Justice for Duy

Know your target.

That sentence is drilled over and over into every hunter, target shooter, self-defense class participant, and especially every police officer, due to the nature of their work. Once that bullet leaves the barrel, the shooter is responsible for everything in its path, and everything behind its intended destination.

Why should Minneapolis police officer Charles Storlie be held to a different standard? The U.S. Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals has just ruled that he can't.

On February 23, 2003, Officer Duy Ngo of the Minneapolis Police Department was working gang surveillance in plainclothes. He got into a confrontation with an African-American man, and was shot in the side. Fortunately, his vest saved him from serious injury. He called in for help, describing his assailant over the radio. Remember, the assailant was black. Ngo is of Asian descent.

What he got from his fellow officer wasn't exactly "help".

"When Storlie arrived, Ngo was down on one knee under a streetlight waving his arms. Storlie jumped out of his cruiser and almost immediately began firing his MP5 semiautomatic machine gun, striking Ngo six times."

The story actually gets it slightly wrong. What Storlie opened up on Ngo with was a fully automatic MP5, as Storlie was on the SWAT team at the time, and was issued the weapon to carry in his cruiser, although it was presumably not for hunting gang shooting suspects.

Ngo was critically injured, and is permanently disabled. To add insult to injury, the ensuing investigation was completely botched, to the point that three top police officials were suspended and investigated when a new police chief took over in 2004. Rumors were actually leaked that Ngo had shot himself to avoid being sent to Iraq as a military reservist (six times?). The worst injustice, in my opinion?

"During the two weeks that Ngo was laid up in the hospital, [then] Chief Robert Olson never paid a visit."

Talk about being thrown under the bus.

Storlie was put on standard leave for three days after the incident, and was then put back on the street. He was never criminally charged. He has since left the department to become a mercenary (sorry, "civilian security contractor") in Iraq, where he will get to "play" with automatic weapons to his heart's content.

The Appeals Court decision upheld a lower court judge's ruling that while the city of Minneapolis is entitled to immunity in the case, Officer Storlie is not. The city will still be financially responsible for the case, however, as it indemnified Storlie in the performance of his job duties. Basically, this means that Storlie will not be personally on the hook for any damages, and the city will have to pay any monies awarded to Ngo out of taxpayer funds.

"It's not surprising that the court found it was unreasonable to shoot -- without any warning -- an unarmed person kneeling under a streetlight by himself, waving his arms overhead and trying to attract the attention of a squad car. Most perpetrators won't do that," Bennett said."

I would tend to agree with that sentiment.

We here at the Northern Muckraker hope that Minneapolis does the right thing and speedily settles this case, in order to give some semblance of justice to Officer Duy Ngo. We also hope that Officer Storlie is criminally charged in the case, as any other citizen who committed such a stupid act would be. We aren't breathlessly awaiting either outcome, sadly.