A law enforcement expert sounded the alarm after an ICE agent shot and killed a 37-year-old woman driving away from agents on foot in a Minneapolis neighborhood on Wednesday.
Charles Ramsey, CNN senior law enforcement analyst and former Washington, D.C., police chief, had sharp criticism over the Department of Homeland Security’s initial reports on the shooting after questions about the incident after the video surfaced. The administration had suggested the woman in the video was a “rioter,” but the footage showed her trying to get away from the agents.
“DHS was premature in their comments… the evidence has to match the story that the officer is telling. The mere fact that a car may have been moving in your direction, by itself, that doesn’t justify the use of deadly force,” Ramsey said.
“There’s a lot of training that goes into use of deadly force, particularly when it comes to dealing with vehicles. One of the first things you do is get out of the path of the vehicle. How fast is the vehicle going? Is the driver intending and trying to actually strike you with the vehicle? I mean, there’s just a whole lot of questions that are still unanswered,” he added.
The FBI and Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension will investigate the use of deadly force independently of DHS, which Ramsey said was a good thing.
“I’m glad to hear that the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension is going to be also involved in taking a look at this, because I’ll be honest with you, I don’t think you’re going to get a fair and objective review of this use of force if it stays solely within the Department of Homeland Security,” Ramsey explained. “And so there needs to be an independent look at what actually took place. But in the meantime, they’re sitting on a powder keg there, and it’s not going to take much in order for it to blow up. And so I know the mayor’s concerned about that.”
The aftermath — and growing frustration among locals — will be something local law enforcement will have to monitor, he said.
“You’ve got an excellent police chief there, Brian O’Hara. They’re going to do everything they can to try to keep things calm. But this is going to be a problem,” Ramsey said. “And when that video eventually will surface, that shows the shooting. And if it’s anything like what was described by the mayor and the chief which I have no reason to believe, it’s not, it’s going to be, believe me, the outcry from the community is going to be very loud. And understandably so.”
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