MPR News Staff

MPR.org/90.1 FM

MINNEAPOLIS — Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman announced Wednesday that he would not pursue charges against two Minneapolis police officers in the shooting death of a 24-year-old African-American man last year.

In a mid-morning news conference, Freeman outlined the narrative of the early moments of Nov. 15, 2015, that investigators had pieced together in their report. He would not charge police officers Dustin Schwarze and Mark Ringgenberg, Freeman said, because he found their use of force in Jamar Clark’s death to be justified.

Activists and protesters, who had held demonstrations and marches near the site of Clark’s death and across Minneapolis for months, responded swiftly, renouncing the decision and underscoring a deep distrust in the city, its leaders and its institutions — especially law enforcement.

In the absence of charges — and with a federal investigation still ongoing — many of the players in the drama that has unfolded since those early hours of Nov. 15 have different ideas about what happens now.

There may be one thing protesters and Freeman agree on: the need to reduce use of deadly force by police officers.

As he acknowledged that Clark had been shot 61 seconds after the officers arrived, Freeman said police must do more to deescalate potentially violent confrontations.

“Police must use discussion, negotiations and peaceful interventions first,” he said. “They must be willing to tactically withdraw and slow down volatile situations. And if force is necessary, they need to use the lowest level of force possible.”

Later, as he talked to reporters, Freeman expanded on the idea. The very culture of police departments needs to change, he said.

“The first place we need to do things is in training and procedures and changing cultures in police departments,” he said.

“I think that’s going to reach our goal of fewer people dying and fewer officers being faced with the situation that their action, even if justified by the law, took the life of another. I’m much more interested in spending time and energy on that than trying to change the law.”

Freeman said the Jamar Clark case has led to an important conversation about how policing is done in Minneapolis — and how and when officers should use force. “And I think that’s very good,” he said.

Activists upset with the decision not to prosecute officers say they’re going to make it an election issue.

“We need for our government leaders, who have blood on their hands, who’ve been a part of rubber-stamping this system, to move out of the way, so that young leaders with a conscience can step forward and lead our city into the next millennium,” NAACP Minneapolis president Nekima Levy-Pounds said after Wednesday’s announcement.

Raeisha Williams, communications chair for the Minneapolis NAACP, said that she plans to run for the Minneapolis City Council seat now held by Blong Yang. The seat, which represents the north Minneapolis’ Ward 5 and includes the neighborhood where Clark was shot, is up for election in 2017.