Gun possession charges have been lodged against a man who allegedly sneaked a silver revolver into an interview room at a downtown Minneapolis police station.
A criminal complaint filed in Hennepin County District Court last week charged Moses Hubert, 28, of Minneapolis, with carrying a pistol in a public place without a permit, obstructing the legal process and fleeing police. He was released from custody Friday, online jail records show, with his next court date set for May 22.
A message left for Hubert's court-appointed attorney wasn't immediately returned Monday afternoon.
On April 10, police say a pair of investigators from the First Precinct community response team approached Hubert after police caught him on surveillance video carrying out a suspected drug deal in the area of N. 5th Street and S. Hennepin Avenue. But instead of stopping to talk to the policemen, Hubert took off with the investigators in pursuit, running in the direction of his home in the 1300 block of N. Linden Avenue, before running onto Hwy. 394, court filings show. Police say he managed to cross all lanes in both directions before he was arrested.
Hubert, who has several convictions for domestic assault, was brought into a second-floor interview room at the First Precinct police station, according to police. While alone in the room, a surveillance camera showed Hubert "shaking his right leg" to "shake loose a silver revolver."
The gun was later recovered with five .32-caliber rounds in the cylinder, police said.
The incident called to mind a similar episode in 2017 when officers shot Marcus Fischer, then 19, who began stabbing himself with a knife he managed to sneak into an interview room. Fischer survived the shooting and his self-inflicted injuries. After the incident, the department changed its protocols for suspect interrogations — requiring all suspects to be screened with a metal-detecting wand — to prevent similar situations, according to spokesman John Elder.
"The fact is, it was missed on a search, there's no way to sugarcoat that," said Elder, referring to the most recent case. "We try really hard to ensure that these things don't happen, but the fact was it was missed on a search — we will go through procedures again with everyone involved."
