Protesters condemn takedown maneuver in Clark shooting

Critics are condemning the use of force by Minneapolis police following a decision not to prosecute the officers involved in the fatal shooting of Jamar Clark.

Video from an ambulance at the scene shows Minneapolis officer Mark Ringgenberg grabbing Clark and forcing him to the ground moments before he was shot. Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman said Clark was resisting officers.

At an hourlong news conference Wednesday, Freeman said evidence indicated police were in reasonable fear for their lives when officer Dustin Schwarze shot Clark in the head as his partner struggled with the 24-year-old Minneapolis man on the ground.

But Minneapolis NAACP president Nekima Levy-Pounds said the video raised questions about what started the struggle that led to Clark's death — at least as prosecutors had described it.

"In your narrative, you didn't talk about the fact that he was violently slammed from behind, by a police officer," she said. "That was shocking for me to see that, in a chokehold, after you led everyone to believe that Jamar Clark was the aggressor."

Freeman later elaborated on the takedown maneuver.

"It is my understanding that is not a technique normally favored by Minneapolis police. I'm not familiar with every intimate detail of their training. But that's what I've been advised," he said. "No. 2, Ringgenberg acknowledged he'd learned that when he was in San Diego, and apparently, that's consistent training with what they do there."

Federal court records also show that Ringgenberg had been the subject of an excessive force lawsuit as an officer in San Diego in 2012. That incident also involved an effort to handcuff a suspect. The suit was later dismissed.

Freeman said the use of force to subdue Clark wasn't in the scope of the investigation into the shooting, and that Clark's initial refusal to show police his hands likely heightened their concern that he might be armed.

"This kind of takedown, particularly seeing it on the video you saw it, I think looked more vicious than it was," he said.

Lt. Bob Kroll, head of the Minneapolis police officers union, said he'd only seen the video briefly, and didn't know enough about that part of the incident to comment.

Police Chief Janee Harteau said she'd only just seen the video and that her department needed to review it more closely.

But Mayor Betsy Hodges suggested that it may be subject to further action, despite the decision not to charge Ringgenberg or Schwarze in connection with Clark's shooting. She noted a federal civil rights investigation into the incident is still underway.

"Once that investigation concludes, MPD will thoroughly review all available evidence from the independent investigations and will be able to make a decision regarding discipline, moving forward from there," she said.

In the meantime, the two officers are on desk duty, according to their union. Kroll said the Police Officers Federation of Minneapolis was pushing to have them returned to their previous street work.