Minneapolis police officer will not face criminal charges in shooting death
Updated: 8:06 p.m.
A Minneapolis police officer who shot and killed an armed man last year will not face criminal charges.
In a statement released Monday, Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman said officer Jason Wolff was justified in using deadly force when he shot and killed Mario Benjamin, 32, in a north Minneapolis neighborhood on Aug. 2 as the armed man was near children and a wounded woman.
“After a detailed review and evaluation of all evidence presented to our office, we have determined that the deadly force used by Minneapolis police officer Jason Wolff was not criminal and was objectively reasonable and necessary in order to protect himself, Minneapolis police officer [Ryan] Davis, the woman and her children,” wrote Freeman.
The officers responded to a shooting call at 2:45 a.m. and found Benjamin kneeling next to an injured woman in the street. In his interview with the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension conducted two days after the shooting, Wolff said at first he thought Benjamin was trying to help the woman. Then, Wolff saw Benjamin stand up with a gun in his right hand.
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“I then told him, ‘drop the gun’ multiple times. He didn’t,” said Wolff to investigators.
“At this point, I’m thinking within, not even a second, this girl is shot. He’s got a gun. I’m telling him to put it down. He’s not.”
Wolff’s body camera footage shows Benjamin holding the gun to his head while Wolff repeatedly orders him to drop the gun.
“I was scared for all three of us,” said Wolff, referring to his partner and the injured woman. “I shot him, three or four times until he collapsed.”
Police learned later that the woman was Benjamin’s former girlfriend and the mother of two children with Benjamin. The children, who were 5 and 6 years old, were at the scene but not physically hurt.
Investigators say the bullet struck the woman in the spinal cord and left her temporarily paralyzed from the waist down. The Hennepin County Medical Examiner reported that Benjamin died from multiple gunshot wounds. And they report Benjamin had amphetamine, methamphetamine and THC in his bloodstream.
Wolff was involved in another Minneapolis shooting in December. He and seven other officers shot at an armed man who’d fired his rifle. The incident is still under investigation.