Just writing the details here because, well, I saw the aftermath, quite by accident.
Here's the news article.
I drove down Hwy 13 on the way to work this morning and saw what obviously was a significant crime scene by the McDonalds. A dozen emergency vehicles, a state BCA vehicle, and a draped lump in the parking lot under which, no doubt, a body lay.
Knowing the story of the 1984 San Ysidro McDonad's Massacre, it kind of freaked me out, but turns out the truth was more, well, depressingly, painfully ordinary: Police arrived on the scene and within about 100 seconds shot and killed a man, allegedly brandishing a knife, clearly having a psychotic episode.
Burnsville police have body cams, thankfully, so the truth will be known soon about what happened and whether it was truly necessary to end this man’s life.
Assuming, of course, the BCA doesn’t come up with some contrivance to not release the body cam video. Video of Jamar Clark’s shooting has STILL not been released, four months later.
But I have a hard time thinking that multiple armed, armored and trained police officers needed to use lethal force against a man armed with only a knife unless they behaved foolishly and aggressively in the moments leading up to the fatal actions.
I admit I’m cynical when it comes to the police. My experiences related to the Black Lives Matter Movement, both for Jamar Clark and other victims of police violence have made me more than a little jaded. And I’m just a white dude who is on the outside looking in.
Regardless of all that, my hope is that the body cam video will be released, and if it shows the police acted recklessly or maliciously, that justice will be done upon them, as a matter of legal recourse.
I did not need to see this crime scene this morning. I really didn’t.