No charges filed against Minneapolis police officer in deadly shooting of man who shot ex-girlfriend

MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman says he is not filing charges against the Minneapolis police officer involved in the deadly shooting of Mario Benjamin last summer. 

Officer Jason Wolff fatally shot Benjamin, 32, on Aug. 2, 2019. Squad car video as well as body camera video from both officers captured the entire incident

Minneapolis Police shoot, kill armed suspect while attending to shooting victim

Minneapolis Police shot and killed an armed man just before 3 a.m. Friday morning in the Hawthorne neighborhood of Minneapolis.

According to the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office, at 2:45 a.m., Officer Wolff and his partner, Officer Ryan Davis, responded to a report of a shooting near the intersection of 25th Avenue North and Emerson Avenue in the Hawthorne neighborhood. When they arrived on scene, they observed a woman lying in the middle of the street with Benjamin standing over her body. The woman’s 13-year-old child was standing nearby. 

The woman was later determined to be Benjamin’s former romantic partner and a mother of four children, two of whom she had with Benjamin. 

The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension investigated the shooting and determined the victim planned to relocate to North Dakota with her four children. She was dropping Benjamin off at a friends’ home in the area—where he was going to stay temporarily. 

The two got into a fight outside her vehicle and Benjamin fired at her twice, hitting her once in the chest. The gunshot wound caused a severe spinal cord injury that left the woman temporarily paralyzed from the waist down. 

When they arrived at the scene, the police officers initially believed Benjamin was assisting the woman and was not the shooter. As they were checking on the woman, however, Benjamin stood up and they noticed there was a pistol in his right hand. 

Both officers immediately drew their weapons. Office Wolff pointed his gun at Benjamin and commanded him to drop the gun.” According to the attorney’s office, the officers’ body worn cameras captured the officer’s multiple requests to drop the gun, which Benjamin ignores. 

Two additional children of the victim, a 6-year-old whose father was Benjamin and a 15-year-old, were also present at the scene. 

“With Benjamin’s continued refusal to drop the gun despite repeated demands, Officer Wolff reasonably believed that Benjamin posed an immediate danger to the children, both officers, and the woman, who needed life-saving medical attention,” the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office said in a news release. “Taking necessary protective action to ensure the safety of those on-site, Officer Wolff fired six shots at Benjamin, striking him at least five times in the body.” 

An autopsy conducted by the Hennepin County Medical Examiner found Benjamin suffered seven gunshot wounds, some of which were likely caused by the same bullet. 

Toxicology results revealed Benjamin had amphetamine, methamphetamine, naproxen and THC in his system at the time of the shooting. 

“Mario Benjamin was a dangerous individual. He senselessly shot his former partner in front of their children,” Freeman said in a statement. “The gunshot wound left the woman paralyzed from the waist down for a significant period of time. He also refused to submit to repeated police requests to drop his weapon. The evidence mandates that we not file charges.”