Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton is requesting the Department of Justice investigate the fatal shooting of Philando Castile, St. Paul, Minnesota after he was shot by a police officer on Wednesday.
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| Philando Castile |
The shooting occurred the same day a major health system in neighboring North Dakota received a written request for evidence regarding a police shooting in Grand Forks.
Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota are all under the jurisdictional territory of the Minneapolis FBI.
Eric Lunn, president, Altru Health Systems, received the letter Wednesday from Timothy Charles Holmseth, an investigative journalist in Minnesota, who is requesting Altru Hospital, Grand Forks, come forward with never before seen video of the David James Elliott shooting.
On February 28, 2015, David James Elliott, an un-armed man, was inexplicably shot at least three times in the head by a University of North Dakota (UND) police officer in the parking lot of Altru Hospital.
Emerging evidence shows the police officer, Jerad Braaten, had been stalking Elliott, and attempted to shoot him several minutes prior, as Elliott sat in his idle vehicle with his hands out the window – but the officer’s gun jammed. Braaten reportedly lied about the first attempt to discharge his firearm until BCI investigators found a cartridge with his fingerprints on it.
Records requests show all body-cam and dash-cam video of the event either disappeared, was tampered with, or redacted to conceal what actually happened.
Braaten received a written reprimand from UND police chief Eric Plummer for his nefarious actions and misconduct with his body and dash-cam cameras.
However, very compelling evidence shows Braaten was/is being protected by officials. Grand Forks State Attorney David Jones determined the shooting was justified. The Grand Forks Police Department (GFPD) then inexplicably hired Braaten a short time later.
But - Attorney Jones' charade has not withstood scrutiny.
Holmseth's independant investigation and records requests are showing a much differnt picture than presented by Attorney Jones.
Video from police body cam of one officer appears to have been deliberately covered by the officer's coat. In another video, a portion of police dash cam video that shows the shooting occuring in the distance, has been converted from color to black and white to create shadow and glare and obfuscate the details. GFPD Lt. Derik Zimmel ackowledged the anomoly but said the Department doesn't know how the video got altered.
Other police cam video requested by Holmseth from the GFPD and UND has still not been produced.
No video released to date actually shows the shooting.
Records from the North Dakota Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI) show CCTV video of the shooting was captured by Altru hospitals cameras an and taken into evidence.
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That video has never been shown to the public.
Holmseth is requesting Altru produce the video in its entirety to be viewed by the public.
Eric Lunn, president, Altru Health Systems, received a letter (shown below) Wednesday from Holmseth, who believes the hospital is obligated to come forward due to serious public safety issues being caused by the cover-up, which appears to involve drug trafficking.
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| Eric Lunn, MD, president, Altru |
Holmseth summarized his evidence to Lunn:
- I possess specific information that strongly indicates Altru Health Systems factually knows, and possesses evidence, that shows David James Elliott was the victim of a violent crime.
- I possess evidence that strongly indicates Altru Health Systems factually knows the official story presented to the public by the media and law enforcement regarding the shooting of David James Elliott, is a false story.
- I possess evidence that strongly indicates Altru Health Systems factually knows the shooting of David James Elliott was an attempted murder.
- I possess evidence that strongly indicates Altru Health Systems knows there is a burgeoning public safety crisis resulting from the aforementioned.
The recent rash of police shootings across the nation is creating fears of heighted civil unrest.