Eagan police, Dakota County named in wrongful death lawsuit

Family sues police, county after man is arrested, dies from stroke

The family of a Cottage Grove man is suing Eagan police and Dakota County after he died from a stroke in jail. FOX 9's Mike Manzoni has the story.

EAGAN, Minn. (FOX 9) - A Cottage Grove man who was arrested on suspicion of driving while intoxicated was actually suffering a massive stroke, something police and jail officials ignored, his family’s attorney said.

Cottage Grove man suffered massive stroke, wasn’t intoxicated: attorney

What we know:

Kingsley Bimpong was on his way home from work on Nov. 16, 2024, when he drifted into oncoming traffic. 

Eagan police stopped and eventually arrested him on suspicion of driving while intoxicated. He was taken to the police station and later the Dakota County Jail, where his condition rapidly deteriorated, according to court filings.

Surveillance images attached to the court filings show Bimpong wandering around his cell and eventually collapsing. 

The images show several corrections officers standing outside his cell after he fell to the floor. According to court documents, it took more than three hours for Bimpong to receive any medical attention. 

He was eventually carried out of his cell and taken to the hospital, where he died three days later.

'Callous indifference' caused inmate’s death from stroke: lawsuit

What they're saying:

In an interview on Thursday, Katie Bennett, the Minneapolis-based attorney who filed the lawsuit on behalf of Bimpong’s family, said she believes he would be alive today had police and corrections officers acted sooner. She also said there is evidence that police suspected a stroke before they arrested him.

"One of the officers turns off his body-worn camera. The other officer did not. And the officer who turned off his camera says, ‘Dude, before you got there – or got here – I thought he was having a stro–,’ and the last part of "stroke" is cut off because the officer who didn’t get the memo to shut his camera off mutes immediately," she explained.

City of Eagan calls death 'tragic'; Dakota County declines to comment

The response:

In a statement, Vicki Hruby, an attorney for the City of Eagan, said, in part: "While Mr. Bimpong’s death is tragic, he was not exhibiting an objectively serious medical condition that was obvious to lay persons at the time he was in the Eagan officers’ custody and there [was] no indication that he required emergent medical treatment."

Both Dakota County and the Dakota County Sheriff's Office declined to comment, citing pending litigation.