Family of Andrew ‘Tekle’ Sundberg calls for release of police footage after fatal shooting
Lawyers for the family of Andrew “Tekle” Sundberg, a 20-year-old Black man who was fatally shot by Minneapolis police early Thursday morning, are calling on the department to release footage and other details of the incident.
“No information has been provided as to why Tekle, who officers had isolated for hours, suddenly needed to be executed,” wrote civil rights lawyers Ben Crump and Jeff Storms in a statement obtained by the Minneapolis Star Tribune.
“We call on the Minneapolis Police Department to immediately provide the family with the video evidence and other information necessary to answer this question,” Crump and Storms wrote.
Sundberg’s mother, Cindy Sundberg, said her son was experiencing a “mental health crisis” when police were called because of shots fired in his apartment building, according to video released by Crump on Twitter.
The Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) reported that a mother with two young children called claiming that someone had shot into her apartment and that officers witnessed additional shots when they arrived on the third floor of the building.
“MPD Crisis Team Negotiators and MPD SWAT responded and attempted negotiations throughout the night and early morning hours. These attempts included identifying and calling the man’s cell phone as well as bringing the man’s parents to the scene to help,” wrote the MPD in their report.
Officers allegedly refused the requests of Tekle Sundberg’s father, Mark Sundberg, to enter the building and speak with his son during the six-hour police standoff.
Mark Sundberg said that the officers claimed that they would only use rubber bullets and that no one would be shot, according to Crump’s video.
“The police are portraying it and the mayor is portraying it like we collaborated and the police were all kind and loving to our family as they tried to help Tekle. That is a lie, they were not,” said Cindy Sundberg.
Documents filed Friday revealed that police snipers fatally shot Sundberg from a roof of an apartment building across the street from his, according to The Washington Post.
The Sundbergs said that they do not believe the police would have handled the situation the same way if dealing with one of their white biological children.
“Everyone knows had it been a white person in that building they would have talked him out, they would have waited,” said Cindy Sundberg, who has nine children total with husband Mark.
She added: “If they’re not white, we know the outcome: they’re dead…It’s all about color. It’s all about the lack of value of the humanity of a black body and it’s wrong. And it has to stop.”
An internal Minneapolis Police Department investigation into the situation is still ongoing.
The Hill has reached out to Crump and the Minneapolis Police Department for comment on the case.
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