Dolal Idd the First Person Killed By Minneapolis Police Since George Floyd, City Releases Body Cam Footage of Shooting

Before the close of last year, Minneapolis police recorded the fatal police shooting of a Black man named Dolal Idd. Idd was the first person killed by cops in the city since George Floyd in May of 2020.

Idd, a 23-year-old Somali-American according to MPR News, was shot and killed by officers from the Minneapolis Police Department during an altercation on December 30.

Officers were conducting a “probable cause” weapons investigation when they stopped Idd’s car, MPD Chief Medaria Arradondo said at a press conference this week about the incident.

Protestors had begun gathering at the scene of the killing in the hours after it took place, after which the city publicly released body camera footage of the incident in the interest of truth, honesty, and “rapid transparency,” according to Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey.

The 27 second video shows police cornering Idd in his car and ordering that he put his hands up. Instead, Idd attempts to drive away and is then cornered by several police cars that block him in. The glass on Idd’s side of the vehicle then shatters, seemingly from the inside, after which the officer wearing the body cam fires into the car multiple times, killing Idd.

Chief Arradondo said a witness saw Idd fire first at the officers and added that a woman who also in the vehicle was not hurt during the incident.

“My officers were reacting to that deadly threat,” said Arradondo. The chief said he could not speak to whether there was a warrant out for Idd’s arrest, however MPR news reports that Idd had been on probation.

“We need to make sure that we keep the peace in our city,” said Chief Arradondo. “Everyone needs to have that first amendment right to peacefully assemble, gather, demonstrate and protest. But I urge all of those who should do that, that we cannot have any sort of destruction or cause any sort of criminal activity in our city.”

Minneapolis memorably erupted in extensive and often fiery protests this summer, following the spread of cell phone footage of a former MPD officer, Derek Chauvin, kneeling on 46-year-old George Floyd’s neck for more than eight minutes and ultimately killing him. The four former MPD officers involved in that incident are now awaiting trial.

Meanwhile, the father of the deceased told the Sahan Journal that his family’s home was raided the night after Idd’s killing by over a dozen officers from the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office. According to Idd’s father, Bayle Adod Gelle, officers tied his hands and the hands of his wife while their young children watched, and searched their home for about two hours before notifying him that his son had been killed by police hours earlier. On New Years Eve he was shown the body cam footage of the incident prior to it being released to the public.