Oct 30, 2006 8:19 pm US/Central
Family Of Man Shot By Police Look For Answers
by Sue Turner
Minneapolis (WCCO) ―
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Minneapolis police shot and killed Wayne Reyes, an alleged domestic abuse suspect, after he exited his pick-up truck and confronted them with a sawed-off shotgun early Sunday.
CBS
The family of a man shot dead by Minneapolis police Sunday morning is looking for answers. Wayne Reyes, 42, was shot at East 42nd Street and Hiawatha Avenue just after midnight. Reyes, already on probation for a weapons violation, had allegedly stabbed his girlfriend and left the scene. When police caught up with him, he was holding a sawed off shotgun.
Flowers are all that's left at the scene where Reyes died, and his family members are still getting over their shock. But they want a more thorough explanation of what happened here, and some are replacing their initial shock with anger.
"It seems like all they do is they gun down minorities," said Jerry Reyes, Wayne's brother.
Reyes was the third suspect police have killed this year -- all have been minorities and all posed a serious threat to police. However, Native American leader Clyde Bellecourt wants to know why non-deadly force wasn't used.
"There should be a thorough investigation. A lot of times we have to ask other law enforcements to come in and investigate these types of situations," said Bellecourt.
Wayne came from an extremely large family, with 14 children in total. He was the family's third son to die, just a month on the heels of another brother's death to illness.
"The mother is devastated. The house was just filled with people last night," said Bellecourt. "The mom has been up since midnight, one in the morning."
Though the officers involved in the shooting have been placed on unpaid administrative leave, as is standard procedure, Bellecourt said he was concerned police haven't visited Reyes' family or told them anything official. Police say the family will get answers once they are able to interview the officers involved and finish their investigation. For some members of the Reyes family, that's not good enough.
"Something's got to stop. These politicians, they got to do something. Who's running or who's incumbent, they got to do something," said Jerry Reyes.
(© MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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