The mother of the man fatally shot by St. Paul police officers last week asked Mayor Chris Coleman on Tuesday to arrange for her to privately view videos of the incident.
“This weekend, I will bury my 29-year-old son, Cordale Handy,” Kim Handy wrote. “And now, from the shadows of his absence, I am reaching out to you to ask for your help, as my family and I try to come to terms with Cordale’s death at the hands of your city’s police force.”
St. Paul police officers responded to a report of a “domestic situation involving physical violence” in Dayton’s Bluff about 2:20 a.m. last Wednesday in the 700 block of East Sixth Street.
Officers Mikko Norman and Nathaniel Younce encountered Handy nearby, at East Seventh and Sinnen streets.
“After repeated commands to drop the gun, Handy pointed the weapon twice at officers,” according to a Department of Public Safety statement. Norman and Younce fired their guns, and Handy was shot multiple times.
St. Paul police officers have not begun wearing body cameras, though the DPS said “video from a nearby building shows Handy carrying a handgun, but the full incident was out of view of the camera.”
Andrew M. Stroth, a Chicago-based civil rights attorney representing Handy’s mother, said it’s his understanding that officers seized cellphones from two eyewitnesses who were taking videos of the incident.
Coleman received the letter from Kim Handy on Tuesday afternoon, is reviewing it and will write back to her, said Ben Petok, Coleman’s spokesman.
The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension is investigating the case and DPS spokesman Bruce Gordon said they cannot discuss what evidence is part of the investigation.
“Any evidence collected for this investigation is currently confidential under Minnesota law and, as such, cannot be shared at this time,” Gordon said in an email. “We can certainly arrange for the family to view the video when the investigation is complete and before it is released publicly. The investigation is active and ongoing and includes taking witness statements and examining evidence. When complete, the BCA will turn its findings over to the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office for review.”
Stroth also said they have accounts from eyewitnesses that are “contradictory to the information that was included in the BCA’s press release.”
He declined to say what that information was, adding, “All that will come out, hopefully in the investigation, and if we file a federal civil rights lawsuit.”
“The family wants the truth,” Stroth said. “…There’s a clear pattern and practice of unjustified police shootings of African-American men in the St. Paul area. The family has a concern and they just want the BCA and the authorities to be transparent in the investigation.”
Handy’s mother, who is from Waukegan, Ill., spoke out Sunday at a demonstration for her son in St. Paul.
John Krenik, chair of the St. Paul Republican Party, referred to her comments in a post on Sunday on the St. Paul Issues Forum.
“I can understand a mother’s grief for the loss of her son, but I have to add here, what about the … mothers of the police officers involved had Mr. Handy shot and killed any of our SPPD officers, at the hands of her violent son?” he wrote. “What is so shocking is our mayor, Chris Coleman who has been so quiet. There has not been one word of support for our SPPD officers in this very difficult situation from mayor Coleman.”
Petok declined comment on Krenik’s post.
In other recent police-involved shootings in the Twin Cities, organizations have sued to try to get access to videos when investigations were under way but have not received them.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota filed suit in September for police dash-cam video in the Philando Castile shooting, but a judge ruled in January that the video is not public while an investigation is underway. The ACLU filed an appeal earlier this month.
Sarah Horner contributed to this report.