Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty has charged State Trooper Ryan Londregan with second degree murder in the death of a felon that arose out of a traffic stop. Here we go again.

State troopers stopped the felon, Ricky Cobb, at 1:50 am because he was driving on a major highway without proper lights. When they ran his identity through their system, they found that there was a “pick up” warrant for his arrest from Ramsey County, as a result of violation of a no-contact order arising from domestic abuse. When a trooper asked Cobb to get out of his car, Cobb refused, likely because he had a gun in the car and, as a convicted felon, that would probably get him sent to prison.

After Cobb repeatedly refused to comply, the officers told Cobb he was under arrest and tried to remove him from his car. Thus, two troopers were half in and half out of the vehicle. One of them was on the driver’s side, reaching over to unbuckle Cobb, while Ryan Londregan was on the passenger’s side. He too had opened the door so he could see inside. He drew his firearm to cover his colleague who was dealing with Cobb.

At that moment, Cobb put his car in drive and started to flee. Both officers were sent flying and landed on the pavement, but not before Londregan fired his gun twice in response to Cobb’s driving away.

This afternoon I recorded a podcast with David Zimmer, American Experiment’s policy fellow specializing in public safety. David spent 33 years in the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office, retiring as one of the highest-ranking members of that office. During his career, he personally conducted 25 investigations of use of force by law enforcement. David wrote about Moriarty’s indictment of Trooper Londregan here. This is the podcast in video form:

If you would rather just listen, e.g. in the car, this link goes to the audio.

We will continue to follow this story. It will be interesting to see whether Minnesota’s voters have finally had enough with pro-crime public officials.