Investigation into Minneapolis neighbor shooting demanded by community

Minneapolis PD arresting accused neighbor shooter

Minneapolis police are working Sunday night to arrest the man accused of shooting his neighbor last week.

MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - Minneapolis city council members and community groups are calling for an investigation into the police response of John Sawchak shooting his neighbor Davis Moturi – an act that Moturi says could have been avoided if police had addressed his concerns earlier.

Audit, investigation incoming

During the Oct. 31 Minneapolis City Council meeting, council member Robin Wonsley amended the panel's agenda to request the city auditor undertake an independent after-action review of the city’s involvement in and response to, "all incidents and resulting cases between Davis Moturi and John Sawchak in the year 2024."

The audit will be completed by June 13, 2025, and its findings reported to the council.

"This motion came from robust conversations, and an urgent need for a serious investigation into how the city failed Davis Moturi – a Black man seeking basic protection from an imminent public safety threat that he repeatedly and clearly reported to MPD," Wonsley said during the council meeting.

"I worked with Mr. Moturi for months to try and get him the help he deserved, and I witnessed firsthand the many failures that took place across our whole system of public safety," said council member Andrea Jenkins, who represents the ward where Moturi lives. "I support an independent after-action review so we can determine all the failures that took place, and can make the changes needed to prevent anything like this from happening again."

The motion was unanimously approved by council members.

Neighbor shooting

Davis Moturi is expected to survive after being shot by his neighbor John Sawchak.

Moturi says that Sawchak, 54, had threatened him in the past, which had been reported to Minneapolis police, but that the situation escalated over a disagreement over cutting down a tree.

"I stated that it's going to take somebody to get really hurt before anything’s done, and someone really got hurt – I did, and still nothing was done," Moturi told FOX 9 from a hospital bed on Oct. 25.

Moturi says complaints to police dated back to October 2023, but that no action was taken to proactively address his safety amid the ongoing dispute.

Sawchak arrest

Law enforcement surrounded Sawchak’s home on Grand Avenue South near 35th Street, beginning around 10 p.m. on Oct. 27.

For more than three hours, authorities tried to negotiate with him, using a SWAT team, crisis negotiators, a psychiatrist and members of Sawchak’s family.

O’Hara said that the SWAT team was being extra cautious because, in addition to a cache of weapons, they believed Sawchak also had knowledge of improvised explosives.

Around 1:30 a.m., the following day, Sawchak was taken into custody.

Following a court appearance on Oct. 29, he is being held on $1 million bail.

He now faces second-degree attempted murder, assault, and harassment charges.

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MPD 'failed’

Following the arrest of Sawchak, Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara admitted that the police department had ‘failed’ Moturi in the events leading up to his shooting.

"In this particular instance, we failed this victim 100%, because that should not have happened to him," said O’Hara said at a press conference. "The Minneapolis Police somehow did not act urgently enough to prevent that individual from being shot."

Sawchak had been previously civilly committed, and court documents show he has an extreme risk protection order.

Documents dating back to 2016 also say that he had threatened to kill a previous neighbor multiple times, made threats to shoot his sister, and slashed an off-duty police officer's tire.

O’Hara also said the police department initially stopped short of an arrest due to the risk of potential escalation or standoff.

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Activist outcry

Community activist groups say that police are responsible for what ultimately happened to Moturi by not taking his previous complaints seriously, and acting swiftly.

"The city council helped to create this monster by signing a contract with the MPD then gave them a 21.7% raise, all with no accountability measures." said Michelle Gross, president of Communities United Against Police Brutality in a press release.

In addition to the council-requested audit, the group is calling for:

An independent third-party investigation into the MPD handling of the Moturi matter by a team selected by the community.
Police Chief O’Hara be fired.
The city immediately provide funds to pay for Davis’ medical bills and other expenses to allow the Moturi family to heal from the harms caused by the negligence of the MPD.

In a statement following the vote, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey wrote he fully supports an independent review of the incident, saying, "The mayor and City are committed to always doing better, and this means closely examining past actions and finding where there may be ways to improve and grow."

He also noted that O’Hara would continue to be the police chief of Minneapolis.