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A woman shot outside her home Thursday night by a Robbinsdale police officer 

 Friday with assault for allegedly threatening another woman with a knife.


Family and supporters of 18-year-old Tania Harris, however, say the officer used excessive force.


Tania "has responsibility" for what happened,  the Rev. Larry Cook told reporters prior to Harris being charged. "But we're holding fast to, did she deserve to get shot?"

 around 5:40 p.m. Thursday at an apartment building at 3755 Hubbard Ave. N.


Police say Harris had been arguing with another woman most of the day when police arrived. 


As an officer spoke with Harris' mother and the other woman, Harris "burst through the front door and began chasing the victim while carrying a large knife," according to the second-degree assault charge.

Prosecutors say she refused to stop or drop the knife despite the officer's commands; the officer fired twice.


The accusations capped a day of confusion and shifting accounts among Harris' family and their advocates.

Early in the day, the group Black Lives Matter Minneapolis posted a statement saying that the family disputed the initial police description of the incident and 


insisting Harris was unarmed at the time she was shot


Later in the day, before the assault charge was handed down, Harris' mother and family representatives acknowledged to reporters that Harris had a knife but insisted she wasn't threatening police.

Instead, they said she was trying to scare off three people who'd come to attack her and that she was trying to defend her mother and 7-year-old sister, who were also outside at the time.


They said two young males and a female had come to the apartment complex to attack Tania, who is in stable condition at North Memorial Hospital. 

Kim Tolbert, Harris' mother, said she was the one who called police after learning that the people who'd threatened Tania were present. Tolbert, who was visibly sad, said that in the confusion of the moment she thought she had disarmed her daughter.

Cook, the family's pastor, acknowledged police have difficult jobs but suggested officers should have used more restraint.


Police, he said "could have used a Taser, rubber bullets, bean bags ... they have a lot of options."


Harris' father, Melik Tolbert, said Harris was  trying to defend herself and her family from the people that he said had come to hurt them.

"The measures she used was justified, based on multiple people coming to attack her," Melik Tolbert said.


"I'm not sure what totally the situation was, but it definitely wasn't merited for them to come to her house, in her building, looking for her, while she has her child or her little sister with her."


The family said it would consider legal options against Robbinsdale police.

A rally in support of Harris was expected late Friday at North Commons in Minneapolis.

The Hennepin County Sheriff's Office continues to investigate.

Crime, Law and Justice

Laura Yuen

Author

The family of a woman shot and wounded Thursday night by Robbinsdale police acknowledged she had a knife but said she wasn't threatening officers.

Robbinsdale woman shot by police charged with assault; family questions cops

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