MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota — KB Brown remembers meeting Jamal Mitchell after he first became an official officer for the Minneapolis Police Department.
"He was so happy that he came out of the academy," Brown recalled.
Brown, founder of Project Refocus, remembers how Officer Mitchell was always reaching out to members of the community.
"He would just call and say, 'Are you around? Let's go have coffee.' Just because he cared," Brown said. "It's a severe loss for the community."
Mitchell, 36, was killed while responding to a report of a shooting in an apartment building on the 2200 block of Blaisdell Avenue on Thursday afternoon.
According to the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA), Mitchell was the first officer to arrive on scene. When he observed two men in the street, Mitchell went out to help. The BCA said the shooter, without warning, pulled out a handgun and shot Mitchell at close range.
"There's something about Jamal that I would always go... 'He's going to be something. I don't know what it is but there's something special about him,'" said Christopher Gaiters, MPD assistant chief of community trust.
According to MPD Chief Brian O'Hara, Mitchell was a father, son, fiancée, friend and member of the Minneapolis Police Department since 2022.
Sunday afternoon, community members gathered at the corner of Blaisdell Avenue and 22nd Street to remember him.
They prayed, sang songs of worship and shared their appreciation for the law enforcement community.
"He would be truly humbled by this. Because he considered everyone a friend," Asst. Chief Gaiters told the crowd.
Gaiters said Mitchell joined the force when it was most needed.
"He was sought out as a person that we knew that you, as community members, want to be a part of our police department," Gaiters said.
Hennepin County Sheriff Dawanna Witt said, "People who wear these uniforms, these badges, are people too."
Lisa Clemons, founder of A Mother's Love Initiative, is also a retired MPD sergeant. "This is that healing time for us to be together," Clemons said.
Dispatchers who were working at the time of the shooting were also in the crowd. Clemons called them up to recognize their work and thank them for their service.
Clemons told the crowd, "You don't know what it feels like to be in the squad or be a dispatcher and that tone comes out saying an officer needs help."
Mitchell's heroic actions saving a senior couple from a burning home — just three days after he was sworn into the police department — have been well publicized.
But Brown recalled another time when Mitchell saved a life. Brown remembers helping a woman who had overdosed, but the Narcan was not working as expected. Brown saw Mitchell driving and flagged him down.
Brown said, "He flipped around and got her to the hospital and ended up saving her life."
Brown later found out that Mitchell was off-duty at the time.
He said, "He genuinely cared and he was fearless about putting himself in harm's way."
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