![]() While Minneapolis cops are required to wear body cams, US marshals don’t wear them, and according to MinnPost, marshals “prohibit local cops on their task force from wearing them.” According to the Minnesota BCA, the two cops confirmed to have shot Smith were a Hennepin County sheriff’s deputy and a Ramsey County sheriff’s deputy neither had on a body camera. Smith’s killing has again revealed a deep-seated mistrust of policeĪ near-total lack of transparency from law enforcement agencies involved in the shooting that killed Smith has fueled the protests. ![]() Memories of George Floyd’s murder remain fresh, as do questions of what it means that his killer will go to prison in a few months, residents will get to vote on whether to dissolve and rethink their police department and police officials, as well as some politicians, are arguing that more police are necessary to combat rising violent crime numbers. While the Minneapolis Police Department wasn’t involved in Smith’s killing, his death and the death of Knajdek come at a particularly fraught time for Minneapolis’s relationship with law enforcement. But the woman he was with - she was injured by breaking glass - contradicted the official version of events, saying through her attorney last week that she “never saw a gun on Winston Smith, and she never saw a gun inside the vehicle at any time.” In a statement released following Smith’s shooting, the US marshals claimed he “failed to comply and produced a handgun, resulting in task force members firing upon the subject.” The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) said in a statement that Smith shot at officers first, and that a gun and spent cartridges were found inside his car. He was cornered by undercover law enforcement officers in unmarked cars when he and the woman he was with returned to his vehicle, which was atop a parking ramp nearby a popular area for dining, shopping, and nightlife near downtown Minneapolis. Smith posted on Snapchat about a lunch date he was on just before his death. Protesters have been regularly gathering in Uptown since June 3, when Smith was killed during an attempted arrest by a group of law enforcement organizations led by US marshals. While details have yet to emerge about the driver’s motives - no charges have been filed yet - Minneapolis-based reporter Tony Webster tweeted on Monday that the suspect has numerous DWI convictions and was driving after his license had been canceled as a “danger to public safety.” Police also said they believed alcohol and/or drugs may have been a factor. Her death has put an even more intense spotlight on the movement to end police violence in the Minneapolis area - the cause she was advocating for at the moment of her death - and on law enforcement’s ability to keep residents like Knajdek safe. The Star Tribune reports that in the days just before her death, Knajdek posted Facebook messages in support of protests against Smith’s killing he was shot by law enforcement officers on June 3 in a parking lot adjacent to where Knajdek was killed. The protester who was killed was identified by the Star Tribune as Deona Knajdek, a 31-year-old mother of two. And on Sunday, one of those protesters was killed in the city’s Uptown area when a man drove his SUV into a crowd of demonstrators at least two others were injured. For two weeks, Minneapolis protesters have demanded answers following the police killing of Winston Boogie Smith, a 32-year-old Black man, by law enforcement.
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