*The 24-year-old black man said to be unarmed when he was shot by Minneapolis police on Sunday has died, a local television station reported on Tuesday, citing his brother.
The police account says they responded at about 12:45 a.m. CST to a report of an assault, and shot a suspect during a struggle after the person interfered with paramedics on the scene.
Community activists, who identified the suspect as Jamar Clark, claim he was unarmed, handcuffed and shot in the head by the officer. Authorities, however, say the suspect was not in handcuffs during the struggle with police and was taken by ambulance to Hennepin County Medical Center.
At press time, officials had declined to identify the person or confirm he died. But, the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office said a man tentatively identified as Jamar Clark died on Monday at 9:25 p.m. CST. Shawn Wilson, operations manager at the medical examiner’s office, declined to confirm Clark’s age or race, Reuters reports.
Wilson said the medical examiner’s office was treating the case as a homicide investigation. Hennepin County officials said they would release information on the case later Tuesday.
Clark was taken off life support on Monday night, a reporter with KARE television said on Twitter.
Clark’s death sparked protests and dozens of arrests. Activists blocked the entrance of a police precinct following the shooting and briefly flooded an interstate highway late Monday, demanding that authorities release video of the incident. At least 50 people were arrested after blocking a section of Interstate 94 that runs through Minneapolis during a protest over Clark’s shooting, police said.
Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges said on Monday she had requested a federal civil rights investigation into the shooting.
The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension was continuing its own investigation and will hand over the results to prosecutors.
Minneapolis Police Chief Janeé Harteau, who spoke at a news conference with Mayor Hodges on Monday, said they were not yet releasing the names of two police officers involved in the incident.
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