On July 22, 2006,

Minneapolis Police Department The Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) is the primary law enforcement agency in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. It is also the largest police department in Minnesota. Formed in 1867, it is the second-oldest police department in Minnesot ...

officer Jason Andersen shot Fong Lee—a 19-year-old Hmong American man—eight times while pursuing him for arrest, killing him at the scene. The police pursuit and shooting occurred near Cityview school in the McKinley neighborhood of

Minneapolis Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...

. In the shooting aftermath, Andersen was legally cleared of wrongdoing by an internal police department investigation and in state and federal legal cases. The United States Supreme Court in 2010 declined to take up an appeal of the federal case brought forward by Lee's family. The manner of Lee's death and the legal case against Andersen generated public outcry, particularly among the Hmong American community in

Minneapolis–Saint Paul Minneapolis–Saint Paul is a metropolitan area in the Upper Midwestern United States centered around the confluence of the Mississippi, Minnesota and St. Croix rivers in the U.S. state of Minnesota. It is commonly known as the Twin Cities ...

. Concerns persisted about Andersen's use of deadly force and about the investigation of the incident, such as if there was potential evidence tampering. Public outcry over Lee's death was renewed during protests of racial injustice following the police murder of

George Floyd George Perry Floyd Jr. (October 14, 1973 – May 25, 2020) was an African-American man who was murdered by a police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota, during an arrest made after a store clerk suspected Floyd may have used a counterfeit twe ...

in 2020.

Shooting

People involved

Jason Andersen was a 32-year-old officer with the

. He was a member of the Metro Gang Strike Force. Fong Lee was a 19-year-old Hmong American man. He was born in a

refugee camp A refugee camp is a temporary settlement built to receive refugees and people in refugee-like situations. Refugee camps usually accommodate displaced people who have fled their home country, but camps are also made for internally displaced peo ...

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...

and his family was resettled in the United States.

Incident

On July 22, 2006, just before 7:00 p.m. CDT, Fong Lee was riding his bicycle with four friends near Cityview school in north Minneapolis. A Minneapolis Police Department squad car containing Andersen and his partner rode alongside Lee as they were followed by a

Minnesota State Patrol The Minnesota State Patrol is the primary state patrol agency for Minnesota and serves as the de facto state police for the state. While Minnesota State Patrol troopers have full powers of arrest throughout the state, their primary function is traf ...

vehicle. Andersen claimed after the shooting that he observed another person on a bicycle hand a gun to Lee and the squad car began to pursue Lee, who dropped his bicycle and ran. Andersen and a state trooper pursued Lee with their guns drawn on foot in an attempt to apprehend him. Andersen claimed Lee was armed and had turned toward him possibly to shoot, and fired his gun. Andersen's initial shot missed. Andersen continued to pursue Lee, and struck him three times as he turned around again. Lee fell to the ground, and Andersen claimed Lee raised his arm holding a gun, and he fired again five additional times. Lee was struck by a total of eight rounds of gunfire fired by Andersen and died at the scene.

Investigation

Part of the incident was captured by security camera footage at the school, but not the actual shooting. The blurry footage captured Lee running away from Andersen, but it was unclear from the footage of if Lee was carrying a gun in his hand as he ran. A .380-caliber semi-automatic handgun was found next to Lee's body. The gun lacked any fingerprints or smudges. Family members of Lee disputed the police account and said the Lee was unarmed and questioned if the gun had been planted. On March 30, 2009, police documents suggested the gun had been held in police possession since 2004, when police recovered the weapon after it was reported stolen. Lee family attorney Mike Padden stated that the first police officer to arrive after the shooting was Minneapolis police officer Bruce Johnson, who two years before had written up the burglary report on this same gun. Minneapolis Police Chief Tim Dolan denied the accusation, and said that the gun recovered next to Lee's body had never been in held police custody. Andersen was placed on administrative leave by the police department, but was reinstated two days after the shooting. Minneapolis homicide detectives and an internal police investigation later determined Andersen had acted in accordance with its guidelines.

Legal proceedings

grand jury A grand jury is a jury—a group of citizens—empowered by law to conduct legal proceedings, investigate potential criminal conduct, and determine whether criminal charges should be brought. A grand jury may subpoena physical evidence or a pe ...

decided not to indict Andersen in a decision given on July 28, 2007, on criminal charges under

Minnesota Statutes Minnesota Statutes are a compilation of the official laws of the U.S. state of Minnesota. Minnesota Statutes comprise only of the general and permanent laws of the state. The Office of the Revisor of Statutes publishes a complete set of statutes ...

. Hmong community activists filed a complaint with the Minnesota Department of Civil Rights, but the case was not investigated and the matter was closed without further action. Lee's family sought judicial action in federal court. The federal case, which was presided over by Judge Paul A. Magnuson, considered if Andersen's use of force was excessive and if his actions were malicious and should therefore result in compensatory damages. The police said at trial that the stolen gun recovered in 2004 was not the same gun in Lee's possession the day of the July 22, 2006, shooting as there had been a mix-up in the identification and paperwork, and that Lee's gun had not been in police custody prior to Andersen fatally shooting Lee. On May 27, 2009, a federal jury, which did not have any racial

minority Minority may refer to: Politics * Minority government, formed when a political party does not have a majority of overall seats in parliament * Minority leader, in American politics, the floor leader of the second largest caucus in a legislative b ...

representation, decided against the family of Lee and ruled that Andersen's use of force was lawful. The family of Lee appealed the federal case to the

8th Circuit Court of Appeals The United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit (in case citations, 8th Cir.) is a United States federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the following United States district courts: * Eastern District of Arkansas * Western Dis ...

, which upheld the jury's verdict in a ruling in August 2010. The

Supreme Court of the United States The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

declined to hear the case in December 2010, which let the lower court ruling stand.

Aftermath

Jason Andersen

Andersen received a Medal of Valor, the police department's second-highest honor, in 2008. In July 2009, Andersen was placed on administrative leave by the police department after allegations of domestic violence. He was fired by the department in September 2009 after an internal investigation. In 2010, Andersen was charged, but acquitted at trial, of a federal civil rights charge for allegedly kicking a Black teenager in the head during a 2006 arrest incident. By 2020, Andersen was employed by Minneapolis Police Department as a

chaplain A chaplain is, traditionally, a cleric (such as a Minister (Christianity), minister, priest, pastor, rabbi, purohit, or imam), or a laity, lay representative of a religious tradition, attached to a secularity, secular institution (such as a hosp ...

coordinator.

Protests

The shooting created tension between the Hmong American community in Minneapolis and the police department with concerns of racial bias in policing. A 150-person protest over Lee's death was held at Minneapolis City Hall on July 26, 2006. Community activists called for an independent investigation at a rally on March 30, 2009. A protest over Lee's death was held in north Minneapolis on October 2, 2010. Controversy about Lee's death was renewed during protests over the police

murder of George Floyd On , George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, was murdered in the U.S. city of Minneapolis by Derek Chauvin, a 44-year-old white police officer. Floyd had been arrested on suspicion of using a counterfeit $20 bill. Chauvin knelt on Floyd's n ...

in 2020. Lee's family and Hmong American activists joined

Black Lives Matter Black Lives Matter (abbreviated BLM) is a decentralized political and social movement that seeks to highlight racism, discrimination, and racial inequality experienced by black people. Its primary concerns are incidents of police bruta ...

protesting police brutality during the

2020–2023 Minneapolis–Saint Paul racial unrest In the early 2020s, the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area in U.S. state of Minnesota experienced a wave of civil unrest, comprising peaceful demonstrations and riots, against systemic racism toward black Americans, notably in the form ...

. In 2021, demonstrators placed a memorial for Lee at the

George Floyd Square occupied protest The George Floyd Square occupied protest is centered at the intersection of East 38th Street (Minneapolis), 38th Street and Chicago Avenue (Minneapolis), Chicago Avenue in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States and features several makeshift memo ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lee, Fong People shot dead by law enforcement officers in the United States 2006 deaths Deaths by person in Minnesota Deaths by firearm in Minnesota Minneapolis Police Department Asian-American-related controversies American people of Hmong descent