MINNEAPOLIS — The Minneapolis police officers involved in the July 2022 shooting death of Tekle Sundberg will not face charges, according to the Hennepin County Attorney's Office.
County Attorney Mike Freeman announced his office will decline to press charges Wednesday, saying in part, "...tragic as it is, the officers' use of deadly force was legally authorized under Minnesota law."
Twenty-year-old Andrew "Tekle" Sundberg was shot and killed by Minneapolis police snipers in the early morning hours of July 14, 2022. The fatal shots came after a six-hour standoff in which Sundberg barricaded himself inside his apartment, located in south Minneapolis' Seward neighborhood.
It was later learned the situation began after one of Sundberg's neighbors reported a man was firing shots through her apartment while she and her children were inside.
Freeman's announcement Wednesday comes after an extensive investigation, in which hundreds of hours of officers' body-worn camera footage, in addition to other evidence collected by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, was reviewed.
In a statement, the county attorney's office said that based on the circumstances known to officers at the time, their use of deadly force was "authorized."
The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) identified the two officers as Aaron Pearson and Zachary Seraphine.
According to a search warrant released after the shooting, "officers started taking fire," when they began evacuating the building, prompting them to call Minneapolis SWAT.
When SWAT arrived, Pearson and Seraphine set up on a roof of a nearby apartment building, where they fired the fatal shots.
"Our hearts go out to the family and friends of Mr. Sundberg," said Freeman in a statement. "People who are suffering from mental health crises are vulnerable, and encounters between those in crisis and law enforcement must be handled with special care."
Sundberg's family has not yet commented publicly about the decision, though his family had hired an attorney and sought the release of body camera footage.
"Tekle was an imperfect human — we're all imperfect humans — and he did not deserve to be picked off like an animal from the rooftop," Sundberg's mother, Cindy, said at a rally in July.
The full 39-page report from the Hennepin County Attorney's Office can be viewed here.
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