By Mara H. Gottfried
Pioneer Press
ST. PAUL, Minn. — man held a handgun to his head at a busy St. Paul intersection as officers repeatedly told him to drop his weapon, videos released by police Tuesday show.
Officers shot the man after he pointed a gun at police at Snelling and University avenues last week. Earl Bennett, 40, remains hospitalized in critical but stable condition, according to the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, which is investigating.
Excerpts of the officers’ videos can be seen on the police department’s YouTube page.
On Monday, prosecutors charged Bennett with murder in an Oct. 27 shooting at a homeless encampment in Minneapolis that killed three people. Bennett is also charged with attempted murder in a shooting of another resident at a sober house in Minneapolis on Oct. 28 , about two-and-a-half hours before police officers encountered him in St. Paul.
“Our city experienced another episode of gun violence last week,” St. Paul Police Chief Axel Henry said in a statement Tuesday. “Our officers responded to one of the busiest intersections in our state for a person shooting a gun. Given the location, time of day, and number of motorists, light-rail users, and people on foot and bicycles in the area, I am thankful more people weren’t injured.”
He said the police department is committed “to being transparent and releasing body-camera footage as soon as possible.”
“No one, including the police officers that are tasked with responding to these calls, wants these outcomes. We must all work together to stop the violence in our community,” Henry’s statement said.
Police used less-lethal rounds before shootingThe 20 minutes of video released by the police department includes excerpts from four officers’ body-worn cameras, along with closed-circuit footage from a city surveillance camera.
On Oct. 28, St. Paul officers were called to Pierce Street near University Avenue on a report of shots fired nearby. Other callers also reported hearing shots fired and believed they were coming from the area of Snelling and University avenues, according to police.
In an officer’s body-camera footage from 7:50 p.m. on Oct. 28, two officers are heard talking to people from a squad car window. A man told them that a man with a gun was “randomly shooting” and that the gun didn’t have bullets. The officers pulled away and said they didn’t see casings. As they drove, an officer said he saw a man ahead holding a gun and they sped forward.
The police department said they found the man, identified as Bennett, with a handgun near Snelling and Charles avenues.
“Drop the gun!” an officer could be heard saying on video, which was repeated by officers throughout the encounter. A male voice could be heard telling police multiple times, “It’s not loaded.”
Bennett walked to Snelling and University avenues. A CCTV camera, which a police commander was using to monitor the situation in real time, shows Bennett holding a gun to his own head as he walked around barefoot and shirtless on the light-rail tracks. The CCTV footage, which doesn’t include sound, shows Bennett gesturing with his free hand and he appears to be talking.
On body-cam footage, an officer could be heard saying, “40 him.” Police shot 40-mm less lethal projectiles at Bennett.
“Drop the gun, get on the ground, man, we want to help you,” an officer shouted. “… We don’t want to hurt you. Get on the ground.”
The CCTV footage shows Bennett pointed the gun at police and then fell to the ground as officers shot him multiple times. It happened at 7:57 p.m., milliseconds before 7:58 p.m. Four officers fired handguns or rifles, the BCA said last week.
A 9-mm handgun that Bennett dropped after he was shot did not hold a magazine; it had a round of ammunition in its chamber, according to a criminal complaint filed against Bennett last week, charging him with pointing a gun at officers in the incident. That complaint also said a witness reported that Bennett told the police to shoot him.
The gun found near Bennett was a match to casings collected by police at the Minneapolis encampment and sober house shootings, according to the complaint charging him with three counts of murder in Minneapolis.
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