Dakota County Attorney says Hastings officer justified in fatal shooting last October
A 23-year-old Rochester man told police to shoot him during a fatal encounter near a Hastings church in October, according to a statement Wednesday from the Dakota County Attorney's Office.
Prosecutors there determined the shooting was justified and that no criminal charges will be filed.
The Dakota Attorney's Office released details of a Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension investigation into the incident.
According to the report, Johnson-Lloyd had been staying at a sober living facility in Hastings, and had allegedly stabbed a fellow resident with a kitchen knife and fled following a dispute over cigarettes.
Create a More Connected Minnesota
MPR News is your trusted resource for the news you need. With your support, MPR News brings accessible, courageous journalism and authentic conversation to everyone - free of paywalls and barriers. Your gift makes a difference.
The manager of the facility later spotted Johnson-Lloyd walking nearby, and talked to him briefly, subsequently reporting to investigators that Johnson-Lloyd told him he was waiting for police and planned to, he said, "go out with a bang." The facility manager watched the confrontation with police as Johnson-Lloyd was shot and killed.
The officer who encountered Johnson-Lloyd, Geoffrey Latsch, said Johnson-Lloyd started running toward his squad car as he opened the door, and that he saw a metallic object in the approaching man's hand. He'd activated his body-worn camera, which captured Latsch pulling out his weapon and backing away from Johnson-Lloyd, then firing three times as Johnson-Lloyd neared within a few feet, according to the summary of the investigation.
An autopsy found gunshots struck Johnson-Lloyd in the arm, the abdomen and the head. He died at the scene.
After shooting Johnson-Lloyd, police found a utility razor-type knife in his hand. Blood tests showed he also had been using methamphetamine and amphetamine before he died.
A woman who met Johnson-Lloyd in treatment and had been in a relationship with him told investigators that he said he had been "going downhill." She'd known him to be carrying hammers, knives and machetes before he died.
Johnson-Lloyd was the 7th of 12 people killed in shootings by police in 2018, according to records compiled by MPR News. Like Lastch, most of the officers have been cleared, although some remain under investigation.
Lastch had been with the Hastings department since 2015 and had gone through officer training on dealing with people with mental health issues, as well as how to de-escalate volatile situations.
Johnson-Lloyd's mother, Tanya Johnson, said she met with prosecutors about the investigation and didn't have any immediate doubts about the evidence. But she questioned why police felt the need to use deadly force against her son when other departments seem to successfully arrest armed suspects without resorting to firearms.
"I don't think he would have [hurt them], but the officers maybe didn't know that. To me two officers against one person could have done something different. And I lost my son," Johnson said in an interview with MPR News.