Deputies Who Killed a Minneapolis Black Man Won’t Be Charged

The Minneapolis sheriff’s deputies who fatally shot a Black man during an arrest on a parking ramp will not be charged for the June incident, authorities said.

The Crow Wind County Attorney’s Office on Monday concluded that the two undercover deputies who shot 32-year-old Winston Boogie Smith in the Uptown neighborhood of Minneapolis on June 3. At the time, the deputies had been working with the U.S. Marshals Service’s Northstar Violent Offender Task Forces to arrest Smith for felony firearm possession. “Based upon the facts and circumstances in this case, I find that the U.S. Marshall Task Force (TF) was properly exercising its lawful authorities,” Crow Wing County attorney Donald Ryan said in a letter about his findings. Ryan added that while the deputies were “attempting to gain entrance into his vehicle, Smith initiated a deadly force confrontation...by drawing his handgun and firing.”

While Ryan did conclude that the review was “unable to determine who fired first, it is irrelevant in this case.” “Once an individual initiates a deadly force confrontation, a law officer does not have to wait to be shot/shot at before reacting,” the attorney said, adding that the actions in this case were “reasonable and justified.”