Community members shared their concerns with City Council on Tuesday, three weeks after John Sawchak, a white man, was charged with attempted murder in the shooting of Davis Moturi, his Black neighbor, in the Lyndale neighborhood.

“John has terrorized our neighborhood for years,” resident Anna Newcombe shared with the City Council. “Our fear is that he will be released again to our community or another community.”

Sawchak was arrested Oct. 28, five days after Moruti was shot while trimming a tree near their property line. Morturi had previously warned Minneapolis officials and police about Sawchak’s threatening behavior towards him, citing an incident on Oct. 14 as being “probably the 30th time I’ve called 911” when Sawchak pointed a firearm at him.

During the public hearing, community members related Moturi’s experience to the failure of Minneapolis Police Department’s reform after George Floyd’s murder.

“It's been four years, five months and 18 days since George Floyd passed away,” resident Brenda Short said. “I can't understand how we let another Black man feel unsafe in the city of Minneapolis.”

Publicly released emails show Moturi contacted the City and police officials for months about ongoing harassment from Sawchak. Moturi had a restraining order against Sawchak due to the harassment.

The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office charged Sawchak with threats of violence, a felony, on July 10, but he was never arrested.

Moturi’s emails illustrate his increasing frustration with getting the police to arrest Sawchak. In an Oct. 17 email, Moturi says he had reported at least four incidents in which Sawchak threatened him with a weapon, including on Oct. 14.

A Minneapolis police official told Moturi in an Oct. 14 email that officers had been unable to arrest Sawchak because he “doesn’t seem to leave” his house.

Then, Moturi was shot.

“After multiple 911 calls about Sawchak with weapons, he finally shot me today,” Moturi wrote in an  Oct. 24 email from the hospital. “I feel pretty embarrassed that I put my faith in MPD given the long and storied history of the institution with people who look like me.”

Why wasn’t Sawchak arrested earlier? The Minneapolis Police Department argues it was because he didn’t leave his house. The police told Moturi over email that while they were watching Sawchak’s house, they would not enter Sawchak’s house to arrest him.

“This issue with arresting Sawchak is he doesn’t seem to leave,” Lt. Adam Lepinski wrote to Moturi on Oct. 14. “If he did we would have arrested him already.”

Police Chief Brian O’Hara confirmed the strategy in an interview with WCCO Radio after Sawchak’s arrest.

“We did have the house surrounded for a couple of days, waiting for this guy to come out,” O’Hara said Nov. 5. “We used the behavioral threat assessment team, we used a psychiatrist, we used family members, to do everything we could to try and separate this individual from his guns and safely take him into custody.”

O’Hara reiterated the refusal of Minneapolis police to enter Sawchak’s house to arrest him during his Oct. 25 press conference, before Sawchak’s arrest.

“We are not going to bust the door down, guns blazing and get into a deadly sort of situation. That's not going to happen,” O’Hara said.

It ultimately took a SWAT team with battering rams and chainsaws on Oct. 27 into the early morning of Oct. 28 to get Sawchak in custody.

Prior to Sawchak’s arrest, City Council members spoke out against the reluctance to arrest Sawchak. Ward 8 Councilmember Andrea Jenkins said she had been receiving emails from Moturi, her constituent, since February.

Jenkins followed O’Hara after his Oct. 25 press conference, demanding answers on why Sawchak wasn’t arrested, with news cameras following.

And hours before police showed up to Sawchak’s residence, Ward 11 Councilmember Emily Koski sent out an email calling for accountability.

“There’s one question that hasn’t been answered: Why hasn’t John Sawchak been arrested? Our Chief of Police is hiding behind excuses, and our Mayor…is just hiding,” the email reads.

O’Hara told WCCO Radio that officers were following Minnesota Department of Human Rights requirements in trying to apprehend Sawchak when he was away from his weapons.

Some people testifying during the public hearing on Nov. 13 argued that Moturi’s race was inextricably tied to how the police handled the situation.

“As black people in Minnesota, we are tired of being subject to the forces of white supremacy that do not allow us to live in peace,” Ward 8 resident Janelle Austin said.

The accusation that Moturi’s case would have been handled differently if he was white “just doesn’t match the reality of today,” O’Hara said on WCCO Radio.

An internal investigation into the Minneapolis Police Department’s actions prior to the shooting of Moturi will be undertaken by the City Auditor and is due to the City Council by June 2025. An external investigation will also be undertaken but details on who will take up the investigation is not known.