Questions raised over MPD testimony at officer's trial

The trial continues for a Minneapolis police officer accused of firing his gun at a car full of people in November 2016.

As Efrem Hamilton’s trial entered a second week, prosecutors continued laying out their case against him, and a pair of Minneapolis police officers who were working downtown that night took the stand.

The officers were close by when a carload of friends backed into the front of Hamilton’s squad during a chaotic scene at bar close. Officer Hamilton fired a single shot into the vehicle immediately after the collision.

Hamilton's defense team argued that he feared for his life, likening the car to a deadly weapon.

Prosecutors have tried to make their case to jurors that no other officers shot at the vehicle filled with six people who had nothing to do with the fight and were not armed.

Fortunately, no one was injured.

By mid-afternoon, prosecutors grew frustrated by testimony from several witnesses who they argued might be trying to protect a brother in uniform. They called their ethics and use-of-force expert, Michael Quinn, to the stand.

Under direct examination, Quinn testified Hamilton made several mistakes in using potentially deadly force. 

That included failing to avoid the vehicle collision itself, failing to properly assess the threat, failing to order the occupants out of the vehicle and then firing towards a crowd - including other officers responding to the chaos along 3rd Avenue North.