MN BCA Investigating Brooklyn Center Police Shooting of Man with Chainsaw
Brooklyn Center police officers shot a man wielding a chainsaw Wednesday night after a domestic dispute turned into a tense standoff, according to law enforcement officials and witness accounts.
State investigators with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension are now probing the incident.
According to a press release, Brooklyn Center police were dispatched at approximately 10:30 p.m. to a home near 63rd and Xerxes avenues on a report of a dispute.
Stanley McGee, who lives down the street from the home where the incident occurred, was worried when he saw a handful of squad cars headed his way.
“So I came out and I stood at the end of my driveway just to see what all the commotion was down the street and it was halfway down the block, where you’re seeing a whole bunch of police cars, the fire truck, the ambulance,” he said. “I live in a very quiet neighborhood, so, yeah, it’s a little offsetting because we’re not accustomed or used to, you know, having police cars, and [waking] up in the morning time and they got the police tape from the corner all the way down.”
The heavy police response came as 911 callers reported that the suspect was inside the home and was armed with knives.
Brooklyn Center police officers shot a man wielding a chainsaw Wednesday night after a domestic dispute turned into a tense standoff.
McGee says the property serves as a halfway house.
Typically, halfway houses offer substance-free, transitional living for people who are in recovery or were recently incarcerated.
“I kind of figured one day something like that might happen, you know, being a halfway house, but normally, they’re pretty chilled out and don’t come down this way,” he said.
Crisis negotiators eventually arrived on the scene as the situation worsened.
“At one point during the investigation an adult male, after being told he was under arrest, exited the home with a chainsaw,” the press release read. “While trying to arrest and control the male, officers used pepper balls, 40 mm less lethal, and ultimately, Brooklyn Center police officers discharged their firearms, striking the male.”
The violence down the street kept McGee from sleeping.
“So then there was a few people walking down the street, and we heard a gentleman say ‘I can’t believe that he had a chainsaw.’ So then I really got concerned because then I started hearing more sirens and everything like that,” he said. “It calmed down for a few minutes and I could see the police lights, then all of the sudden I heard ‘boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.’ I thought there were gunshots, but the time they were actually the flash bombs, because, when we heard the gunshots, when we heard the gunshots, that’s when it was more rapid, like ‘pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop.'”
First responders transported the man who allegedly wielded the chainsaw to the hospital, where he’s in stable condition. Meanwhile, the officers that fired their service weapons were placed on critical incident leave.
Brooklyn Center Police Chief Garett Flesland declined to comment further.
