Minneapolis, MN – Minneapolis authorities released body camera footage showing the December 30 police killing of a young man on the day after the killing. The 27-second video appears to show the man shoot a gun from inside of his car towards police as officers attempt to detain him.

Minneapolis Police (MPD) said the man was the target of an illegal weapons investigation. The deceased was later identified by his father as 23-year-old Dolad Idd, a Somali-American. The Idd family lives in Eden Prairie.

On Wednesday evening around 6:15 p.m. Idd was on the drivers side of a white car in the parking lot of the Holiday gas station with an unidentified woman on 36th St. and Cedar Avenue in South Minneapolis. In the parking lot, police surrounded him with two marked police cruisers and an unmarked car, approached the vehicle with guns drawn and told Idd to put his hands up.

Idd attempted to maneuver his car away from the officers as they boxed him in. The video then appears to show him raising a gun and firing a shot towards the unmarked police cruiser before the police shoot more than a dozen shots at him, killing him.

Police released a slowed-down version of the bodycam footage of the incident (same angle as before), but no other angle has been released by MPD. This was the most rapid turnaround of releasing video from a police killing in Minneapolis. Idd’s family has also asked the Holiday gas station for their footage of the incident; Holiday reportedly declined their request.

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The officers who initiated the stop were members of the Community Response Team (CRT) of the Minneapolis Police. According to the City of Minneapolis website, the CRT does the following:

• “We respond to high crime areas of a precinct or areas with specific problems.”
• “Our ‘plain clothes’/ undercover officers respond to precinct drug problems. “
• “We investigate street level prostitution, disorderly houses and illegal liquor and cigarette sales.”

The Star Tribune has identified the CRT members involved in killing Idd as Darcy Klund, who runs the First Precinct CRT, Paul Huynh, and Jason Schmidt. All three of the officers have been put on standard paid leave.

Dolal’s father, Bayle Gelle, showed up to the Holiday gas station on New Year’s Eve to survey the scene. Gelle said after police killed his son, at least 20 deputies from the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office and agents from the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) came to his around 2 a.m. with a warrant and detained his whole family at gunpoint, “pushing them down, screaming” and zip-tied their hands while they searched the home. The BCA is in charge of the investigation.

Police raided the home of an older Somali couple, bound their wrists, and yelled at their small children. Then the police told them their son was shot dead.https://t.co/TUOCJgyH7O by @mukhtaryare and @JaredGoyette

— Sahan Journal (@SahanJournal) January 1, 2021

In a statement posted online on New Year’s Day, Hennepin County Sheriff David Hutchinson claimed that his deputies acted “professionally and politely.” The Sheriff’s account of the incident does not match the Idd family’s recounting of events. Sheriff Hutchinson has also declined to provide a timetable for releasing deputies’ body camera footage showing their contested late-night armed raid on the Idd family. [Update below]

Jaylani Hussein of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-MN) told WCCO Radio that “We believe the raid needs to be investigated for police misconduct… There’s absolutely no reason for them to terrorize a family like that and to have guns drawn on a four-year-old.”

Immediately after the fatal shooting of Dolal Idd on December 30, hundreds gathered at the scene for several hours before dispersing after an assortment of community groups confronted protesters, many yelling for people to leave the scene. A march was led out by a sound truck and others left as droves of state troopers made their way into the neighborhood.

The next night a rally was organized at the Holiday gas station which had it’s windows boarded up as the event was happening. The rally was attended by around 100 people who listened to speeches from various community leaders including civil rights attorney Nekima Levy-Pounds and Jaylani Hussein from CAIR-MN.

One of the speakers, Muhammed from CAIR-MN, condemned MPD’s justification for killing Idd, stating:

“If the media perpetuates this narrative of a felony suspect and if you hear that type of language coming out of the Minneapolis Police Department, that only insinuates that this individual deserved to die. Dolal did not deserve to die. Dolal had a meaningful life.“

Muhammed – CAIR-MN

The woman who was in the white vehicle with Idd when he was killed has yet to be identified and her relationship to Idd is still unknown. It is also unclear if she was held for interrogation after the incident, and if so whether she is being treated as a suspect of a crime. Idd’s family has started a fundraiser for his funeral expenses.

Dolal Idd was the second death at the hands of the Minneapolis Police in 2020, the other being George Floyd on May 25.

[Update – January 2, 8:36 p.m.: The Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office has released body camera footage of 28 minutes of deputies raiding the Idd house serving the warrant on their house.

A rally is set to be held at Holiday on January 3 at 2 p.m.]

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