MINNEAPOLIS _ The Minneapolis police officers involved in the November 2015 fatal shooting of Jamar Clark will not face discipline because an internal investigation found they did not violate department policy.
"I have concluded these officers did not dictate the outcome of this incident. This was an outcome no one wanted," Police Chief Janee Harteau said at a news conference Friday.
Clark, 24, was killed in the early morning hours of Nov. 15 during a scuffle with Officers Mark Ringgenberg and Dustin Schwarze outside a north Minneapolis apartment complex. The shooting prompted weeks of protest, including at 18-day occupation at the police precinct in north Minneapolis.
"I can say with absolute certainty that I support the actions of Officers Ringgenberg and Schwarze the morning of November 15th," Harteau said.
The news conference came after Harteau spoke with members of Clark's family at City Hall.
She met with Clark's biological mother, Irma Burns, and sister Danielle Burns for about 25 minutes at City Hall on Friday before lawyers cut the meeting short, saying they'd heard enough.
Clark's other siblings declined to attend Friday's meeting. Their attorney, Albert Goins, said Burns became emotional and exclaimed, "My son is dead _ who do I go to for justice?"
Authorities discussed the investigation at a news conference at the Emergency Operations Training Facility in northeast Minneapolis.
"We're disappointed, of course," Goins said of the decision that internal policies weren't violated. "But we're somewhat flabbergasted by that because I know the standard is fairly low to have ... an officer incur discipline."
Goins promised that a civil suit will be filed on behalf of several family members in the coming weeks.
Both women and their attorneys declined to comment afterward.
The shooting exposed strained relations between police and communities of color where distrust of law enforcement runs deep.
In late March, Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman announced that no state charges would be brought against the officers. He took the unprecedented move of eliminating the use of a grand jury to evaluate the police-involved shooting. The state's Bureau of Criminal Apprehension spent three months investigating the case.
A subsequent investigation by the FBI, the U.S. attorney and the U.S. Department of Justice concluded there was not enough evidence to show the two officers had willfully deprived Clark of his civil rights.
U.S. Attorney Andrew Luger, leaning heavily on whether Clark was handcuffed by police before being shot and other factors, said there was insufficient evidence to bring a federal case.
Critics have for months argued that Ringgenberg needlessly escalated what had been a routine encounter by violently taking Clark to the ground. They have said it underscores the need for better training for officers on how to de-escalate potentially violent encounters without resorting to force.
At the news conference, Hodges said she fully backs Harteau's decision, but extended her condolences to Clark's family and friends.
"I know that some will be angry at this decision and find it difficult to accept, and I get that," she said." I also know that some will find relief, and I get that, too."
The decision to not discipline the two police officers was immediately denounced by local civil rights leaders.
"I'm not surprised that the Minneapolis police department has failed to hold the two officers accountable who shot and killed Jamar Clark last November," said Nekima Levy-Pounds, outgoing president of the Minneapolis NAACP.
"Today's decision reinforces the notion of why the African-American community has no faith in our criminal justice system and the possibility of obtaining justice in officer-involved shooting cases," she said.
Pastor Danny Givens, clergy liaison for Black Lives Matter Minneapolis, called it "another example of how this broken judicial system continues to fail black people and it further perpetuates a culture of policing that says killing unarmed black men and women is OK."
A rally and march, around the theme of "I am a man," is planned for Saturday afternoon. "The march tomorrow is to address the issues of police violence and brutality on black men," including the Clark killing, Givens said.
Edina was chosen for the site of the protest before organizers were aware of the police decision in the Clark case. Last week, a black man was detained and cited by Edina police for walking in the street, setting off widespread criticism. Charges were later dropped.
