(CNN) — The criminal charges against a Minnesota state trooper who fatally shot a Black motorist during a traffic stop in Minneapolis last year are being dropped, the lead prosecutor announced Sunday.
“I have made the decision that our office will no longer pursue charges against Minnesota State Trooper Londregan for the killing of Mr. Cobb,” Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said in an open letter to the community.
Trooper Ryan Londregan was charged in January with second-degree murder and other charges in the July 2023 fatal shooting of Ricky Cobb II, a Black man who was pulled over in his vehicle on I-94 for not having his taillights on at night.
Londregan, who is White, ordered Cobb to get out of his car after determining he was wanted in a neighboring county. Cobb refused and was shot during a physical altercation when Londregan and another trooper attempted to enter the vehicle and grab Cobb.
Londregan was charged with second-degree murder in January, but Moriarty said Monday she did not believe prosecutors could convict him at trial.
“Make no mistake, Ricky Cobb was the victim in this case. Ricky Cobb should be alive today,” she said in a news conference.
The county attorney said their confidence in being able to get a conviction changed after new information emerged last week. Moriarty said they learned Londregan planned to argue he fired because he thought Cobb was attempting to take the trooper’s gun away from him.
“The video doesn’t prove that, and it doesn’t disprove what Londregan says,” Moriarty said at the news conference.
In addition, Londregan’s trainer provided a declaration saying he didn’t train the trooper to refrain from pulling people out of a running car, Moriarty wrote in her letter.
She said Monday she feared a judge would dismiss the case before it got to trial. “We do not believe we would have even made it to the jury,” Moriarty said.
Moriarty said her office had produced a 60-page report on the case, but it cannot be released without a judge’s approval. “This was one of the hardest decisions I’ve ever made,” she said.
The reversal comes a month after Moriarty hired a DC-based private law firm to handle the case, saying her office was understaffed.
Londregan’s attorney Peter Wold praised the decision to drop charges. “A new set of lawyers from the prosecution took a look at the case and reached the appropriate conclusion. It should have happened months ago,” he told CNN on Monday.
Londregan’s defense was provided by the Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association. In a statement, executive director Brian Peters said, “Trooper Londregan should have never been charged, and we are glad this political case is over. Enough is enough.”
Attorneys for Cobb’s family expressed disappointment in the decision Monday.
“While we are disappointed, we are not surprised because, like many, we have come to expect the absence of justice and accountability when Black lives are lost in this country,” attorneys Bakari Sellers, Harry Daniels and F. Clayton Tyler said in a statement. “Apparently, all you have to do to get away with murder is to bully the prosecutors enough and the charges will just go away. The people don’t believe the excuses and neither do we.”
Cobb’s family filed a federal lawsuit in April against Londregan and the other trooper involved in the incident. Londregan filed a motion last month asking a judge to dismiss the suit.
The-CNN-Wire
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