Families Demand Transparency After Deaths Involving Police
At a noon press conference on the steps of the Hennepin County Government Center, Toshira Garraway and other families called for access to records and video after the deaths of loved ones. Teigen, 24, died after a 2009 pursuit; police said he fled and climbed into a trash container, and no charges were filed against any officer. Garraway disputes the police account, which MSR has not independently verified. Her data practices lawsuit was dismissed with prejudice, according to Hennepin County, and MSR has not confirmed the reason or whether she will appeal. St. Paul police say the case is closed and the file was given to the family in 2012.
Toshira Garraway has spent 17 years asking how her fiancé, Justin Teigen, ended up dead in a recycling facility after a 2009 encounter with St. Paul police. On Friday, she brought that question to the steps of the Hennepin County Government Center, joined by other families who say they have been stonewalled after losing loved ones.
“Tell us what you did on this night,” Garraway said. “Stop lying to us.”
The noon press conference, organized by Garraway, drew families, activists and former elected officials who called for transparency from police departments, medical examiners and county prosecutors.
What the record shows
Teigen, 24, died after a pursuit on Aug. 19, 2009. St. Paul police said at the time that he crashed his car into a concrete pillar and fled on foot. A gun and suspected narcotics were found in the car, a police spokesman said then. Police said follow-up investigation turned up video of Teigen climbing into a large trash container shortly after the crash. His body was found early the next morning at an Inver Grove Heights recycling center. His death certificate lists the cause as asphyxia due to mechanical compression in a recycling truck, according to Unicorn Riot. No charges were filed against any officer.
Garraway disputes the police account. She has said for years that officers beat Teigen and put his body in the bin, and that agencies have withheld evidence. On Friday, she said her family was followed and harassed by officers in the years after his death. Video from a nearby store shows the stop, she said, then goes blank, carries no date or time stamp and does not match a timeline created by the medical examiner. She also said testimony in her case shows a St. Paul officer removed video from the property room and never returned it. MSR has not independently verified those claims.
“How can we heal when Black people are ending up in garbage cans like this?” she said.
In a written response, the St. Paul Police Department said the videos were checked into its property room and then to the Crime Lab, with the transfers documented. It did not say whether they were later returned. The department said the footage came from businesses near the crash and was what the businesses produced when officers requested it. It said the case is closed, the case file was provided to the family in 2012, and closed-case video is public under Minnesota Statute 13.82. Harassment complaints, it said, can be filed with its Internal Affairs Unit or the Saint Paul Police-Civilian Internal Affairs Review Commission.
The lawsuit
Garraway’s legal fight is over access, not the cause of death. The University of Minnesota Law School’s Racial Justice Law Clinic took on her data practices case, Toshira Garraway Allen v. City of St. Paul and Hennepin County, seeking third-party video footage held by the Hennepin County Medical Examiner. A judge denied a request for summary judgment in 2025, and Minnesota Law Magazine reported the case was headed to trial this fall.
Hennepin County told MSR the most recent order, published Sept. 14, shows Judge Edward Sheu dismissed the case with prejudice. The county declined further comment, citing pending litigation. MSR has not confirmed the reason for the dismissal or whether Garraway plans to appeal.
The Ramsey County Attorney’s Office said the county holds no video from the case and referred MSR to the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension or the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office. The Ramsey County Medical Examiner’s Office said it did not investigate Teigen’s death.
Other families, same demands
Jaye Yates of the Twin Cities Coalition for Justice said families across the state describe being denied records and video after a death involving police.
“We should not have to beg these people for basic transparency,” Yates said. The coalition is pushing for an all-elected civilian police accountability commission in Minneapolis.
Leslie Redmond, a former president of the Minneapolis NAACP, urged Minnesotans to show up for Black families the way many did in protests against federal immigration enforcement.
“Minnesota prides itself on showing up and showing out,” Redmond said. “It can’t just be when white people are impacted.”
Trahern Crews, a co-founder of Black Lives Matter Minnesota, tied the demand for justice to economic fairness. He pointed to a Ramsey County case in which a judge found St. Paul committed 14 Data Practices Act violations over Summit Avenue records requests, and the city was ordered to pay attorney Robert Cattanach $30,000. The city has said it intends to appeal.
Lisa Keys, whose son Brandon Keys died, said families lose control of the story after a loved one is killed and described her son as a loving father who was villainized. She brought a poster honoring Amir Locke, who was killed by Minneapolis police in 2022.
Ebony Dobbins, a mother of three, said Minneapolis police entered her home in 2025 while her children were inside, and that her security camera footage contradicts the officers’ account. She called on Mayor Jacob Frey and Gov. Tim Walz to review the recordings.
“I’m still here. My children are still here, and I’m not going to be silent,” Dobbins said.
Jana Williams, the aunt of Arionna Buckanaga, said the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office canceled a court date in her niece’s case after she spoke out. Buckanaga, 18, was killed in a May 2020 drive-by shooting, according to charging documents reported by KSTP. Malcom Johnson was charged with murder, and a second man was later charged. Hennepin County’s statement to MSR did not address Williams’ claim.
John Thompson, a former Minnesota state representative who said he worked alongside Philando Castile for 11 years, said families cannot expect justice from the same county attorney and medical examiner offices that handle these cases.
“We got to do something different,” Thompson said.
Organizers said they will keep pressing to reopen Teigen’s case and change how records are released to families.
Jasmine McBride welcomes reader responses at jmcbride@spokesman-recorder.com.