By Anthony Gockowski
A Minnesota State Patrol use-of-force coordinator said in a sworn affidavit filed with the court Wednesday that Trooper Ryan Londregan “acted in accordance with his training” when he shot Ricky Cobb last summer.
“Trooper Londregan acted in accordance with his training; Trooper Londregan did not violate the use-of-force General Orders including, but not limited to the use-of-force policy found at § 10-027,” wrote Sgt. Jason Halvorson, who has worked in law enforcement for 29 years and serves as a use-of-force coordinator for the Minnesota State Patrol Training and Development Section.
Halvorson said he was the use-of-force coordinator for a training academy attended by Trooper Londregan, who is currently facing three felony charges, including second-degree unintentional murder, in connection to Cobb’s death last July.
Cobb, a convicted felon, attempted to flee law enforcement in a vehicle while a state trooper was half-inside, half-outside the vehicle. In response, Londregan shot Cobb as a fellow state trooper was dragged for a short distance by Cobb’s vehicle.
In January, Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty announced that her office would file charges against Londregan. Since then, the case has attracted significant media attention, particularly surrounding Moriarty’s handling of the case. Public officials across Minnesota have called for the charges against Londregan to be dismissed while various police associations have asked Gov. Tim Walz to remove the case from Moriarty’s office, especially in light of a filing that claims Moriarty’s own handpicked use-of-force expert called Londregan’s actions “reasonable.”
In his declaration, Halvorson states that he was interviewed by two deputy county attorneys and is referred to as “Trainer A” in the criminal complaint filed against Londregan. According to Halvorson, the author of the complaint has “lied by omission.”
“The author of the complaint (signed by [Deputy County Attorney Mark] Osler) has cherry-picked one sentence from a 37-page interview transcript and excluded critical facts and context thereby purposefully misleading the reader of the complaint,” Halvorson said.
He noted that he has not performed a “complete use-of-force review of Trooper Londregan’s officer involved shooting,” which would require interviewing Londregan.
Rather, he “reviewed the criminal complaint against Trooper Londregan, my voluntary interview with the BCA, my voluntary interview with Mssrs. Larson and Osler which was attended by the BCA, my testimony to the grand jury in Trooper Londregan’s case, publicly available video of Trooper Londregan’s officer involved shooting, the State Patrol General Orders, and applicable training materials.”
Gov. Walz indicated during a press conference this week that he hasn’t ruled out transferring the case to the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office.
MN Gov. Tim Walz indicates that he hasn't ruled out removing Trooper Ryan Londregan's case from Mary Moriarty's office. "I'm not a lawyer, but as a layman on this, why would you not listen to a use-of-force expert?" pic.twitter.com/EjntCUrGa9
— Alpha News (@AlphaNews) March 19, 2024
Luke Sprinkel contributed to this report, which originally appeared at Alpha News and was reprinted with permission.
