MINNEAPOLIS - The girlfriend of slain suspect Terrance Franklin called on police Monday to release more information about Franklin's death.
Franklin, 22, was shot to death Friday afternoon during an "altercation" with police who had chased him into a home on Bryant Avenue South.
Ashley Martin, 21, called reporters to Minneapolis Police Headquarters to question the lack of information from authorities about the details of Franklin's death.
"I am thinking there is something suspicious going on with the whole thing. Just because they know they did him wrong and I know he did not have a gun," said Martin. "Like the whole story is not adding up at all."
Police reportedly pursued Franklin because he had been identified as a suspect in a burglary from a week earlier. He ran through the Flanders Brothers Cycle Shop on Lyndale Avenue before running two blocks west and into a private home at 2717 Bryant Avenue South. A police canine unit entered the house. Authorities said the suspect attacked the dog. At that point, Officers Michael Meath and Ricardo Muro came to the aid of the dog and handler.
Somehow in the melee that followed, Meath and Muro were shot in their legs. Both are recovering from their wounds. Franklin was shot multiple times according to the Hennepin County Medical Examiner and died at the scene. Police have not confirmed how many shots were fired, nor have they explained which gun or guns fired the shots.
Franklin's family met with reporters at the New Beginnings Baptist Tabernacle on Saturday evening to protest not having seen their son's body. Terrance Franklin's body was to be released to his family for funeral arrangements on Monday.
Police had said on Friday evening that Franklin had an "extensive arrest record." Martin reacted to that on Monday.
"That was like when he was in his teens, when he was younger," said Martin. "He was older now. He had turned his life around. He was not like doing the same things. He went to college. He was just trying to take care of his son, change his life."
Nehemiah Martin, 4, stood nearby, holding a picture of his late father.
"I just want some answers, because my son does not have a dad anymore," Martin said. "So, I want people to know, I do not think it was right what happened to him. It was not right and something needs to be done about it."
Police Chief Janee Harteau declined to comment on the case on Monday. She appeared at the Police Department's annual awards program. Officer Muro, who was still hospitalized, received a "Lifesaving" award for saving a suicide attempt in April of 2012.
