|
The Hennepin County Attorney's Office said prosecutors were not
exonerating State Trooper Ryan Londregan, only that they no
longer believed they could meet their burden of proof at trial.
Asked about the dismissal of charges, defense attorney
Christopher Madel said in an email, "It's about goddamned time."
Cobb's killing took place in the same city where George Floyd
was murdered by a police officer in 2020, which set off global
racial justice protests and put a spotlight on police killings
of Black citizens across the U.S.
During a traffic stop in July 2023, troopers informed Cobb he
was wanted for another offense and they planned to arrest him,
according to the criminal complaint. Londregan shot Cobb after
he put the car in gear and took his foot off the brake, the
complaint said.
Upon announcing charges, prosecutors said they believed
Londregan failed to follow his training against firing into a
moving vehicle.
But since then, a trainer of state troopers said officers were
never instructed to refrain from shooting into a moving vehicle,
only that it was best practice, prosecutors said in a statement.
Additionally, in a pre-trial hearing in April, defense attorneys
told the court Londregan was prepared to testify he saw Cobb
reach for his gun, the statement said.
Those two developments led the state to dismiss the case, the
statement said.
"Ricky Cobb II should still be alive today," Hennepin County
Attorney Mary Moriarty said in the statement. "The question of
whether we can prove a case at trial is different than clearing
a person of any wrongdoing."
(Reporting by Daniel Trotta; Editing by Christopher Cushing)
[© 2024 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
Copyright 2022 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may
not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.
|
|
