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911 caller transcripts released in fatal shooting of Tekle Sundberg

One of the transcripts reveals the conversation between the operator and one of Sundberg's neighbors, a woman who said someone had just "shot through" her wall.

MINNEAPOLIS — Editor's note: The video above first aired on KARE 11 on July 15, 2022.

The details surrounding the fatal shooting of Andrew 'Tekle' Sundberg by Minneapolis police officers last week continue to become clearer, as the city released new documents Monday, including 911 call transcripts.

One of the newly released 911 transcripts reveals the conversation between the operator and one of Sundberg's neighbors, a woman who previously identified herself as 24-year-old Arabella Yarbrough, who said someone had just "shot through" her apartment with two children also inside. The transcript shows Yarbrough giving a description of who she believed to be firing the shots, and which apartment she believed the shooter to be in.

Yarbrough also claims to have at first thought she'd been grazed by a bullet, later saying she wasn't sure if it was a bullet or debris from a glass vase that had been broken after being shot. At one point, she asks the operator if she should "shoot back."

"I don't know if I should shoot back. I [a] have license to carry,"  Yarbrough said.

As Yarbrough continues to talk to the 911 operator, the transcript details the moments police arrive, and when Yarbrough was able to exit the building safely with her children.

Another of Sundberg's neighbors, who wished to remain anonymous, also spoke with the emergency operator, claiming to have seen Sundberg hanging "out the window," and indicating they and their roommate were "scared."

The city has also released more information about the officers involved in the six-hour standoff that ended in Sundberg's death, identifying Aaron Pearson and Zachary Seraphine as the two MPD police snipers who fired the fatal rounds.

According to the officers' public personnel files, Pearson has been with the Minneapolis Police Department for eight years, beginning to train as a SWAT member in 2017. The department's internal affairs records indicate that throughout his time with MPD, Pearson has been the subject of complaints at least eight times. Records show six of those cases were eventually closed without discipline, while two of them are still open and under investigation.

Seraphine, an officer with the department for five years who began SWAT training in 2019, currently has three complaints on record with MPD, two of which were closed without discipline. Records indicate an investigation is still open and ongoing into the third complaint.

The incident began around 9:30 p.m. on Wednesday, July 13, when officers were dispatched to the apartment complex on reports of shots fired inside a building. 

Following the shooting, Minneapolis police spokesman officer Garrett Parten said the fatal shots were fired around 4:30 a.m., after six hours of negotiating with Sundberg, who had barricaded himself inside an apartment on the 900 block of 21st and East Franklin Avenues in the Seward neighborhood.

According to a search warrant, while officers attempted to evacuate the building, they "started taking fire," prompting them to leave the building and call the Minneapolis SWAT Team. When SWAT arrived, two people, identified as Pearson and Seraphine, set up on a roof of a nearby apartment building. 

"At some point during the standoff, the two snipers shot the male subject," the search warrant reads. On Saturday, the Hennepin County Medical Examiner said Sundberg died from multiple gunshot wounds.

At a gathering Saturday afternoon to honor Sundberg, more than 100 people, including his parents, stood outside the complex where he was shot to demand more transparency from MPD. According to KARE 11's Deevon Rahming, who attended the event, it was briefly interrupted Yarbrough.

"I'm sorry, I'm upset and I'm sorry it had to come this way ... The fact that I'm even apologizing for this shows you that I'm hurt all-around, I shouldn't even be apologizing," Yarbrough said. "There's casings in the hallway. The shot went through my door to the pillar to the kitchen — I was cooking food for my kids."

Both defense attorney Jeff Storms and Sundberg's parents also spoke following the interaction.

"My heart goes out for that woman. She went through a very traumatic event with those bullets coming through her house. That'll effect her for the rest of her life, that'll effect her children for the rest of their life, and I'm so sorry it happened," said Mark Sundberg, the father of Tekle Sundberg. "It is two different incidences. ... What we're here for is when Tekle was shot by the Minneapolis police and died."

MPD posted a statement Saturday afternoon on Facebook saying the Minneapolis City Attorney's Office is working with Storms, in addition to civil rights attorney Ben Crump and the Sundberg family about viewing police body camera video, but as of now, the videos have not been released.

Officials have still not revealed what prompted officers to fire their weapons.

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