(Screenshot KTSV)
Travis Jordan, 36, had been living with his friend and co-worker Paul Johnson and his wife in the couple’s Minneapolis home. On Friday, Johnson became concerned about Jordan’s well being and called police to do a wellness check.
Jordan had been “having a lot of suicidal thoughts because, um, depression, anxiety, but he’s not taking any pills for that. Um, he’s just taking alcohol for it,” a caller told a police dispatcher according to 911 transcript released by police on Sunday, ABC 5 reports.
When police arrived they were supposed to do a wellness check, but instead shots were fired and another unarmed Black man ended up dead.
“Why are tasers not pulled out? Why is that not what’s in their hand?” Jordan asked the news station as he looked at the spot on his lawn where his friend laid dying. “Why is the lethal form of de-escalating the situation and ending it in their hands and not all the other ways that could’ve been done?”
According to a press release the victim was carrying a knife. But Johnson says his friend didn’t have any weapons.
Johnson says Jordan was aware that the police had been called.
“He doesn’t want to live, he doesn’t even think about his future anymore,” Johnson told dispatch, adding, “I told him I was gonna call the cops, ‘cause I was really worried about him, and he threatened me and said go ahead and call the cops, I’ll talk to them when they get here.”
Later in the conversation, the caller said, “I’ve looked through his text messages before and he’s asked for like to find him a gun for him from someone. And then I confronted him about that a long time ago and he said he wasn’t gonna do it,” ABC 5 reports.
ABC 5 reports Jordan’s cause of death was multiple gun shot wounds.
John Elder, the spokesperson for the Minneapolis Police Department, told the news station that the “officers’ body cameras were on, recording both audio and video of the shooting.”
Elder added that every officer on the street has gone through state-mandated training on how to de-escalate wellness calls should the person become aggressive. Johnson says that’s “obviously not enough.” Both officers have reportedly been placed on administrative leave pending an investigation.
“It was a wellness check and now our friend is dead instead of alive and getting the help that he needed,” Johnson’s wife Allison Reinke told the news station.
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Police Were Called For A Wellness Check, But Ended Up Killing Another Unarmed Man was originally published on blackamericaweb.com
