MINNEAPOLIS (AP) —
The ambush shooting death of a Minneapolis police officer has stunned a department that has struggled to fill its ranks since the murder of George Floyd and the ensuing turmoil.
Officer Jamal Mitchell’s death Thursday came days after the fourth anniversary of Floyd’s killing by a city officer, which sparked sometimes violent unrest across the country and forced a reckoning with police brutality and racism. Minneapolis became ground zero for the “defund the police” movement, and while that didn’t succeed in eliminating the city’s police department, the force remains well below full strength.
On Friday, visiting a memorial that has popped up at Mitchell’s former station in south Minneapolis, Mayor Jacob Frey paid tribute to the fallen officer and to officers who, like Mitchell, who have joined or stayed despite everything.
“They’re committed to protecting and serving,” the mayor said. “They’re committed to the change that we’ve talked about. They’re committed to upholding these values that we all want to see.”
“Right now we are seeing people enter this force that really care. We’re seeing heroes that are deciding to step up, to wear the badge that they do, to wear the uniform that they do, to make the city a better place,” Frey said. “Officer Mitchell was clearly a prime example of exactly that.”
Mitchell, 36, was killed while responding to a double shooting at an apartment building. Mitchell stopped to aid to a man who appeared to be an injured victim, but that man shot him instead.
The shooter’s name and other details about him have not yet been made public. The state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension is leading the investigation of what its leader said was clearly an ambush. In an update Friday, the bureau said it is still working to establish a clear time line of events but three people were killed: Mitchell, the gunman and a person in the apartment.
The BCA also said four people were injured — another responding officer, a second person in the apartment, a bystander in a vehicle and a firefighter.
