MPD accused of hiding lethal incompetence

Davis Moturi is alive to tell his story. Allison Lussier, an Indigenous woman, and Mariah Samuels, a Black woman, are not.

The pattern is tragically familiar: people of color repeatedly calling 911, warning police about violent neighbors or ex-partners, doing everything authorities ask, only to be met with inaction. Lussier and Samuels were killed this year despite those warnings. 

Moturi survived a gunshot to the neck last October. His case is now raising serious questions about whether the Minneapolis Police Department ignored the same warning signs that advocates say contributed to the deaths of Lussier and Samuels.

Repeated warnings unanswered

On Oct. 23, 2024, Moturi was trimming a tree outside his home on Grand Avenue So. when he suddenly felt a surge of pressure in his chest. He thought he was having a heart attack. Doctors discovered he had been shot in the neck.

The alleged shooter was his next-door neighbor, 54-year-old John Sawchak, a White man whose history includes multiple harassment allegations and criminal convictions. According to court records and neighbors, Sawchak has been the subject of at least 10 restraining orders over the years.

Moturi and his wife, Caroline, who moved in during fall 2023, say they called police at least 29 times in the year before the shooting. “We are living in constant fear of John,” Moturi wrote in an April restraining-order petition. He said Sawchak frequently told him to “go back to North Minneapolis.” 

A Black family who lived in the same home before the Moturis told them Sawchak’s harassment pushed them to move. The family has since confirmed this to the MSR.

“They’re hiding and dragging their feet because they know they acted incorrectly.”

But what Moturi didn’t know was the most devastating: Sawchak had an active felony warrant for his arrest that police never executed.

A warrant ignored

Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty told the MSR that her office charged Sawchak with felony threats of violence on July 10, 2024. “Mr. Sawchak was not arrested on that warrant and remained in the community until he shot Mr. Moturi on Oct. 23, 2024,” Moriarty wrote.

Moturi discovered the warrant only because he refused to stop asking questions. “I called 20 people,” he said. 

“Somebody in Hennepin County was like, ‘I’m not supposed to tell you this, but he actually has a warrant for his arrest.’ I was like, wow. Because I had called the cops so many times and there were zero charges.”

He said police never told him about the warrant, not even after he reported Sawchak pointing a gun at him two weeks before the shooting. “They didn’t even send the case up,” Moturi said.

He added that several crimes he reported never appeared on MPD’s public dashboards: “I didn’t see any of the crimes that I reported.”

Agencies point fingers

Internal emails obtained by reporters show MPD and the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office scrambling to assign blame after the shooting.

In one message to his chief of staff, Police Chief Brian O’Hara wrote, “The level of incompetence here is unreal. I never get correct information.” When KSTP began investigating the case, O’Hara added, “Multiple complaints have been filed??? This is nothing like what I was told.”

Moriarty, in an email to City Council Member Andrea Jenkins, wrote: “We were told that MPD does not intend to execute the warrant to arrest Mr. Sawchak for reasons of officer safety.”

O’Hara disputed that characterization, saying MPD made “over 20 specific attempts” to arrest Sawchak but could not “lawfully execute the warrant.” He accused Moriarty’s office of continuing “a long pattern of spreading misinformation.”

Neither agency has fully explained why a man with 10 restraining orders, documented threats, and an active felony warrant remained free despite repeated 911 calls.

MPD resistance

The Minneapolis City Auditor’s Office launched an investigation into the handling of Sawchak’s case after the shooting. But City Auditor Robert Timmerman reported unusual resistance from MPD.

An investigator who initially agreed to cooperate soon appeared to be coached, Timmerman said. In an email apparently sent after consulting a union representative, an officer asked Timmerman: “Could I be subject to discipline if you believe that any answer I provide is incomplete or untruthful?”

Council President Elliott Payne called the situation “a red alert.” Council Member Aisha Chughtai said she was “alarmed by what I hear and what I see.”

The audit, originally due in December, has been pushed to February because of MPD’s lack of cooperation. The Auditor’s Office has since allocated $200,000 to an outside firm to complete the investigation. After the November city elections, Assistant Police Chief Katie Blackwell issued a memo instructing all officers to cooperate.

Complicating matters further, Mayor Jacob Frey has proposed significant budget cuts to the Auditor’s Office, an office that reports to the City Council and serves as a key independent oversight body. Critics say the cuts undermine transparency at a time when public trust is already fragile.

Deadly consequences

Advocates say Moturi’s case mirrors systemic failures that also affected the late Allison Lussier and Mariah Samuels, both women of color who repeatedly sought police protection before being killed this year. Their families and community leaders say both deaths could have been prevented if authorities had acted on earlier warnings.

Moturi sees the connection, too. “If they’re being apprehensive, it’s because they know what they did was wrong,” he said. “They’re hiding and dragging their feet because they know they acted incorrectly.”

Then he paused and reflected on what still haunts him. “So assuming I didn’t get shot,” he said, “nobody would have known this was happening.” 

The next Minneapolis Audit Committee meeting is scheduled for Dec. 8 at 10 a.m. in Room 350 of the Public Service Center, where city leaders are expected to receive updates on the investigation and address questions about MPD’s handling of the case.

Clint Combs welcomes reader responses at combs0284@gmail.com.