Ricky Cobb Death: Minnesota State Patrol Trooper Who Shot Man Identified
MINNESOTA — The Minnesota State Patrol trooper who fatally shot a man during a traffic stop was identified by investigators on Thursday, one day after the man’s family and activists asked for all three troopers who were involved in the stop to be terminated from their positions. According to the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, State Trooper Ryan Londregan fired shots at 33-year-old Ricky Cobb II after he refused to exit his vehicle during a stop on a Minneapolis freeway on Monday.
The incident occurred when the trooper tried to pull Cobb over for a traffic violation. Cases involving police officers who have been shot are investigated by this agency. According to a statement released by the department, Trooper Brett Seide was the one who initially pulled Cobb over after noticing that the Ford Fusion Cobb was driving did not have working taillights. According to the bureau, Seide investigated Cobb’s record and discovered that he was wanted for “probable cause arrest for a felony order-for-protection violation” issued by the adjacent Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office. This warrant was issued by the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office.
Later, when Londregan and Trooper Garrett Erickson came on the scene, they assisted Seide as he attempted to get Cobb out of the car before Londregan shot him and Cobb drove away. Londregan and Erickson arrived on the scene later. Shortly after that, the vehicle that Cobb was driving came to a stop on the freeway, and the bureau reported that the troopers attempted to rescue Cobb. He was pronounced dead at the spot. The multiple gunshot wounds that Cobb sustained led the Hennepin County coroner to find that his death was the result of a homicide.
The three officers have been placed on leave pending an investigation. The Black Lives Matter movement in the Twin Cities. On Wednesday, members of Metro, the Racial Justice Network, Black Lives Matter Minnesota, and Cobb’s family gathered in front of the Hennepin County Government Center in Minneapolis to demand that the state troopers who were involved in Cobb’s death be fired by the governor and that the local prosecutor charge the officers in the case and issue a warrant for their arrests.
They also demanded that the local prosecutor issue a warrant for the officers’ arrests. “The circumstances simply did not require the use of deadly force,” Nekima Levy Armstrong, a human rights attorney and founder of the Racial Justice Network, said in a statement on Wednesday. “Those officers carried out their duties in a careless manner, and they need to be held accountable.” Despite the fact that dash and body camera evidence did not show Cobb holding the firearm at any point during his engagement with law officers, the investigators discovered a handgun and two cartridge shells in the trunk of Cobb’s vehicle. During the course of the footage, Cobb can be seen holding his hands close to the steering wheel while the troopers speak to him.
