MINNEAPOLIS– Prosecutors plan to dismiss murder and manslaughter charges against a white Minnesota state trooper who fatally shot Ricky Cobb IIa black motorist, as Cobb attempted to drive away from a traffic stop, and said the decision is in response to recent statements from the trooper’s attorney and new analysis of video from the scene.
Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty filed a notice to dismiss the charges after Trooper Ryan Londregan’s defense team revealed possible testimony during an April hearing that the trooper believed Cobb was reaching for a firearm — and that a Minnesota trainer State Patrol said he never instructed officers to do that. do not shoot into a moving vehicle.
The evidence would have made it impossible for prosecutors to prove that Londregan’s actions were not an authorized use of force by a peace officer, the county attorney’s office said in a statement released Sunday.
Referring to the decision to drop charges, Londregan’s lawyer Chris Madel told police Star Tribune, ‘About damn time. That will be about my only on-the-record comment.
Bakari Sellers, an attorney representing Cobb’s family, told the Star Tribune that the family was disappointed in prosecutors.
“They were bullied. There is no other way,” Sellers said.
Londregan, 27, pleaded not guilty to Cobb’s death on May 15, and his trial was scheduled to begin on September 9.
Troopers stopped Cobb, 33, on Interstate 94 in Minneapolis last July 31 because his car’s lights were off. Then they discovered that the A Spring Lake Park man was wanted for violating a protective order in neighboring Ramsey County. Londregan shot Cobb twice as Cobb tried to drive away after troopers ordered him out of his car.
Prosecutors and a law enforcement expert reviewed footage from the scene and found that as Londregan’s partner clung to the passenger door, Cobb moved his hand upward. Cobb had a gun in the vehicle. Moriarty told the Star Tribune that there is still no evidence that he intended to get his hands on it, but that the defense team’s statements caused prosecutors to reconsider the evidence through a new lens.
“They could have told us that at any time before charging us,” she said. “And that is information that we would have considered – and obviously considered.”
Law enforcement officials and Republican leaders had called on Democratic Gov. Tim Walz to take Moriarty’s case away. former public defender which was chosen on a police accountability platform according to the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis officer in 2020, and turn it over to Democratic Attorney General Keith Ellison. Walz had expressed concern about the direction of the case but had taken no action.
Cobb’s family has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit in April, claiming that the stop and the shooting were incorrect.
Moriarty plans to hold a news conference Monday morning to discuss her decision to dismiss the charges in more detail.