Star Tribune
New head of Minneapolis police homicide unit was previously suspended for forwarding racist email
A Minneapolis police lieutenant placed on a yearlong paid leave for forwarding a racist email over a decade ago has been appointed as the new head of the department’s homicide unit.
Lt. Aimee Linson, a 25-year veteran of the force, returned to duty and was issued a written reprimand in April following an investigation into whether she violated the agency’s ethics and communications policy, which prohibits officers from intentionally “transmitting, accessing or storing” material that’s offensive, like racial slurs.
Roughly six months after her reinstatement, department leadership selected Linson to replace Lt. Richard Zimmerman, the department’s longtime head of homicide who was a key witness in the trial of ex-officer Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd. The restructured unit will combine the Shooting Response Team, where Linson most recently served, and Homicide into one division.
Zimmerman, the department’s longest-tenured employee, was promoted Sunday to the rank of commander. In his newly created role as Major Crimes community response coordinator, Zimmerman will work as a liaison in the community and mentor younger investigators at crime scenes.
The personnel changes were announced in an internal e-mail circulated within the department this week.
“[Linson] is taking on a huge responsibility and I am grateful to have her in that position,” Violent Crimes Cmdr. Emily Olson wrote to staff in an email obtained by the Star Tribune. She named Linson as the primary contact for shootings and homicide-related cases.
Several police reform advocates condemned the move and questioned whether MPD leadership was serious about overhauling its culture.
“The city — and MPD specifically — is not in fact committed to the change that they claim to be embracing,” said Kimberly Milliard, of the Racial Justice Network. “They’ve got consent decrees hanging over their heads and they’re still doing the same stuff that created the need for the consent decrees in the first place.”
On Wednesday, Chief Brian O’Hara defended his pick by highlighting Linson’s experience leading both the Crisis Negotiations and Shooting Response teams.
“Of the Lieutenants currently available to oversee Homicide, Lt. Aimee Linson is the most qualified,” he said in a statement to the Star Tribune. “In addition to her ability to interact with individuals in the initial moments of grief after a homicide, she understands complex investigative processes and is well suited to provide leadership for those responsible for the crucial role of homicide investigations. For me to do otherwise would be to underutilize her talents at a time when I am charged with leading the MPD with nearly 40% fewer sworn members.”
Linson’s suspension stemmed from a 2012 incident, when, then a sergeant, she forwarded an email chain to at least eight colleagues with the subject line “Only in the Ghetto.” The message contained 16 pictures, seven of which negatively portrayed Black people. Most had a label indicating that they originated from a now-defunct website called Really Ghetto, according to a copy of the email obtained by the Star Tribune.
The emails were uncovered in 2021 during an extensive Minnesota Department of Human Rights probe, which culminated in a scathing 72-page report outlining a pattern and practice of discriminatory policing by MPD. That report jump-started a court-enforceable settlement agreement with the state that requires Minneapolis to implement sweeping reforms. A separate consent decree with the U.S. Department of Justice has yet to be finalized.
Interim Chief Amelia Huffman suspended Linson in March 2022, pending the results of the investigation. She remained on paid leave for more than a year, until O’Hara resolved the case with a written reprimand on April 5, 2023.
The low-level discipline followed a unanimous ruling by a police conduct review panel, which found that the allegations against Linson had merit. O’Hara concurred with their decision, writing that Linson “failed to meet our standards when she sent an email that contained content that was offensive based on race and/or socioeconomic status,” according his reprimand letter. “The violation in this matter undermines public trust.”
Under questioning from Internal Affairs, Linson said she didn’t remember sending the email, which was by then 10 years old. Records obtained by the Star Tribune indicate that she forwarded the content at least eight times over the course of a two-week period in April 2012. It’s not immediately clear whether anyone who received the email responded to it but, department sources say, it was never reported to Internal Affairs.
During that time Linson steadily rose through the ranks, eventually serving as a lieutenant in the training division and an investigator within Internal Affairs, where she built a reputation for “integrity, intelligence and fairness,” O’Hara said. He found no evidence to suggest that she ever engaged in similar behavior again and noted that she expressed remorse for her conduct.
“Lt. Linson … [understands] how instances such as this threaten the fragile relationship that our officers hold with residents,” O’Hara wrote. “There has been nothing further in her work history that would demonstrate any level of bias or discrimination.”
The letter marked the first time Linson had ever been formally reprimanded in her career. At least eight other misconduct complaints over the years were closed without discipline. Her personnel file includes accolades such as the Chief’s Award of Merit and 2016 Unit Citation award.
“I stand firmly behind my decision to best utilize Lt. Linson’s skills and abilities,” O’Hara said Wednesday, “and I am confident that she will continue to serve the City of Minneapolis with professionalism and compassion.”
Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan and her daughter were among the throngs Friday as President Joe Biden delivered the apology that many Indigenous Americans thought would never come.
“I think he really said the things that people have been waiting to hear for generations, acknowledged just the horror and trauma of literally having our children stolen from our communities,” said Flanagan, a member of the White Earth Band of Ojibwe. “It’s a powerful first step towards healing.”
Hundreds of boarding schools operated in the 19th and 20th centuries, separating Indigenous children from their families and forcing them to assimilate to European ways. Many children were abused, and at least 973 died, according to a report from the U.S. Department of the Interior.
Other Minnesotans reacted similarly to Flanagan, saying they welcomed the apology but that additional action is needed to help Indigenous people move forward.
Anton Treuer, a professor of Ojibwe at Bemidji State University, wrote in a newsletter that the apology was “a welcome first step on the journey to healing.”
“There is no way to truly right historical injustices for the children buried at Carlisle, Haskell, and other schools, but these words set a new tone for the country and will help heal the anguish so many Natives have carried for so long,” Treuer wrote. “It gives me hope that we can come together to reconcile and heal our troubled nation.”
Sen. Mary Kunesh, DFL-New Brighton, the first Indigenous woman to serve in the state Senate, called Biden’s apology encouraging.
“This recognition of past wrongdoings is an important step towards healing relationships between the United States and the sovereign nations affected by these past systems,” Kunesh said in a statement. “This dark period of American history must be remembered and taught.”
“I have done everything in my power to remedy this situation, and it continues to get more and more violent by the day,” Moturi wrote. “There have been numerous times when I’ve seen Sawchak outside and contacted law enforcement, and there was no response. I am not confident in the pursuit of Sawchak given that Sawchak attacked me, MPD officers had John detained, and despite an HRO and multiple warrants — they still let him go.”
On Friday, five City Council members sent a letter to Mayor Jacob Frey and Police Chief Brian O’Hara expressing their “utter horror at MPD’s failure to protect a Minneapolis resident from a clear, persistent and amply reported threat posed by his neighbor.”
Council Members Andrea Jenkins, Elliott Payne, Aisha Chughtai, Jason Chavez and Robin Wonsley went on to allege that police had failed to submit reports to the County Attorney’s Office despite threats being made with weapons, and at times while Sawchak screamed racial slurs. Sawchak is white and Moturi is Black.
The council members also contend in their letter that the MPD told the County Attorney’s Office that police did not intend to execute the warrant for “reasons of officer safety.”
At a Friday afternoon news conference at MPD’s Fifth Precinct, O’Hara said police had been working to arrest Sawchak since at least April, but “no Minneapolis police officers have had in-person contact with that suspect since the victim in this case has been calling us.” The chief pointed out that Sawchak is mentally ill, has guns and refuses to cooperate “in the dozens of times that police officers have responded to the residence.”
O’Hara put aside the option to carry out “a high-risk warrant based on these factors [and] the likelihood of an armed, violent confrontation where we may have to use deadly force with the suspect.” The preference, he said, was to arrest Sawchak outside his home, but “in this case, this suspect is a recluse and does not come out of the house.”
ROCHESTER – The Federal Transit Administration has green-lighted an $85 million grant supporting the development of the city’s planned Link Bus Rapid Transit system.
The FTA formally announced the grant on Friday during a ceremonial check presentation outside of the Mayo Civic Center, one of the seven stops planned for the bus line. The federal grant will cover about 60% of the project’s estimated $143.4 million price tag, with the remaining funds coming from Destination Medical Center, the largest public-private development project in state history.
Set to go live in 2026, the 2.8-mile Link system will connect downtown Rochester, including Mayo Clinic’s campuses, with a proposed “transit village” that will include parking, hundreds of housing units and a public plaza. The bus line will be the first of its kind outside the Twin Cities — with service running every five minutes during peak hours.
“That means you may not even need to look at a schedule,” said Veronica Vanterpool, deputy administrator for the FTA. “You can just show up at your transit stop and expect the next bus to come in a short time. That is a game changer and a life-transformational experience in transit for those people who are using it and relying on it.”
The planned Second Street corridor is already one of the busiest roads in Rochester, carrying more than 21,800 vehicles a day, and city planners have talked for years about ways to reduce traffic congestion in the city’s downtown. Local officials estimate that the transit line, which will rely on a fleet of all-electric buses, will handle 11,000 riders on its first day of operation and save eight city blocks of parking.
Speaking to a crowd of about 100 people gathered on Friday, Sen. Amy Klobuchar said the project shows Rochester is thinking strategically about how it handles growth.
“If you just plan the business expansion, and you don’t have the workforce, you don’t have the child care, the housing or the transit, it’s not going to work very well as a lot of communities across the nation have found,” Klobuchar said.
GIPHY App Key not set. Please check settings