By Karen Zamora
Star Tribune
BURNSVILLE, Minn. — The state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension released body camera videos of the Burnsville officers who fatally shot a man 15 times after he ignored repeated commands to drop a large knife.
A Dakota County grand jury on Tuesday cleared officers Taylor Jacobs, John Mott and Maksim Yakovlev, concluding they were justified in using deadly force in the incident.
Body-worn camera video shows 38-year-old Map Kong bouncing, flailing his arms and holding a large object inside a vehicle in a McDonald’s parking lot early on March 17. An autopsy found that Kong, who has a history of mental illness, tested positive for amphetamine and methamphetamine.
The footage begins as officers arrive to the scene at Hwy. 13 and Washburn Avenue shortly after 6 a.m. Kong, who witnesses said had been acting strangely most of the night, can be clearly seen in the footage bouncing around inside the driver’s seat.
“He’s got a big knife,” one officer says as a group of them inch toward Kong.
“Get out of the car!” another officer yells. “Let me see your hands, partner. Get out of the car.”
With their weapons drawn, officers discuss what to do next.
“We can hold off a little bit here. We can bust the window and tase him if you want. If he gets out, I’ll go lethal,” one officer said.
“This is going to go badly, either way,” another cop said.
“Yeah it is,” one officer said.
An officer then breaks the left passenger car windows. They continue yelling at him to drop the knife.
Kong doesn’t stop moving and an officer shoots Kong with a Taser, but it seems to have no effect.
“He’s coming out. Drop the knife,” one officer says.
Kong then opens the driver door and bolts out of the car. He appears to be running away from the officers with the knife in his hand when they open fire. In statements to BCA investigators after the shooting, one officer said Kong was running toward the McDonald’s restaurant, and toward two officers. Another officer stated Kong was running toward Highway 13.
The officers then shot him. Kong was struck in the head, neck, torso, arms and thigh.
“They attempted to isolate and contain the situation, and evaluate options before responding,” Burnsville Police Chief Eric Gieseke said in a statement. “You see multiple attempts at de-escalation — including dozens of verbal commands for Mr. Kong to drop his weapon, and two Taser deployments.”
Kong, who had lived in St. Paul before moving to Chaska, had a criminal history, with at least seven arrests since 1997 on suspicion of narcotics possession, firearms violations and domestic violence, records show.
At least 45 percent of the people who have died in forceful encounters with law enforcement in Minnesota since 2000 had a history of mental illness or were in the throes of a mental health crisis, according to a Star Tribune analysis of death certificate data, court and law enforcement records and interviews with family members.
That’s double the estimated rate of mental illness among U.S. adults.
Copyright 2016 the Star Tribune