Federal authorities said Wednesday that they would not bring civil rights charges against two Minneapolis police officers in connection with the November fatal shooting of a 24-year-old black man.
The Justice Department decision comes two months after Hennepin County, Minn., Attorney Mike Freeman annonced that there was no evidence to bring state chanrges against the officers Mark Ringgenberg, 30, and Dustin Schwarze, 28. Minneapolis police have said that Jamar Clarkhad reached for an officer’s gun during a struggle.
“Although Clark’s death is undeniably tragic, the evidence is insufficient to meet … substantial evidentiary requirements,” Justice officials said in a written statement, referring to the high standard of proof required in such cases. “In light of this …, this matter is not a prosecutable violation of the federal civil rights statutes.”
Key to the federal review, authorities said, was whether Clark was handcuffed at the time he was shot. The investigation concluded that he was not, despite a number of witnesses who told FBI agents that handcuffs had been applied to Clark.
In all, according to the federal review, investigators obtained statements from 29 witnesses to the shooting.
The shooting set off a wave of sustained protests throughout the city, similar to demonstrations launched across the nation in the past two years in response to controversial police actions.
The group Black Lives Matter Minneapolis, heavily involved in the demonstrations related to the Clark shooting, also responded with a statement, saying that the federal review represented another example of how the criminal justice system “consistently fails black people.”
“Jamar deserves justice; his family deserves justice,” the group said on its Facebook page. “While our hearts are hurting now, we will continue to build and to fight for justice for Jamar Clark and for our collective liberation.”
