St. Paul officers identified in shooting of man at Snelling and University
The man is a suspect in two homicides and two other serious shootings in Minneapolis.
The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension says four St. Paul police officers fired handguns or rifles in an incident Monday at Snelling and University avenues.
They identified them and two other officers Wednesday who fired nonlethal rounds in the shooting of a man who police say pointed a gun in their direction.
Earl Bennett, 40, remains hospitalized in critical but stable condition, the BCA said Wednesday. Bennett is a suspect in two homicides and two other serious shootings at a Minneapolis sober home and a homeless encampment on Sunday and Monday, according to Minneapolis police.
The BCA, which is investigating, identified the officers involved as Officer Chase Robinson and Sgt. Lamichael Shead, who both fired their handguns; Officers Shawn Marlowe and Blake Steffen, who both fired rifles; and Officers Austin Borowicz and Peov Suon, who both fired nonlethal rounds.
Robinson and Marlowe have 10 years of law enforcement experience, Shead has eight years, Steffen has four years, and Borowicz and Suon have three years, according to the BCA.
The officers are on administrative leave, which is standard in such cases.
Shooting at busy intersection
St. Paul police officers were called to Pierce Street near University Avenue just before 7:45 p.m. Monday. Several people reported shots had been fired in the area.
An officer reported that he saw a man, identified as Bennett, walking south on Snelling Avenue toward University Avenue with a gun in his hand, according to a criminal complaint against Bennett filed Tuesday in Ramsey County.
“We have no information to indicate any of our officers knew his identity or of his past actions prior to encountering him,” said Sgt. Mike Ernster, a St. Paul police spokesman.
The officer also reported that Bennett wouldn’t drop the gun and kept walking. He held the handgun to his own head, walked in the middle of traffic lanes and on the median between lanes on Snelling Avenue. He stopped in the middle of light-rail train tracks. A witness reported that Bennett told the police to shoot him.
Officers negotiated with him to put the gun down, but he would not, Ernster said.
An officer fired nonlethal rounds at Bennett to get him to drop the gun. Bennett pointed his gun at officers, and officers fired at him, according to the complaint.
A 9 mm handgun that Bennett dropped after he was shot did not hold a magazine; it had a round of ammunition in its chamber, the complaint said. The handgun has been tied to casings fired in the Minneapolis homicide.
Community advocates called on Tuesday for officials to immediately release body camera footage.
Chauntyll Allen, with Black Lives Matter Twin Cities, posted a Black Lives Matter announcement Wednesday on Facebook, saying they need answers. She requested that people call Mayor Melvin Carter, along with their city council member and the police chief, to demand body camera footage is released.
A suggested call script said that regardless of what Bennett was accused of, “he deserved to be arrested unharmed so that he could stand trial, not shot in the street multiple times. SPPD must follow the law and hold its officers accountable.”
Carter responded in a comment on Allen’s post that he’d tried calling her Tuesday and Wednesday, but hadn’t been able to reach her.
“As has been our practice since I took office, bodycam footage will be released as soon as possible once the first round of witness statements have been collected,” he wrote.
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