Every time a person is killed by police in the state, the surviving family quickly goes into action. They usually denounce the police officers involved, hire an attorney, and threaten a lawsuit within days.
The family of Ricky Cobb II, who was shot and killed by Minnesota state trooper Ryan Londregan on July 31, has decided on a different approach. They want to give Londregan what he did not give Ricky Cobb II, says the family.
They plan to proceed with “deference, due process, and the opportunity for an investigation,” said attorney Bakari Sellers, one of three lawyers retained by the Cobb family ahead of a lawsuit against Londregan and potentially the state, depending on the outcome of the investigation.
“It’s hard to be angry and grieve at the same time,” added Sellers at a press conference held by the legal team for the family last Friday. “We want to change the process. But this family is grieving right now. This family ain’t gonna crucify the officer.”
Last Tuesday, the family of Cobb II announced they had retained Sellers, a former South Carolina state representative, along with civil rights attorney Harry Daniels of Atlanta, Ga., and Minneapolis defense attorney F. Clayton Tyler. This comes as Londregan’s attorney, who chided Gov. Tim Walz and the Hennepin County Attorney for meeting with the family, threatened the family’s attorneys with a defamation suit.
Cobb II was killed on July 31 during a traffic stop on Interstate 94. He was asked by Trooper Brett Seide to step out of his vehicle to discuss a hold-for-questioning that was issued for a violation of an order for protection. Cobb II refused because he said he wanted to discuss the hold with his attorney. As he tried to drive away, Londregan shot Cobb II twice in the back.
The family’s legal team alleges breakdowns in procedure. They contend the order for protection, which usually lasts for 72 hours, had expired when Cobb II was pulled over. “So not only are we talking about excessive use of force. We’re talking about an unlawful use of force,” said Daniels.
Cobb II’s family continues to miss him. “Ricky was just a wonderful son to me. And he was heroic,” said his mother, Nyra Fields-Miller, as she read a letter she wrote to him the day he was killed. “He wasn’t scared of anything and anybody. He had held his head up high every day. He worked every day. He loved his children. He wanted to provide for his children, you understand?”
“My son asked over and over, ‘How do I not hate the police?’” said one of Cobb’s sisters. “How do I tell him how not to? But I’m going to because this is not a fight that my son should have to deal with in the future.”
The Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) investigation is ongoing, and although activists have demanded the investigation be handled by an agency outside the state, the family and their counsel want to defer to the BCA’s conclusion. And if they don’t get what they want?
“We’re going to ask the Department of Justice that [is] already here [to investigate the Minneapolis Police Department] to take a look at Ricky Cobb’s case, because incompetency in law enforcement actions is not an excuse at all,” said Daniels.
“Let justice prevail, so I can lay my son peacefully to rest,” said the victim’s father, Ricky Cobb Sr.
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