Ramsey County prosecutors announced Friday that a St. Paul officer was legally justified in shooting a man nearly a year ago.
The shooting occurred after a St. Paul officer yelled at a man to show his hands — so police could see if he had a weapon — and to come out of an apartment slowly as police responded to a 911 call . The man charged at them, according to body camera footage released by police.
Officer Ryley Reschke shouted, “He’s got something!” and Officer Josh Needham fired his gun three times. Brett Kohl Fraser, then 31, was shot once in the arm and suffered non-life-threatening injuries.
The Ramsey County District Attorney’s Office has determined that the charges against Needham are not justified under state law, the office said Friday.
No weapon was discovered on or near Fraser, according to an attorney general memo summarizing the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension’s investigation. A replica gun that did not belong to Fraser was found in a backpack in the apartment.
When Needham entered the apartment complex, he was aware that someone had called 911 to report hearing a man punch and sexually assault a woman in the building; the caller also said the man had a gun, according to a summary provided by prosecutors.
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Reschke shouted loudly at Fraser, “Show your hands!” and “St. Paul Police!” Two seconds after giving the final command, Fraser “ran out the apartment door and attacked Officer Needham, who was unable to safely retreat from the confined hallway,” the memo said.
Fraser was “seen holding a metal object in his left hand” and extending it toward Needham, who believed it was a knife, the memo continued. His right hand was behind him and Needham could not see if he had a weapon in that hand.
Prosecutors concluded that Needham “was reasonable in his belief that his use of deadly force … was necessary to prevent death or great bodily harm,” the memo said, also noting that Fraser told authorities that he was a “stupid (expletive)” for attacking the officer and “that the officer had no way of knowing he didn’t have a weapon.”
Fraser was not charged in connection with the case.
