Minneapolis police shoot, kill man during traffic stop

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Andrew Feinberg

White House Correspondent

Police in Minneapolis shot and killed a man in an exchange of gunfire during a traffic stop on the city's south side Wednesday night, authorities said.

Department spokesman John Elder said the incident happened about 6:15 p.m. while officers were carrying out a traffic stop with a man suspected of a felony.

Elder said the man was pronounced dead at the scene by medical personnel. A woman in the car was unhurt, Elder said. He declined to say whether police recovered a gun at the site of the shooting, a Holiday gas station.

Elder said no officers were hurt. He said he didn't know how many officers were at the scene carrying out the traffic stop. He said the officers' body cameras were on.

The state's Bureau of Criminal Apprehension is handling an investigation.

Dozens of people gathered at the scene in the hours after the shooting, including some who interrupted Elder and sharply questioned him as he delivered a media briefing.

The shooting happened less than a mile (1.61 kilometers) from the street corner where George Floyd died in May after a Minneapolis officer pressed his knee on Floyd's neck for minutes, even as Floyd pleaded that he couldn't breathe. Floyd's death sparked days of sometimes violent protest that spread around the country.

In Minneapolis, Floyd's death also led to a push for radical change in the police department, long criticized by activists for what they called a brutal culture that resisted change. A push by some City Council members to replace the department with a new public safety unit failed this summer.

Mayor Jacob Frey and Police Chief Medaria Arradondo, who opposed doing away with the department, have offered several policy changes since Floyd's death, including limiting the use of so-called no-knock warrants, revising use-of-force policies and requiring officers to report on their attempts to de-escalate situations.

Frey said in a statement late Wednesday he was working with Arradondo for information on the shooting and pledged to get it out as quickly as possible in coordination with the state investigation.

All four officers involved in Floyd's death were fired and quickly charged in his death. They are scheduled for trial in March.