Amid mounting community pressure, Minneapolis Police arrest man accused of shooting his neighbor

By CNN

Published October 28, 2024 1:35 PM

KARE, WCCO, DAVIS MOTURI, MINNEAPOLIS POLICE

By Melissa Alonso and Lauren Mascarenhas, CNN

(CNN) — A dispute between neighbors in Minneapolis escalated to gunfire last week, leaving one man hospitalized and another taken into custody following an overnight SWAT operation.

Now, the city’s police department faces mounting criticism for not making an arrest sooner – despite the victim filing reports of racial harassment and violent threats for months leading up to the shooting, according to local reports and court documents.

The incident, captured on a home surveillance camera, shows Davis Moturi being shot while he was alone outside doing yard work.

The alleged shooter, John Sawchak – Moturi’s neighbor – surrendered around 1:24 a.m. Monday, following an hourslong standoff with police, Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said.

Sawchak has been charged with attempted murder, felony assault, stalking and harassment after allegedly shooting Moturi on Wednesday, the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office said in court filings.

Sawchak has a hearing scheduled in Hennepin County court Tuesday, court records show. It’s unclear whether he has retained an attorney.

Sawchak allegedly shot Moturi in the neck as Moturi trimmed a tree near their shared property line. In the criminal complaint, prosecutors are calling the shooting racially motivated.

Home surveillance footage of the shooting obtained by CNN affiliate KARE shows Moturi standing outside, pruning a tree when he suddenly falls to the ground.

According to the criminal complaint, Moturi’s wife told investigators that Sawchak often observed them from a second-story window inside his home.

“The gunshot appears to have a downward trajectory, entering through the victim’s neck and fracturing his spine and at least two ribs,” reads the complaint.

Moturi’s wife told police that in the past week the defendant told the victim, “Touch my tree again and I’ll kill you,” according to the complaint.

Moturi was hospitalized with a fractured spine, two broken ribs, and a concussion, according to authorities.

Moturi spoke to CNN affiliate KARE from his hospital bed, saying he feels police failed to protect his family by not arresting Sawchak sooner.

“The bullet went down through my neck, and then all the way back to my spine,” he said.

According to the criminal complaint, the Moturi family has called police to report at least 19 incidents of vandalism, property destruction/theft, harassment, hate speech, verbal threats and threatened physical assaults.

“I don’t call the police for fun. I call because I want my family to be safe,” Moturi told KARE.

In the year leading up to the shooting, Sawchak, who is White, verbally harassed Moturi, who is Black, on multiple occasions, including using “racially charged language” during an incident in October 2023 and May this year, according to the criminal complaint.

Sawchak threatened Moturi on multiple occasions, including flashing a large knife from a second-floor window of his home and threatening to kill Moturi and his wife, the complaint said.

“Ultimately, what precipitated the shooting was the cutting of a tree that this individual had planted with his mother, who apparently he had a very deep attachment to,” O’Hara said in a news conference after the arrest.

O’Hara on Sunday acknowledged his department failed to protect Moturi.

“In this particular instance, we failed this victim – 100% – because that should not have happened to him,” said O’Hara at a Sunday evening news conference prior to Sawchak’s arrest. “The Minneapolis police somehow did not act urgently enough to prevent that individual from being shot.”

Sawchak had a history of harassing, threatening and attacking his neighbors dating to at least 2016 and had three active arrest warrants for previous threats against multiple neighbors, including Moturi, when the shooting occurred, court records show.

Friday, O’Hara said the delay in arresting Sawchak involved multiple factors, including concerns about Sawchak’s mental health and that he was known to possess firearms, making the execution of a warrant a high-risk situation.

In court documents, prosecutors say Sawchak was “committed” for mental illness about 10 years ago, with “a paranoid personality disorder,” after he was found not competent to proceed in a criminal case.

Prior to Sawchak’s arrest, O’Hara defended the decision not to arrest him, saying he did not want to risk a violent confrontation and wanted to make a safe arrest.

“We wanted to arrest the suspect where he would be least likely to have access to firearms. That is outside the residence,” O’Hara said. “Unfortunately, in this case, this suspect is a recluse and does not often come out of the house.”

Police attempted to contact the suspect on multiple occasions in response to Moturi’s 911 calls in the past, O’Hara said, but Sawchak refused to come to the door every time. One lieutenant did make contact and visited the suspect’s home more than 20 times, he said.

“We’re not going to go in and bust his door down with guns blazing and get into a deadly force situation,” O’Hara said.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said the city still grapples with the complexities of de-escalation following the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer in 2020, and the community’s conflicting demands for less force and more effective policing.

“You can’t simultaneously insist that police officers should be de-escalating tense situations … and then simultaneously say, right now you got to bust through those doors with the SWAT team and drag somebody out. You can’t have it both ways,” Frey said Sunday before Sawchak’s arrest.

Members of the Minneapolis City Council penned a letter to Frey in the days leading up to Sawchak’s arrest, criticizing police for not taking action sooner, KARE reported.

“MPD still has not arrested the suspect despite charges from the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office for Attempted Murder, 1st Degree Assault, Stalking, and Harassment and a request from the HCAO for a warrant with $1 million bail. MPD told the HCAO they do not intend to execute the warrant ‘for reasons of officer safety,’” the letter read, according to KARE.

Frey called the letter a “gross” political stunt by officials who don’t understand police operations.

“This should not be about politics, especially now. Doing that kind of thing in this situation, when we have officers that are over there at that home, that are trying to de-escalate a tense situation, and trying to make arrests with firearms involved in a residential neighborhood. I want nothing to do with that.”

“Leadership is about doing the right thing regardless of what the masses want, and so I believe that’s what we’re doing,” O’Hara said Sunday. “I know there’s a lot of rhetoric right now that we should just kick in the door, jump in there, guns blazing. That’s wrong. That is pandering to what’s going on while being completely ignorant of fact and having absolutely no expertise on police operations.”

City Council member Andrea Jenkins tried to get an explanation from O’Hara after a news conference last week as local reporters gathered around them, recording the interaction.

“We have to take violent criminals off the street,” she told reporters.

“I am not a police officer. I don’t know how that gets done but I know it needs to get done,” she said.

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