Minneapolis officer who shot Fong Lee testifies that he feared for his life

The Minneapolis police officer accused in the wrongful death trial and his partner on the night he shot Fong Lee testified that Lee fled with a gun, not heeding shouts to stop.

By ROCHELLE OLSON, Star Tribune

Last update: May 20, 2009 - 10:40 PM

Minneapolis police officer Jason Andersen and a state trooper testified Wednesday that Fong Lee held a gun as the 19-year-old dropped his bike and ran on July 22, 2006, starting a foot chase that ended with Andersen shooting him dead.

"I remember thinking to myself, why is he still running?" Andersen said. "I've probably chased 50 people with guns in their hands before. I've never had somebody keep it."

Andersen, a defendant with the city of Minneapolis in a wrongful death lawsuit by Lee's family, testified in U.S. District Court in St. Paul for nearly two hours, reconstructing the shooting near Cityview Elementary School in north Minneapolis.

Andersen and his partner that night, state patrol Sgt. Craig Benz, were the two main witnesses called Wednesday, the trial's second day. Both said they saw another bicyclist hand a gun to Lee. Both said that Lee didn't heed their screams to stop or drop his gun.

Lawyers for Lee's family, Michael Padden and Richard Hechter, say the teenager was unarmed and gunned down by an act of police incompetence and excessive force. They contend police then planted a gun near Lee's body to make the shooting appear justified.

But the city's lawyers and Andersen say the shooting was justified because he feared for his life. Andersen said he shouted to Lee "at least ten times" to drop his gun. Benz said he also shouted, "Police! Gun!" Andersen shot Lee eight times.

Padden asked Benz if he only believed he saw a gun because Andersen said he did. "I don't believe so," Benz said. "I saw a gun, sir."

Both men said they didn't plant a gun and didn't see anyone else plant one. Benz was assigned to north Minneapolis that summer to help with a crime spike.

Andersen, 32, testified that he worked as a Cass County sheriff's deputy and then an Elk River police officer before joining the Minneapolis department in the summer of 2005. He said he did not consider himself a "rookie" in 2006.

Moore asked Andersen why he shot Lee. Andersen answered: "I thought at that point in time my life was in jeopardy."

Andersen testified that Lee never pointed the gun at him, but the teenager pivoted toward him with the gun in his right hand. Padden asked whether it wouldn't have been better to take a strategic position on his knee rather than continue to move in on Lee while firing.

"No," Andersen said. "We're trained to suppress the threat, sir."

Padden pressed, "You could have just let him go, right?"

Benz said no.

The jury again saw a picture - flashed briefly on the screen the previous day - of Lee, dead on his back, his shirt bloodied, a red baseball cap partly obscuring his face and a gun several feet from his outstretched left hand. Andersen said he saw the gun fly when he shot him.

In other testimony, Kerstin Hammerberg, supervisor of the police property and evidence room, testified that documents indicate that officer Tony Adams checked a 7.65-caliber FNH gun into evidence in February 2004. She also said a .380-Baikal was not checked into evidence until after Lee was shot.

Police say the Baikal was found near Lee's body. Padden argues police planted it there.

The day's testimony was anticlimactic after the judicial fireworks that preceded it. Before calling the jury into the courtroom, Magnuson rebuked Padden for flashing the photo of Fong Lee's body on courtroom screens Tuesday without first offering it as an exhibit or warning the jury or Lee's family.

One more "stunt" like that, Magnuson warned, and he'd declare a mistrial, make Padden and Hechter pay all the parties' expenses, and appoint different lawyers.

"Let's be candid," Magnuson said. "You've lost my trust, and you're going to earn it back. It's as simple as that."

Padden later told reporters it was a mistake caused by stress and fatigue, and nothing similar would happen again.

Rochelle Olson • 612-673-1747

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