Newly Released Body Camera Footage Shows Police Firing Squad Kill Man

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Newly Released Body Camera Footage Shows Police Firing Squad Kill Man

June 23rd, 2016

Awake Goy

Police Department:

Burnsville PD

Officers Involved:

Taylor Jacobs
John Mott
Maksim Yakovlev

Last March a handful of officers with the Burnsville Police Department shot and killed 38-year-old Map Kong in the parking lot of a McDonald’s. When they arrived at the scene a man was having a breakdown in his vehicle and was violently thrashing around in the driver seat. As far as I know, having a tantrum alone in your personally owned vehicle is not a crime. Even if you have a knife. So instead of attempting to help or begin to de-escalate the situation, the officers engaged in a standoff with Kong. Their dialogue is proof that they are itching to engage with him and multiple times the officers ask who is armed with batons? If they should break a window and taze the man? All of this while shouting orders at someone who is obviously in some sort of mental or emotional distress and may not be able to comprehend what was expected of him.

Kong was shot after he exited the vehicle and tried to leave the scene on foot. Multiple reports stated that he “ran across the parking lot” or “ran toward traffic on Highway 13.” Officer Taylor Jacobs offered his own contradictions in an interview with the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, saying Kong was running for the McDonald’s. The truth according to the body camera footage, is the police killed him as soon as he exited his vehicle. It is unknown how many times the officers fired, but 23 shell casings were recovered and Kong was struck 15 times. His lifeless corpse was less than 10 feet from his car when the ordeal was over and even though he was holding a knife, due to the position of the officers and his exit path, it would’ve been impossible for him to pose a danger to the officers. If anything, the officers placed themselves in danger by aggressively working to force Kong from his vehicle instead of recognizing the call as a mental health situation and requesting the appropriate personnel to de-escalate the situation.

As always, the excuse that they feared for their lives was in use and one officer cried about how scared he was.

“I was fearful, again, of my life and my partners’ lives at that time, knowing he wasn’t going to be complying… The Taser was having no effect on him.”

These officers put themselves into danger by lacking patience and playing super troopers. Even then it wasn’t that much danger. The vehicle was blocked in, the officers were reasonably sure Kong was not only armed with a knife and he seemed more caught up in his breakdown than he did with their presence. Throughout the engagement he pays the officers no attention until his car is broken into and they electrocute him, twice.

Eric Giesek, the Burnsville police chief, issued a statement of condolences to the family while simultaneously backing the actions of his officers, saying they acted out of necessity.

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“I hope – through the release of our officers’ body camera videos and the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension investigation report – that you will be able to place yourselves in the position of these officers,” Gieseke wrote. “I also hope that you will be left with the same conclusion as the Grand Jury — that our officers acted out of necessity.”

After viewing the body camera footage I am not left with the conclusion that the officers acted out of necessity, but in fact reacted out of fear. If the officers had slowed down and assessed the situation more thoroughly, it’s not unreasonable to assume they would have come to the conclusion that Kong, while armed with a knife, was more a danger to himself than anyone else. However, these officers spent less than ten minutes trying to convince him to exit break into his vehicle and force him into their custody, actions that are likely to scare anyone and may lead to desperate actions in order to escape the situation.

Methamphetamine was found in the results of the toxicology report and may have played a contributing factor in Kong’s behavior. However, even with a violent drug war raging, the punishment for drug use is not death… just overly harsh and selectively enforced mandatory minimums.

The Kong family has retained an attorney to investigate any civil rights violations and excessive force or any other officer misconduct. No action has been taken in court at this time, though. Hopefully, the Kong family will find closure in their search for justice, even if they are unsuccessful in a formal lawsuit the boy camera footage is enough for a victory in the court of public opinion.

If you feel that police shootings and other violent police actions have gone far too long unaddressed and unpunished. Please consider calling the Burnsville Police and demanding that they fire the officers involved. They may have been cleared of any criminal wrong doing but behavior such as this, is not becoming of an officer of the law.