6 people to file complaint after a Minneapolis police officer shoots into car
MINNEAPOLIS (KMSP) - Six young men and women plan to file formal complaints with the city after a Minneapolis police officer shot at the car they were inside on Nov. 19. A bullet hit the passenger side of the car, but did not strike any passengers.
The officer fired the shot after the driver of the car, Caylea Wade, backed into a squad car. According to the four young women and two young men inside the car, the officer instructed Wade to reverse the car.
“They said get back, you need to go. They reversed. When they reversed, a squad came up. They hit each other. Somebody shot,” Odyssey Wade, the driver’s mom, said in a news conference outside Minneapolis City Hall on Monday.
The group was leaving downtown Minneapolis early Saturday morning during a moment of chaos. Dozens were fighting and two people had been shot.
“These guys were not suspects. They were told leave the scene, to back up. Get away from the scene,” Lou Wade, the driver’s father, said, “maybe the girls were in a bad situation, whatever it may be, but it does not justify the police firing.”
Minneapolis Police have released few details about the incident, but say the Internal Affairs Unit is investigating. They say an officer arrived to investigate another shooting when “his squad was struck by a vehicle. The officer discharged his weapon once.” Police would not say whether the officer purposely fired his gun.
The car’s passengers said their attorneys told them to not comment on the incident yet, but some of their parents pointed out the squad car was behind the car — yet the bullet hit the car’s side.
The passengers, their families and advocacy groups — including General Defense Committee and Black Lives Matter - St. Paul — held a brief rally outside City Hall on Monday afternoon. Afterwards, the passengers walked to the Civil Rights Department to fill our formal complaints they eventually plan to file.
The car's driver did submit blood, but she was not arrested for DWI.