struggle, two people came out of an apartment and attacked the officer with a snow shovel and broom handle, according to the statement.
The man got loose and also began attacking the officer with a shovel or broom stick, the department said.
“Fearing for his life and safety as he was being ambushed by three individuals, the officer fired defensive shots to defend his life,” the department said, adding that the man officers had been chasing was shot in the leg.
All three men barricaded themselves in the apartment but were taken into custody, according to the statement.
Both the man who was shot and the officer were hospitalized, the department said. Additional details about the incident were not immediately available.
Did they? Or did they see an excuse to perpetrate a kind of violence they have been conditioned to enjoy? Or perhaps they understand the social role they fulfil better than they’re credited for? While unjustified “fear” plays a role in a lot of police violence nothing in Garner or Brown’s murders suggests to me that the officers were scared.