Suit alleges Minneapolis cops planted gun by man they killed
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PocketProtector642
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Post subject: Posted: Wed Apr 01, 2009 6:03 pm |
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Longtime Regular |
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Joined: Sun Oct 12, 2008 8:36 am Posts: 702 Location: St. Paulish
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Quote: linkNow, surveillance video released by Rich Hechter, the Lee family attorney shows the end of the chase between Officer Andersen and Fong Lee. Hechter, along with experts he hired, says the video shows Lee was not carrying a gun during the chase.
_________________ Proud owner of 2 wonderful SGH holsters. "If man will not work, he shall not eat" (2 Th 3:14) "If you don't have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one" -Jesus (Luke 22:36)
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tman065
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Post subject: Posted: Thu Apr 02, 2009 3:59 pm |
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Joined: Tue Dec 19, 2006 6:19 am Posts: 810 Location: Northern MN
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I watched a video clip on FOX 9. The video doesn't show me what might be in his pocket.
_________________ Proud, Service Oriented, Rural LEO, or "BADGED COWBOY" Certified MN Carry Permit Instructor
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joelr
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Post subject: Posted: Thu Apr 02, 2009 4:04 pm |
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The Man |
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Joined: Sun Aug 07, 2005 5:43 am Posts: 7970 Location: Minneapolis MN
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tman065 wrote: I watched a video clip on FOX 9. The video doesn't show me what might be in his pocket. Sure. But if it was gun that was still booked into the MPD evidence room, there's at least a couple people with a lot of explaining to do.
_________________ Just a guy.
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DeanC
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Post subject: Posted: Thu Apr 02, 2009 5:15 pm |
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Joined: Thu Mar 09, 2006 9:54 am Posts: 5270 Location: Minneapolis
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New story from Fox 9
Quote: Following the Missing Gun TrailMinneapolis police accused of planting gun Created On: Wednesday, 01 Apr 2009, 10:23 PM CDT * Tom Lyden MINNEAPOLIS - To say this story is complicated is an understatement. It is the tale of two guns, sloppy police work and, in the end, a dead teenager whose family believes he was unarmed when he was shot eight times. The gun was found several feet from Fong Lee's body. It did not contain a single fingerprint or any of Lee's DNA. "We believe all along that Fong did not have a gun and to this day we still believe it," Lee's sister, Shoua, said. Earlier this week, lawyers for the family filed court documents saying " the evidence supports a claim of police planting a gun ." That evidence, the family says, includes several confusing an conflicting police reports. Two years before the shooting of Fong Lee, the gun was stolen from a man named Dang Her. Police reports indicate officers recovered the Russian-made 380 a week later from a snow bank, placing the stolen weapon in the police property room. "The gun owner was apparently notified and told, allegedly, that the police had his gun," Richard Hechter, an attorney for the Lee family, said. "And they found him by tracing the make, model and serial number to this gentleman. This is even indicated in some of the police reports after Fong Lee's shooting, yet, miraculously. a week after Fong Lee's shooting another report surfaces claiming that there was some mistake in 2004 and the gun found by Fong Lee's body was not the same gun they allegedly recovered back in 2004. Very suspicious and very troubling." Troubling because police reports two years earlier refer interchangeably to two very different guns -- one a Russian-made 380, clearly marked. The other was a Belgian-made FNH 7-point 65 caliber. A Minneapolis police officer writes he has recovered a Russian-made 380 caliber gun, but then gives a serial number for the Belgian-made FNH gun. Wednesday, Minneapolis police pointed us to yet another report saying it clears up everything. The report shows the gun in the evidence locker was the FNH gun, and not the Russian-made gun found by Lee's body. Minneapolis police believe they have finally sorted out the confusing mess, but for Fong Lee's family, they've only raised suspicions. A grand jury and internal affairs investigation both cleared the officer of any wrongdoing. In fact, he received the Medal of Valor for his actions. But the Lee family says the MPS still owes them answers. The wrongful death lawsuit is set to go to trial in May.
_________________ I am defending myself... in favor of that!
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DeanC
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Post subject: Posted: Thu Apr 02, 2009 5:22 pm |
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Joined: Thu Mar 09, 2006 9:54 am Posts: 5270 Location: Minneapolis
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I'm guessing this is what they mean by a FNH 7-point 65 caliber
And this what they mean by a Russian-made 380 caliber gun
_________________ I am defending myself... in favor of that!
Last edited by DeanC on Mon Apr 06, 2009 2:11 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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1911fan
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Post subject: Posted: Thu Apr 02, 2009 6:48 pm |
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On time out |
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Joined: Mon Aug 22, 2005 10:18 pm Posts: 1689 Location: 35 W and Hiway 10
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An underlying story, but one with great implications here. Why was the recovered property gun not returned to the rightful owner?? If the gun had been released from the property room it could not have been borrowed.
If it was a mak " found " at the shooting site, it would be hard to say it was the baby browning which belonged to someone else. That's an awful nice little pocket gun to let the cops keep.
There was a bill up once upon a time that was require PD's to release/dispose/or sell all seized property within 14 days of closing the case. Does anyone know if that's law now? It was to keep PDs from warehousing drugs.
_________________ molan labe
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Jeff
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Post subject: Posted: Mon Apr 06, 2009 11:44 am |
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Joined: Sun Aug 07, 2005 10:57 am Posts: 270 Location: Western Hennepin County
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Chief Dolan says that the gun wasn't planted: http://www.startribune.com/local/425282 ... _Yyc:aUUsZ
It's not surprising to me that neither DNA nor fingerprints were found on the gun. In my experience, you see either incomplete DNA profiles or none at all due to the surface of the gun not having good spots for depositing either. Occasionally, the lab will find a complete DNA profile.
I would be interested to find out if they found any trace of DNA at all. Of course, the article doesn't make that clear.
_________________ All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent. - Thomas Jefferson
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joelr
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Post subject: Posted: Mon Apr 06, 2009 1:48 pm |
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The Man |
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Joined: Sun Aug 07, 2005 5:43 am Posts: 7970 Location: Minneapolis MN
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It occurs to me that, just maybe, if the MPD stopped with the whole "arrest the gun" stuff, and all the silly hoops that they make gunowners go through before returning their property -- if ever -- they'd have fewer guns lying around the property room to be <s>drop guns</s> subjects of clerical errors that mistakenly suggest that they were dropped near a dead guy.
All sarcasm aside: if the MPD internal affairs department had any credibility at all, or if the MPD spokesman did, maybe their statements would mean something in this case.
But . . .
_________________ Just a guy.
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Specified Gravity
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Post subject: Posted: Wed Apr 08, 2009 11:40 am |
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Joined: Sun Mar 29, 2009 3:57 pm Posts: 15
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No matter what the real story ends up being, it's going to leave everyone with a black eye.
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kecker
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Post subject: Re: Suit alleges Minneapolis cops planted gun by man they ki Posted: Wed Apr 08, 2009 1:31 pm |
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Joined: Tue Jul 15, 2008 9:57 am Posts: 818 Location: Apple Valley, MN
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mrokern wrote: Option #3: It got improperly released from MPD via a bureaucratic eff-up. In which case we're dealing with clean, but stupid.
No matter what caused it, this situation is bad juju.
-Mark
Yeah, but even then you're dealing with an amazing set of coincidences!!
A fairly uncommon handgun that just so happened to be released by "accident" from police impound, gets released to a person that just happens to be involved in a rather suspect police shooting in which the first responding officer was the same officer that originally impounded the firearm.
If you don't see the extremely low probability there, I have beachfront property in Nebraska I'm willing to sell for a pretty good deal.
_________________ http://www.eckernet.com My mind is like a steel trap - rusty and illegal in 37 states.
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MTinMN
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Post subject: Posted: Fri Apr 10, 2009 10:03 am |
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Joined: Fri Jan 11, 2008 3:14 pm Posts: 84
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The Pioneer Press article on this on Thursday sure laid out the Minneapolis spin of this, and it certainly didn't look the least bit probable.
As I read about this, what troubled me more was that 5 shots were made into the suspect/victim after he was on the ground from the first 3 shots!
How could 2 internal MPD investigations and the grand jury find nothing wrong with that? (without sufficient gallons of whitewash that is)
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Traveler
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Post subject: Posted: Fri Apr 10, 2009 2:57 pm |
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Joined: Thu Aug 25, 2005 1:46 pm Posts: 845 Location: Saint Paul
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You may be assured that when the Minneapolis Police Department hands out medals that something nefarious is afoot.
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joelr
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Post subject: Posted: Fri Apr 10, 2009 3:29 pm |
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The Man |
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Joined: Sun Aug 07, 2005 5:43 am Posts: 7970 Location: Minneapolis MN
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Traveler wrote: You may be assured that when the Minneapolis Police Department hands out medals that something nefarious is afoot. I've got to disagree; I wish it were so. If it were, then we could just assume that anybody who wears a badge with "MPD" on it and gets a medal is a scoundrel.
But that's just not so.
What is so is that the MPD has a policy of any MPD cop who shoots somebody and doesn't get convicted or disciplined for it gets a medal. (With very, very few exceptions; Chuck Storlie didn't get one for crippling Duy Ngo, far as I know.)
That includes folks who have done real heroic stuff -- and there are some. Really.
It also, alas, includes <s>heavily-armored, jackbooted thugs, toting full auto weapons, their identities concealed by executioners' hoods</s> heavily-armed, dedicated public servants wearing ballistic protection, their faces concealed by tactical balaclavas, shooting the shit out of some poor Hmong family's house while tripping over a bunch of kids.
The trouble is: both kinds of folks get medals from the MPD. And that's very, very sad.
_________________ Just a guy.
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Traveler
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Post subject: Posted: Fri Apr 10, 2009 3:35 pm |
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Joined: Thu Aug 25, 2005 1:46 pm Posts: 845 Location: Saint Paul
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You have to admit the some of the medal awards in the past few years have gone a long way to negating any positive worth in them. If I were employed by that department, and was selected to be honored with a medal, my instincts would be to decline. I would not want to be defined by my associations in that case.
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joelr
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Post subject: Posted: Fri Apr 10, 2009 3:43 pm |
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The Man |
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Joined: Sun Aug 07, 2005 5:43 am Posts: 7970 Location: Minneapolis MN
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Traveler wrote: You have to admit the some of the medal awards in the past few years have gone a long way to negating any positive worth in them. Yup; I'll admit that with no reservation whatsoever.
_________________ Just a guy.
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