911 call transcripts provide more insight into what happened on May 30 shooting in Minneapolis
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The city of Minneapolis has released 911 call transcripts that include more details of what happened on May 30, when officer Jamal Mitchell and three other men were shot and killed.
While there are still many unanswered questions, the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension has asked the Minneapolis Police Department to hold off on releasing body camera video, which could help fill in some of the gaps.
Mitchell was the first officer on scene to respond to a shooting call from a woman in an apartment along Blaisdell Avenue on the city’s south side.
OPERATOR: 911, what is the address of the emergency?
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CALLER: 911, my boyfriend has been killed inside this house. I need you to hurry up …
The call came in at 5:15 p.m. The caller doesn’t have a description of the man who fired the shot. Later during the call, the woman tells the paramedic dispatcher that her boyfriend is still breathing.
AMBULANCE DISPATCHER: Okay, is he awake?
CALLER: Um he, he got shot in the head, please hurry, please.
AMBULANCE DISPATCHER: Is he awake?
CALLER: (Inaudible) he’s all I have (sound of crying) please.
AMBULANCE DISPATCHER: Hello?
CALLER: Please, please hurry, please…
The caller later says there’s another man in the apartment who’s also been shot.
Both of the men in the apartment, Mohamed Bashir Aden, 36, and Osman Said Jimale, 32, were killed. However, the transcripts offer no new details on what led up to the shooting.
Mitchell arrived on scene around 5:18 p.m., but he didn’t make it to the apartment of the original 911 call. He stopped about a block away from the apartment and reported seeing two injured men in the street.
He approached the first man, later identified as Mustafa Mohamed, who shot Mitchell and — according to other witnesses who called 911 — also began firing shots while sitting on the ground.
One man called to report being fired at.
OPERATOR: 911, what’s the address of the emergency?
CALLER: Ah (inaudible), um I’m sure you already have a call of a shooter.
OPERATOR: We do, yes.
CALLER: Okay. So I got shot at, I was just rolling by driving by and the guy was on the ground, and he shot at my van and about two or three feet away from hitting me.
The transcripts also include the exchange between a caller who said he struck a man with his car and possibly broke the man’s leg. Other witnesses say they apparently saw the same injured man sitting in street firing a gun.
OPERATOR: 911, what is the address of the emergency?
CALLER: I am on the corner of Nicollet and 22nd. I, I have to leave this location because this gentleman, I believe he’s armed, but I just hit a guy with my car that I saw assaulting and robbing a man, um on Nicollet and um he was, he tried to jump onto this guy’s scooter and I hit him with my car.
The man said he saw one man attack another man who was riding an electric scooter.
OPERATOR: And he was assaulting one other person?
CALLER: He was assaulting a guy on a scooter, on a, on like a motorized scooter or a, a, you know, like a Lime scooter or something like that. And right in front of me I see him jump out of the side of the road and body slam the guy on the scooter and it was very obviously that he was trying to either attack him to hurt him or...
OPERATOR: You saw him grab at his waistband?
CALLER: I saw him grab at his waistband, um he ah, then I pulled around the corner, (inaudible) like, oh s*** I, I think he’s got a gun and I, I pulled away and ah, I heard some pops. It, it sounded like fireworks to me. It didn't sound quite like a gun but it was, it was very loud and it sounded like, you know, it sounded like a gun.
The transcripts also include the call for help from a bystander wounded by gunfire as he was driving through the area. At first the dispatcher doesn’t get any response when they answer the call.
OPERATOR: Hello?
CALLER: I got shot, I need help.
OPERATOR: Okay, where are you?
CALLER: I got shot, I need help.
OPERATOR: Where are you?
CALLER: I need an ambulance.
The emergency dispatchers get the man connected with a paramedic dispatcher who tries to get more information from the caller as the ambulance rushes to get to him.
MEDICAL DISPATCHER: Caller, are you there?
CALLER: Yeah, I’m here.
MEDICAL DISPATCHER: Alright, help is on the way. Tell me what happened.
CALLER: I got shot by the guy sitting on the street on Blaisdell Ave. to see if he needed help. (Inaudible words)...
The man also tells dispatchers he was his 2-year-old son in the car. But his son was not shot.
Besides the driver of the car, a firefighter and an officer were also injured during the shooting. The responding officers killed Mohamed.
The BCA continues to investigate both the shooting inside the apartment and the shooting that claimed the lives of Mitchell and Mohamed.
In a statement, Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said he will honor the BCA’s request to hold off on releasing the body camera footage to avoid interfering with the investigation.
“I pledge the MPD’s full cooperation with the BCA’s investigation, and I don’t anticipate a significant delay in the public release of the body-worn camera video,” he said.