By Libor Jany
Star Tribune
MINNEAPOLIS — Police in Minneapolis were attempting a gun sting when they exchanged gunfire with Dolal Idd last week outside a South Side gas station last week, killing him, according to new court documents.
The shooting occurred Wednesday night, when police said Idd showed up after police set up a gun buy using a confidential informant, “from a person selling firearms illegally and prohibited from possessing firearms,” according to a search warrant affidavit filed Monday.
The warrant led officers to a 2:30 a.m. search of an Eden Prairie home where Idd lived with his parents and siblings, leading to criticism by the family and activists of how they were treated and the subsequent release of body camera video of the search by the Hennepin County Sheriff’s office. The warrant sought guns, bookkeeping materials, videos and photos related to firearms possession. Nothing was recovered.
Idd’s Dec. 30 killing was the first by Minneapolis police since George Floyd’s May 25 death. More than 1,000 protesters marched Sunday to demand justice for the 23-year-old.
The sworn affidavit filed by state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension special agent Brandon Johnson says that Idd — identified in the warrant as the suspected seller — showed up at the meetup spot, and when officers moved in to arrest him, a “gunfight ensued.” The warrant does not say whether a gun transaction occurred before police closed in.
It says that members of the 1st Precinct community response team had arranged to buy a MAC-10 semi-automatic pistol with the informant acting as a potential buyer at a Holiday gas station at 36th Street and Cedar Avenue. The informant told officers that the alleged seller had more guns at his home, the warrant says.
Body camera video released the day after the shooting shows police closing in with guns drawn and giving orders before Idd attempts to flee in his vehicle and is pinned by squad cars before he appears to raise a gun and fire through the driver’s side window before officers return more than a dozen rounds of gunfire, killing him.
According to the warrant, a silver and Black handgun was found in the car after the shooting, between Idd’s body and the center console. Investigators later interviewed Dolal’s girlfriend, who was in the car at the time, but wasn’t wounded. She told police she only knew him as “Bird” and that she had been to his Eden Prairie home where he lives in the basement. Police said there were “several” calls for service at the home, including a 2018 incident which led to Idd’s conviction of illegally possessing and firing a gun in Hennepin County for firing a gun in the basement shower of the home.
The warrant requested a nighttime search “to prevent the loss, destruction of removal of objects of the search.” Idd’s family members said the family did not learn of his death until after law enforcement searched their home, and are seen on body camera footage repeatedly asking police why they are in the home.
Also on Monday, the Dakota County Attorney’s office said it will review the case to determine whether the shooting was justified. The decision comes under a new protocol established in June among five Twin Cities county attorneys on how to handle incidents when police kill civilians. It dictates that the county attorney’s office where the death occurred will not be involved with the investigation or charging decision. Instead, it will be overseen by Anoka, Dakota, Hennepin, Ramsey or Washington County.
“This protocol was established to mitigate issues that may arise. It is similar to the way other criminal cases are handled when a prosecutor’s office thinks it might have a conflict-of-interest with a defendant, witness or others involved in a case,” the Hennepin County attorney’s office said in a statement. The protocol has been invoked twice.
Sources identified the officers who discharged their weapons as Darcy Klund, Paul Huynh and Jason Schmidt. All three have been placed on standard administrative leave. Klund is married to a Hennepin County Judge.
(Star Tribune staff writer Abby Simons contributed to this report.)