Attorney General Keith Ellison on Wednesday charged a former Minneapolis police officer with beating a man during protests over the death of George Floyd.
Justin Stetson, 34, faces charges of third-degree assault in connection with the beating of Jaleel Stallings on May 30, 2020. He faces up to five years in prison if convicted.
It was not immediately clear if Stetson has an attorney. A Minneapolis attorney who represented him and other officers in a federal lawsuit Stallings filed against them did not immediately respond to an email asking if he knew if Stetson had a criminal attorney.
According to the criminal complaint, Stetson was in a group of officers enforcing a citywide traffic stop that night when his group spotted four people in a parking lot. One of them was Stallings.
Officers opened fire on the group with rubber bullets. One struck Stallings in the chest, causing him severe pain, according to the complaint. Stallings fired three shots into the officers’ unmarked pickup truck, but did not injure anyone.
He claimed he believed civilians were attacking him and fired in self-defense. He was acquitted in September 2021 of attempted second-degree murder charges related to that shooting.
The officers pounced on the civilians. When Stallings realized it was the police, he dropped the gun and lay on the floor. Stetson then kicked him in the face and head, according to the complaint. He also punched Stallings several times and hit his head on the pavement, the complaint says.
Stetson continued to hit him even after he obeyed Stetson’s command to put his hands behind his back. Finally, a sergeant told Stetson to stop.
Stallings suffered a broken eye bone.
AP Photo/Christian Monterrosa
Ian Adams, a former law enforcement officer who is now a professor of criminology at the University of South Carolina, reviewed the case and concluded that Stetson’s use of force was unreasonable and excessive and “violated the most basic rules of the police”. states of complaint. .
The complaint alleged that Stetson had been a Minneapolis police officer since 2011 and received about 1,200 hours of training, including instruction on how to defuse situations.
The city of Minneapolis paid Stallings $1.5 million last May to settle his federal lawsuit. He claimed that Stetson and other officers violated his constitutional rights.
This story has been updated to correct that Stallings’ federal lawsuit accused Stetson and other officers of violating his rights.
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