With no High Risk Team, more deaths likely
Hennepin County District 2 Commissioner Irene Fernando said the city failed to assign an investigator to the domestic violence case of Mariah Samuels before her death, despite internal claims that one had been appointed.
“The letter says that an investigator was assigned,” Fernando said at a press conference at the Hennepin County Center on Thursday, Oct. 30. “So on paper, the city has asserted that an investigator was assigned. I say all of this because they haven’t provided an explanation. I had barely been formally informed that they didn’t assign an investigator.”
Samuels, 34, was shot and killed Sept. 14 outside her North Minneapolis home. Her ex-boyfriend, David Wright, has been charged with second-degree murder. Earlier that morning, Samuels had called 911 to report that Wright had violated a restraining order by sending harassing text messages.
According to the restraining order, after Samuels told Wright she wanted to end their relationship, he pistol-whipped her outside her home, threw her against a fence, and choked her.
“Black and brown women are often not seen as victims. Their invisibility is deadly, and we must name it to change it.”
Fernando said MPD’s failure to assign an investigator between the Aug. 21 assault and Samuels’ killing “represents a systemic breakdown” that may have contributed to her death. She also criticized the Frey administration for refusing, for more than seven weeks, to provide basic staffing data on MPD’s domestic violence unit despite repeated written requests.
“Over seven weeks of very documented emails and letters, I was unable to even get a staffing number for 2025 compared to 2019,” Fernando said. “I had been told from other sources there was a decrease of up to 70%, and I wanted to validate that.”
The domestic violence unit now has only five staffers, four officers and one civilian, down from 12 officers in 2019, according to the Star Tribune. Meanwhile, caseloads and the backlog of unassigned investigations continue to rise.
Fernando said she met with Mayor Jacob Frey, Commissioner Todd Barnett, and Chief Operating Officer Anderson Kelliher but received “no data and no proactive leadership in this space.
“If this is about caseloads and resources,” she said, “then why has the City of Minneapolis chosen not to provide the necessary data to uncover systemic gaps and resolve needs?”
Body camera footage from Samuels’ final 911 call also contradicts the officer’s report, which stated she “appeared safe” and “felt safe staying at her current address.” In the footage, Samuels said the opposite, that Wright likely knew where she was staying and that she was afraid.
Fernando added that MPD’s internal reviews into Samuels’ death, as well as the deaths of Allison Lussier and Davis Moturi in other domestic-related incidents, have not been made public, calling the refusal “a potential violation of the city charter.”
Advocates argue Minneapolis lacks coordinated systems to protect high-risk domestic violence survivors. Amirthini Keefe of the Domestic Abuse Project said the city is “one of the only major cities in Minnesota without a domestic violence High Risk Response Team,” a model that uses validated lethality assessments and information-sharing to prevent homicides.
Similar teams operate across the country, including DVERT in Multnomah County, Oregon; the High-Risk Intervention Panel in Nashville; the Domestic Violence High Risk Team in Harris County, Texas; San Mateo County’s High-Risk Case Multidisciplinary Team in California; and the Berkshire County Domestic Violence High Risk Team in Massachusetts.
“Mariah Samuels should still be here,” said Nikki Engel, interim co-executive director of Violence Free Minnesota. “Caring about victims requires action, honesty about failures, and a commitment to develop actionable plans for change.”
Artika Roller, executive director of Cornerstone Advocacy Services, added, “Black and brown women are often not seen as victims. Their invisibility is deadly, and we must name it to change it.”
If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence, contact the Day One Hotline at 866-223-1111 or text 612-399-9995.
Clint Combs welcomes reader responses at combs0284@gmail.com.
My daughter was murdered in 2016 we still have NO Justice. I contacted Frey, Walz, every single person with any power to do something. I got nothing. My daughter was half Mexican half Finnish. She took after her Mexican side more and they based there none existent investigation on her being Mexican. They just called it a suicide and pushed it under the rug and told me “you know how many Mexican girls commit suicide??” They are a joke!! We have proof of homicide, but Frey would not even return my call. Nor would any of them. I regret every day raising my daughter’s in Hennepin County.
They are more than understaffed they are racist!!