MINNEAPOLIS— Lawyers for A.’s family man shot and killed by a Minnesota state trooper during a traffic stop last summer, are calling on the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate.
Minnesota State Trooper Ryan Londregan fatally shot 33-year-old Ricky Cobb II on July 31 last year after pulling him over for inactive taillights.
was London charged with second-degree unintentional murder, first-degree assault and second-degree manslaughter, including Londregan pleaded not guilty.
The Hennepin County Prosecutor’s Office officially announced the case on Monday turned down those costs afterwards said Mary Moriarty her office received new information about Londregan’s planned testimony and state patrol training that would make it “impossible” to prove the case against Londregan.
Cobb’s family Tuesday expressed their frustration during a joint news conference with attorney Bakari Sellers.
“One thing I want them to understand is that we don’t accept ‘Nos’ anymore,” said Rashad Cobb, Ricky Cobb’s brother.
In announcing the dismissed charges, Moriarty said special prosecutors for the case prepared a report in April that included an analysis of the impact of the new evidence and recommendations for the State Patrol.
On Thursday, Sellers, along with attorneys Harry Daniels and F. Clayton Tyler, called on the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate the murder of Ricky Cobb and “troubling failures in both training and procedure at the Minnesota State Patrol, such as described in a report released by the Hennepin County Prosecutor’s Office.”
“The report released by the Hennepin County Prosecutor’s Office outlines multiple troubling failures at the Minnesota State Patrol and, based on these failures alone, someone needs to come in and investigate the Minnesota State Patrol because if this continues, you have even more innocent people. people killed,” Sellers said.
In a letter to the Department of Justice, the attorneys raised Governor Tim Walz’s actions regarding the case. Walz said he planned to take Moriarty off the case and turn it over to the state’s attorney’s office. a step he made in April 2023 in the Zaria McKeever murder case.
The letter goes on to say that training and procedures at the Minnesota State Patrol “pose a continuing threat to civil rights and public safety.”
In April, Ricky Cobb’s family filed federal civil rights lawsuit to Londregan and Brett Seide, another trooper involved in the traffic stop. The lawsuit accuses state troopers of unreasonable seizure and excessive use of force, in violation of the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments.
According to the lawsuit, Londregan and Seide unreasonably seized Ricky Cobb by making him get out of the car without explaining whether he was under arrest, and by reaching into the car and grabbing him in an attempt to “handle him with to remove violence’. The troopers also used “unnecessary, excessive and deadly force” against Ricky Cobb, the lawsuit said.
