Federal judge dismisses lawsuit over state trooper’s shooting of Ricky Cobb

A federal judge has dismissed a civil lawsuit against a Minnesota state trooper stemming from the fatal shooting of a man during an attempted traffic stop along a Twin Cities freeway last year.

Judge Nancy Brasel granted trooper Ryan Londregan’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit brought by the family of Ricky Cobb II.

Cobb, 33, was pulled over on Interstate 94 in Minneapolis at about 2 a.m. on July 31, 2023, after troopers said they could not see taillights on his car. When troopers reached into the vehicle to try to arrest Cobb for allegedly violating a Ramsey County protection order, Cobb started to drive away. Londregan fired several shots into the vehicle, fatally wounding Cobb.

The lawsuit, filed last April, had alleged that Londregan and a second trooper at the scene, Brett Seide, used excessive force and violated Cobb’s civil rights. Londregan filed a motion to dismiss in May and a hearing on that motion was held in late July.

In an order filed Wednesday, Brasel wrote that the court “cannot conclude that Londregan violated a clearly-established right when he made the decision to shoot Cobb.”

Brasel wrote that Londregan is entitled to qualified immunity — a legal doctrine that protects police and other officials from civil lawsuits unless they knowingly violate a clearly established constitutional right.

Brasel also wrote that evidence from the scene contradicted assertions made in the lawsuit, and she wrote that “it was objectively reasonable for an officer to use deadly force to neutralize what he reasonably believed was a risk of serious physical harm to others, including a fellow officer.”

Londregan had also faced criminal charges in connection with Cobb’s death. Those charges were dropped in June, with Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty saying it was impossible to prove unauthorized use of force.

Seide, the second trooper named in the Cobb family’s civil lawsuit, has also moved to dismiss the case. A hearing on that motion was held on Oct. 9; a decision is pending.