Two Minneapolis police snipers fatally shot 20-year-old Black man Andrew “Tekle” Sundberg following a six-hour standoff in an apartment building on the city’s southside.
According to news reports, documents from the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension indicated that the Minneapolis police shot and killed Sundberg on July 14 after hours of trying to negotiate with him.
Authorities said that before the deadly shooting, the young man allegedly fired several shots inside a Seward apartment building on July 13. Shortly after, a neighbor named Arabella Yarbrough called 911, saying a bullet had gone through the wall of her apartment on the 900 block of 21st Avenue South.
Yarbrough and her two young sons reportedly hid in the bedroom, and once police arrived, they exited the building while Tekle isolated himself inside his unit. A standoff between Tekle and Minneapolis police then ensued.
Video footage of the standoff showed Tekle’s father, Mark Sunberg, begging him to speak to police negotiators two hours before he was tragically shot to death by Minneapolis police snipers.
“Tekle, this is your dad again. I love you. I know you love me. Please talk to the negotiator,” Mark pleaded over a loudspeaker. “They really got to talk to you. Please do it for me. Thanks.”
After Tekle was shot, he was rushed to Hennepin Healthcare, where he passed away.
Days later, The Minneapolis Police Department named Aaron Pearson and Zachary Seraphine as the officers involved in the shooting. Pearson and Seraphine were part of the SWAT team that raided a downtown Minneapolis apartment back in February as part of an early morning no-knock warrant that resulted in the fatal shooting of 22-year-old Black man Amir Locke. Both officers managed to escape charges in Locke’s death, as prosecutors determined the shooting was justified.
It remains unclear what prompted officers to shoot Tekle, but his parents are determined to seek justice as they hired famed civil rights attorney Ben Crump.
“No information has been provided as to why Tekle, who officers had isolated for hours, suddenly needed to be executed,” Crump said in a statement. “We call on the Minneapolis Police Department to immediately provide the family with the video evidence and other information necessary to answer this question.”
