OLIVIA, MINN. – They knew each other, the two men facing off in a dark alley in this west-central Minnesota town. They had a history.
In the past five years, Ricardo Torres Jr. had been arrested four times by Aaron Clouse, an Olivia police officer. On one occasion, according to court records, Clouse chased Torres through a grain elevator and used a Taser on him.
This time, Clouse used a gun.
"Shots fired behind Dirks Furniture," a breathless Clouse radioed at 2:20 a.m. on July 4. "Rick Torres just pulled a gun on me. Shots fired. Send help."
Torres, 32, died within minutes after suffering multiple gunshot wounds. Clouse was uninjured. Police said they found a sawed-off shotgun at the scene.
Now this Renville County town of 2,500 about 95 miles west of the Twin Cities, which bills itself as the "Corn Capital of the World," is dealing with an issue familiar to the Twin Cities — the death of a man of color at the hands of a white police officer.
"What a thing for a small town — my gosh," said Jim Wagemaker, a retired attorney who stood Friday morning gazing at the memorial to Torres that has sprung up in the alley where he died. "It's a very unfortunate thing for a small town, for everyone involved."
Clouse is a native of Olivia, a graduate of the local high school. Torres hailed from a large extended family of Mexican heritage that traveled north from Texas for seasonal farm work some 20 years ago, with many settling down. Torres himself had lived in Olivia and several surrounding communities for about five years.