Nekima Levy Armstrong’s voice cracks with emotion as she recounts events leading up to and following the shooting of Davis Moturi, sparing no criticism of the two people she holds most responsible, outside the gunman himself: Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey.
“They’re doing the bare minimum, and they’ll continue to do so unless or until there’s an uprising,” she told the MSR. “We’re still here; we’re not going anywhere.”
Levy Armstrong—founder of the nonprofit Racial Justice Network and former president of the Minneapolis chapter of the NAACP—led a group of community activists who filled the chamber, antechamber and hallway during the Oct. 31 Minneapolis City Council meeting to demand that O’Hara be fired and that a fully independent third-party investigation be launched into the city’s actions in the case. The group also seeks compensation for Moturi given the police department’s failure to protect him.
Instead, the council recessed, forcing activists to make their case before a diminished body without recording their demands in the official record of council business.
Taking the mic, Michelle Gross, founder of Communities United Against Police Brutality, said, “It didn’t need to happen because the Minneapolis police should have done their job. [Then] they took five days to arrest this man—and I don’t know how you justify that.”
The council approved a city auditor review of the case. Frey later released a statement saying he supports the council’s action but leaving no doubt about O’Hara’s fate: He “will continue to be the Minneapolis police chief.”
What happened
On Oct. 23, following a year of escalating threats, intimidation, and assaults, John Sawchak shot Moturi in the neck—fracturing his spine, breaking two ribs, and causing a concussion. Sawchak shot his firearm from a window on the second floor of his home next door while Moturi was doing yard work.
Sawchak, 54, is white; Moturi, 34, is Black.
On Oct. 24—one day after the shooting—Sawchak was charged in Hennepin County District Court with second-degree attempted murder, first-degree assault, stalking and harassment. He remained at large for five days until community pressure forced the police to act, after which officers apprehended the shooter in the early hours of Oct. 28.
Sawchak already faced three outstanding warrants in Hennepin County for ongoing threats to neighbors. Police said that they sought to detain Sawchak starting in April.
Over the past year, Moturi and his wife, Caroline, reported at least 19 instances of vandalism, property destruction, theft, harassment, hate speech, verbal threats, and physical assault since moving into their home in the 3500 block of Grand Avenue in South Minneapolis. Several months before Sawchak’s arrest, Sheriff’s Department wanted posters went up around the neighborhood declaring him “armed and dangerous” and advising residents to call 911 should they see him.
But Sawchak was a known threat to the community long before that.
In August 2016, a Hennepin County judge ordered Sawchak committed to a mental health treatment facility after a doctor determined that he suffered from several psychological disorders and stated that Sawchak presented “a substantial likelihood of causing harm.”
After Moturi was shot but before Sawchak was in custody, O’Hara told the community: “We failed this victim 100%. And to that victim, I say I am sorry that this happened to you.” Following Sawchak’s arrest, O’Hara announced that the police department would conduct a “post-incident review” and again apologized to Moturi and his wife for “failing them.”
“This is not the first time where the community has raised concerns about [O’Hara’s] poor judgment, poor leadership, blaming the community, and excuses,” Levy Armstrong said in council chambers. “It’s completely unacceptable for him to get away with it. How many Black people’s doors have they kicked in for less?”
Activists vow to continue applying pressure to Minneapolis leaders—at council meetings and elsewhere—until the city does more than admit fault and issue apologies. The Minneapolis Police Department faces court-sanctioned oversight by the Minnesota Department of Human Rights and the U.S. Department of Justice for civil rights violations in the brutal killing of George Floyd in 2020. The activists are demanding structural change within the police department in keeping with those orders.
“The fact that the assailant, the suspect, the terrorist as far as I’m concerned, is a white man who shot a Black man is part of the reason police took a more hands-off approach in arresting him and bringing him to justice,” Levy Armstrong told the MSR. “Given how often police burst into the homes of poor Black folks and executed warrants on people who’d done much less, it doesn’t pass the smell test.
“A cultural shift is demanded,” she said: “We’re here—and will continue to be here. We’re not done.”
Cynthia Moothart welcomes reader responses to cmoothart@spokesman-recorder.com.