Racist American state trooper of Minnesota is charged with murder in shooting of Black-American motorist during a traffic stop

Ryan Londregan has been charged in the fatal shooting of Ricky Cobb II during a traffic stop in MInneapolis over the summer

By Edward Era Barbacena

A Minnesota state trooper was charged with murder Wednesday in the shooting of motorist Ricky Cobb II, who failed to get out of his car during a July traffic stop and took his foot off the brake when officers tried to arrest him.

In announcing charges of second-degree unintentional murder, first-degree assault and second-degree manslaughter, Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said Trooper Ryan Londregan’s use of deadly force against Cobb, a 33-year-old Black man, was not justified.

“As with all Minnesota law enforcement officers, state troopers may only use deadly force when it is necessary to protect a person from a specific identified threat of great bodily harm or death that was reasonably likely to occur. That did not exist in this case,” Moriarty said..

Londregan’s attorney Chris Madel called his client “a hero,” saying Londregan, 27 was trying to protect himself and a fellow trooper. Madel filed papers seeking to have the case dismissed or at least to have Moriarty removed from the case.

“This county attorney is literally out of control. Open season on law enforcement must end. And it’s going to end with this case,” Madel said in a video statement.

Londregan has not been arrested. Moriarty said her office will not seek to hold him on bail but will ask the court to require him to surrender his passport and firearms. She expected his first court appearance to be scheduled for later this week or early next week.

The July 31 shooting occurred in Minneapolis, where the murder of George Floyd by police nearly four years ago spurred sometimes violent protests and a nationwide reckoning on racial justice. In that case, Derek Chauvin was sentenced to 22 1/2 years for second-degree murder.

The shooting has some similarities to the 2022 death of motorist Daunte Wright, who was trying to drive away from a traffic stop in the Minneapolis suburb of Brooklyn Center when Officer Kim Potter shot him. Potter said she meant to use her Taser but accidentally grabbed her gun. She served about 16 months of a two-year sentence for second-degree manslaughter.