Trooper Ryan Londregan followed training during fatal shooting: Expert

MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - After Minnesota State Trooper Ryan Londregan fired his weapon twice, killing Ricky Cobb II during a traffic stop last July, the Hennepin County Attorney's Office said the use of deadly force wasn't justified and Londregan did not follow his training.

Now the lead use of force trainer for the state patrol is taking a different view.

In an affidavit, Sgt. Jason Halvorson said he trained both Londregan and the other trooper who was on the driver's side of Cobb's car.

Halverson says a senior prosecutor lied by omission in the criminal complaint and took his comments out of context.

The 25-year-veteran says prosecutors’ cherry-picked one sentence from his 37-page interview and left out critical facts purposefully misleading the reader of the complaint.

He goes on to say he offered to perform a complete use of force review of the case, which prosecutors declined.

He also says Londregan followed his training and did not violate policy.

"He's responding to protect his own reputation," said attorney Mike Bryant, who is not associated with the case.

Bryant says it's not unusual for prosecutors to ask Halvorson hypothetical questions during his interview to get his opinion on certain situations.

"It's part of gleaning an expert's opinion. If you take all these things into consideration, what's your opinion? And then that should be their opinion all the time," said Bryant. 

Halvorson's affidavit was available to the public, but it has since been sealed. 

A hearing in Londregan's case is scheduled for Thursday morning.

A representative from the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office provided FOX 9 with the following statement: 

"Unfortunately, the defense continues to inappropriately use the court process to file baseless press releases. Now, they have introduced false accusations against Deputy County Attorney Mark Osler. There is significant evidence that supports the charges in this case. The complaint is accurate and lays out the evidence to establish probable cause.

"The affidavit filed by the defense notably doesn’t reference evidence revealed during the Grand Jury, during which Sergeant Halverson testified. As the defense knows, the law prevents us from revealing Grand Jury evidence at this stage of the proceedings, and also prevented this information from being included in the complaint. We will address the voluminous defense filings and litigate the case in court, and not in the press."