Critics wary of BCA's investigation into Floyd killing
Prosecutors exposed the agency's missteps during the trial of former police officer Mohamed Noor
The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension has taken on more police death investigations in recent years, becoming the go-to agency for both high-profile and relatively unknown cases involving police use of force.
But the agency’s experience doesn’t provide comfort to many community members who continue to grieve the deaths of black men at the hands of police.
The BCA is now investigating one of the most high-profile police death cases in the country after then-Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on the neck of an African American man for nearly nine minutes during an arrest. George Floyd, 46, already in handcuffs, repeatedly pleaded with officers to let him breathe as Chauvin refused to let go. The encounter was caught on video.
Chauvin and the other officers at the scene are now facing criminal charges. Despite video evidence in the case, critics say they lack trust in BCA investigators, who are tasked with gathering remaining evidence that would help prosecutors build a case against the police officers.
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“The Minnesota BCA’s investigatory record in officer involved maimings and killings is mediocre at best and corrupt at worst,” said Robert Bennett, a civil rights attorney who’s represented several families of victims of police brutality cases in Minnesota. “They employ a double standard. If it was you or I committing the crime, they’d investigate the devil out of it. But if it’s police officers, they don’t.”
Bennett represented the family of Justine Ruszczyk, who was shot by former Minneapolis police officer Mohamed Noor as he and his partner responded to her 911 call to report a possible sexual assault behind her home. That case attracted international media attention and ended in a conviction as well as a $20 million settlement, the highest amount the city has ever paid to a family of a victim of a police shooting.
It was also the first-ever criminal conviction against a Minnesota police officer in a shooting death, which came after a lengthy trial that revealed questionable missteps by the BCA, raising concerns about its history with other police misconduct cases and whether those were handled properly.
In March, the BCA hired a community liaison, Biiftuu Ibrahim Adam, who keeps in touch with victims of police use of force, helps them understand the investigative process and brings concerns to the agency.
Superintendent Drew Evans said the concerns he hears go back to the BCA not getting the results that the community is looking for.
“I wanted to be really clear in this process that the BCA doesn’t get any results,” he said. “We gather facts, we gather information, we present those facts and information as we work to get to the truth as to what occurred in any particular situation. And then prosecutors are the ones that seek results.”
Evans said an outside consultant is expected to provide results of a review of investigators’ process of gathering evidence in officer-involved use of force in July, but so far, he said he doesn’t expect any red flags.
He added that the process and communication with prosecutors has gotten better since the Noor case.
“It would be fair to say that we seize even larger amounts of evidence than we did then so that the prosecutor has an opportunity to determine whether or not there is any relevance,” Evans said.
However, community members are calling for a completely separate, independent body to investigate deadly use of force cases. They suggest it consists of outside investigators who didn’t work for local police departments before they became BCA agents.
“They’re generally so narrow about their focus,” said D.A. Bullock, a Minneapolis resident and an activist who’s been following the Floyd case closely.
“They’re not investigating the fact that [Minneapolis police] wrote up a whole report that is totally contrary and a lie to what was on the video.”
The trial of former officer Noor revealed that BCA investigators failed to preserve key evidence in the case when they returned the squad car to the Minneapolis Police Department the morning after the shooting. The car was washed and immediately used back out on the field.
Additionally, five months after the incident, BCA investigators had only interviewed two officers who’d been at the scene of the shooting, according to another BCA special agent who testified at trial. BCA investigators also showed deferential treatment to the key witness in the case, Noor’s partner, interviewing him three days after the incident at his lawyer’s home over coffee and doughnuts.
“If the BCA would do such a shoddy job in a case of that magnitude and with that level of public interest, imagine how they’re treating what they make as their run-of-the-mill, police-involved shooting cases,” said Nekima Levy Armstrong, a civil rights lawyer and activist. “What it boils down to is cops protecting cops. Not a completely independent, impartial, fair and objective organization, or state department evaluating police murder cases.”
After the Floyd killing, the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office filed swift charges against Chauvin, just four days after the incident, when it announced third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter against the former cop. BCA officials say they made an investigative decision to arrest Chauvin at his home. Two days later, Gov. Tim Walz announced that Attorney General Keith Ellison would lead the prosecution of the case.
Ellison then moved quickly to elevate the charges against Chauvin to second-degree murder, and charged the other three officers with aiding and abetting second-degree murder and aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter.
Ellison’s office did not respond to requests for comment on how the team plans to conduct a fair investigation with the BCA in charge of gathering evidence.
Last August, Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman testified at a state task force hearing on police use of force — which Ellison and Public Safety Commissioner John Harrington led — that investigations into police misconduct cases have gotten better since the Noor case.
“I’m pleased to say we have resolved those difficulties,” Freeman said at the time. “It didn’t do me any pleasure to publicly criticize cops, but it was part of my job.”
The task force recommended the BCA create an independent and specialized investigation unit tasked with investigating police use-of-force incidents. The idea was to eliminate any potential for conflict of interest.
But BCA officials say that’s a huge undertaking, and due to lack of funding from the Legislature, that unit never materialized.