Star Tribune
Duluth man sues officer who shot him through closed apartment door
DULUTH — A Duluth man who was shot through his apartment door by a police officer has filed a civil-rights lawsuit against the city and the officer.
In court documents filed in federal court in mid-November, Jared Fyle says his rights were violated when Duluth Police Officer Tyler Leibfried used excessive force against him. The city, the complaint continues, also did not properly train the officer in use of force.
Leibfried was charged with two felonies after shooting the unarmed Fyle through the door of his Kingsley Heights Apartment, but was acquitted by a jury in St. Louis County District Court. Leibfried is believed to be the first Duluth police officer to be charged with a crime for a shooting in the line of duty.
Leibfried is currently a sworn officer here, a spokeswoman for the department confirmed Thursday. He was initially hired in 2016, then was placed “off duty indefinitely” after the shooting. After his trial ended in April 2022, he returned to work in May 2023.
Leibfried responded to a call about a domestic dispute at the downtown apartment complex on Sept. 12, 2020. Fyle’s then-girlfriend told officers that she and her boyfriend had a verbal fight and she wanted an escort to get her belongings. As officers neared apartment 301, Fyle clicked the deadbolt and used a hatchet to further pound his door shut, he testified during the trial.
Leibfried, who had a year earlier been on the scene of a fatal police shooting, thought the pounding sounds were gunfire.
During the trial, Fyle testified that he had just locked the door of his third-floor apartment when he heard someone yell “shots fired” from the hallway. He dropped to the floor and the officer fired the first four shots.
“That’s when I started yelling,” he told the jury. “And that’s when more shots came through the door.”
Fyle was hit by a single bullet near his right shoulder blade.
In a response to the complaint, Leibfried claims he was acting within the scope of his duties and that there was probable cause for his actions. The city, in its response, said Fyle injuries were in part from his own conduct and that “at all relevant times, the City properly trained its police officers, including Officer Leibfried.”
Fyle is seeking monetary damages for his injuries.
The Minnesota Department of Transportation closed part of a state highway Wednesday evening near Austin because of a “major hazardous materials release” in the area.
Hwy. 56 from Hayfield to Waltham, a stretch covering about five miles, was closed in both directions and drivers were directed to follow a detour to Blooming Prairie on U.S. Hwy. 218.
No information on the hazardous materials released was immediately available.
A federal judge dismissed a civil lawsuit against Minnesota state trooper Ryan Londregan in the shooting death of Ricky Cobb II during a 2023 traffic stop.
The decision is the latest development in a case that has drawn heated debate over excessive use of force by law enforcement. Criminal charges against Londregan were dismissed by Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty in June, saying the prosecution didn’t have the evidence to proceed with a case.
On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Nancy E. Brasel granted Londregan’s motion to dismiss the civil suit, arguing he acted reasonably when he opened fire as Cobb’s vehicle lurched forward with another state trooper partly inside.
Londregan’s attorney Chris Madelsaid Wednesday that it’s been a “long, grueling journey to justice. Ryan Londregan has finally arrived.”
On July 31, 2023, the two troopers pulled over Cobb, 33, on Interstate 94 in north Minneapolis for driving without taillights and later learned he was wanted for violating a felony domestic no-contact order. Cobb refused commands to exit the car.
With Seide partly inside the car while trying to unbuckle Cobb’s seatbelt, the car moved forward. Londregan then opened fire, hitting Cobb twice.
In her decision, Brasel said the troopers were mandated by state law to make an arrest given Cobb’s domestic no-contact order violation. She said it was objectively reasonable for Londregan to believe Seide was in immediate danger as the car moved forward on a busy highway, which would make his use of force reasonable.
GREEN BAY, Wis. — Donald Trump walked down the steps of the Boeing 757 that bears his name, walked across a rain-soaked tarmac and, after twice missing the handle, climbed into the passenger seat of a white garbage truck that also carried his name.
The former president, once a reality TV star known for his showmanship, wanted to draw attention to a remark made a day earlier by his successor, Democratic President Joe Biden, that suggested Trump’s supporters were garbage. Trump has used the remark as a cudgel against his Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris.
”How do you like my garbage truck?” Trump said, wearing an orange and yellow safety vest over his white dress shirt and red tie. ”This is in honor of Kamala and Joe Biden.”
Trump and other Republicans were facing pushback of their own for comments by a comedian at a weekend Trump rally who disparaged Puerto Rico as a ”floating island of garbage.” Trump then seized on a comment Biden made on a late Wednesday call that “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters.”
The president tried to clarify the comment afterward, saying he had intended to say Trump’s demonization of Latinos was unconscionable. But it was too late.
On Thursday, after arriving in Green Bay, Wisconsin, for an evening rally, Trump climbed into the garbage truck, carrying on a brief discussion with reporters while looking out the window — similar to what he did earlier this month during a photo opportunity he staged at a Pennsylvania McDonalds.
He again tried to distance himself from comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, whose joke had set off the firestorm, but Trump did not denounce it. He also said he did not need to apologize to Puerto Ricans.
”I don’t know anything about the comedian,” Trump said. ”I don’t know who he is. I’ve never seen him. I heard he made a statement, but it was a statement that he made. He’s a comedian, what can I tell you. I know nothing about him.”
