Moriarty: No evidence of police wrongdoing in Khalil Azad's drowning
The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office said Monday that there is no evidence of law enforcement wrongdoing in the death of a young Black man found dead in a suburban Minneapolis lake after a police chase last year.
Searchers recovered the body of Khalil Azad, 24, from Crystal Lake in July of 2022, two days after he crashed an SUV into a tree while fleeing from a Robbinsdale police officer who tried to pull him over for speeding.
Azad ran from the crash. K9 officers and a Minnesota State Patrol helicopter looked for him, but police called off the search after a half hour. The Hennepin County Medical Examiner determined that Azad accidentally drowned.
In March, hundreds of students walked out of school, calling for an investigation into his death. Following those protests, Robbinsdale Police requested the BCA investigation and released body camera footage of the search for Azad.
In announcing that no officers would be charged in the incident, County Attorney Mary Moriarty said in a statement that the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension “uncovered no evidence that any member of law enforcement had any physical contact with Khalil after the initial traffic stop.”
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