Four St. Paul police officers have been cleared of wrongdoing by the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office after they shot and injured an armed man who brandished a firearm at a busy intersection last fall.
The man, 41-year-old Earl Bennett, was later charged in a nonfatal shooting that occurred earlier the same day and a triple homicide committed at a Minneapolis homeless encampment one day earlier.
The police shooting unfolded Oct. 28 along University Avenue in St. Paul. Officers were sent to the area for a shots-fired call and were unaware of any connection to the triple homicide the day earlier, St. Paul police previously said.
They found Bennett barefoot, shirtless and holding a gun to his head, according to body camera footage of the incident. They told him to lower the weapon and fired less-lethal projectiles at him. Officers opened fire when Bennett pointed the gun at them.
Bennett, who was injured, is currently in custody at the Hennepin County jail.
In a memo written Monday, Ramsey County Attorney John Choi said Bennett posed a “real and imminent” threat to numerous bystanders. He said officers followed their training by making efforts at de-escalation and opened fire when they had no other choice.
The four officers involved are Sgt. LaMichael Shead, and Officers Shawn Marlowe, Chase Robinson and Blake Steffen, according to the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.
Bennett was later charged in the Oct. 27 shooting at a homeless encampment near the 4400 block of Snelling Avenue in Minneapolis. The shooting killed Samantha Jo Moss, 35, of St. Louis Park; Christopher Martell Washington, 38, of Fridley and Louis Mitchell Lemons Jr., 32, of Brooklyn Center.
