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Sep 21, 2006 3:57 pm US/Central
Family Mourns Man Shot By Minneapolis Police
by Karla Hult
Minneapolis (WCCO) ―
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Officers were called to a violent domestic situation in the 3900 block of Bloomington Avenue South around 11:40 p.m. Wednesday.
CBS
Two Minneapolis police officers shot and killed a man late Wednesday night.
Police were called to Bloomington Avenue South and 40th Street East just before midnight. There, officers Lawrence Loonsfoot and Jason King got into an altercation with a suspect which ended in the man's death.
"When you call the police, you think they would solve the situation instead of just killing him," said Chanell Felder, the suspect's sister.
According to Lt. Greg Reinhardt of the Minneapolis Police Department, officers were told the suspect was in a verbal dispute with a resident, threatening also to kill the neighbors and smashing their front window with a 60-pound chunk of concrete.
Family members of 27-year-old Dominic Felder's said they do not know how a 911 call for help ended in his death.
"I told them, 'Do not shoot, he's mental,'" said Felder's sister, Tianna Wilson. "'Do not shoot. He don't have anything.' And they said, with a smart comment, 'Aw, you want us to get him, but you don't want us to shoot.'"
Officers said Felder took off running and struggled with police before he was shot.
"There was a struggle, and during the struggle, the suspect was shot," said Lt. Greg Reinhardt with the Minneapolis Police Department.
Police said Felder appeared to be reaching for a gun, but his relatives don't buy it.
"Well, my brother is little. He's like my height. And there's like two police officers, they first remind you, they said they had him and they arrest him and I don't see how he could have even tried to grab their gun," Chanell Felder said.
Family members said they believe Dominic Felder, a father of two young girls, didn't need to die.
"He's a nice guy, he takes care of his kids. He just goes to work, you know what I'm, saying. No felonies, no nothing. Never even been arrested," said Felder's cousin.
"The family is obviously upset," Reinhardt said. "The officers have a responsibility to respond to all types of calls and they have to protect the public and they have to protect themselves."
The family is saying race played a role in the crime. The incident is being investigated by both the Minneapolis Police Department's Homicide Unit and Internal Affairs Division. Meanwhile, both officers Loonsfoot and King are on paid administrative leave.
(© MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
