Twin Cities Carry Forum Archive :: View topic - Suit alleges Minneapolis cops planted gun by man they killed

Quote:

Following the Missing Gun Trail
Minneapolis police accused of planting gun

Created On: Wednesday, 01 Apr 2009, 10:23 PM CDT

* Tom Lyden

MINNEAPOLIS - To say this story is complicated is an understatement. It is the tale of two guns, sloppy police work and, in the end, a dead teenager whose family believes he was unarmed when he was shot eight times.

The gun was found several feet from Fong Lee's body. It did not contain a single fingerprint or any of Lee's DNA.

"We believe all along that Fong did not have a gun and to this day we still believe it," Lee's sister, Shoua, said.

Earlier this week, lawyers for the family filed court documents saying " the evidence supports a claim of police planting a gun ."

That evidence, the family says, includes several confusing an conflicting police reports. Two years before the shooting of Fong Lee, the gun was stolen from a man named Dang Her.

Police reports indicate officers recovered the Russian-made 380 a week later from a snow bank, placing the stolen weapon in the police property room.

"The gun owner was apparently notified and told, allegedly, that the police had his gun," Richard Hechter, an attorney for the Lee family, said. "And they found him by tracing the make, model and serial number to this gentleman. This is even indicated in some of the police reports after Fong Lee's shooting, yet, miraculously. a week after Fong Lee's shooting another report surfaces claiming that there was some mistake in 2004 and the gun found by Fong Lee's body was not the same gun they allegedly recovered back in 2004. Very suspicious and very troubling."

Troubling because police reports two years earlier refer interchangeably to two very different guns -- one a Russian-made 380, clearly marked. The other was a Belgian-made FNH 7-point 65 caliber.

A Minneapolis police officer writes he has recovered a Russian-made 380 caliber gun, but then gives a serial number for the Belgian-made FNH gun.

Wednesday, Minneapolis police pointed us to yet another report saying it clears up everything. The report shows the gun in the evidence locker was the FNH gun, and not the Russian-made gun found by Lee's body.

Minneapolis police believe they have finally sorted out the confusing mess, but for Fong Lee's family, they've only raised suspicions.

A grand jury and internal affairs investigation both cleared the officer of any wrongdoing. In fact, he received the Medal of Valor for his actions.

But the Lee family says the MPS still owes them answers. The wrongful death lawsuit is set to go to trial in May.

Author:	PocketProtector642 [ Wed Apr 01, 2009 6:03 pm ]
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Quote: link Now, surveillance video released by Rich Hechter, the Lee family attorney shows the end of the chase between Officer Andersen and Fong Lee. Hechter, along with experts he hired, says the video shows Lee was not carrying a gun during the chase.

Author:	tman065 [ Thu Apr 02, 2009 3:59 pm ]
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I watched a video clip on FOX 9. The video doesn't show me what might be in his pocket.

Author:	joelr [ Thu Apr 02, 2009 4:04 pm ]
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tman065 wrote: I watched a video clip on FOX 9. The video doesn't show me what might be in his pocket. Sure. But if it was gun that was still booked into the MPD evidence room, there's at least a couple people with a lot of explaining to do.

Author:	DeanC [ Thu Apr 02, 2009 5:15 pm ]
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New story from Fox 9 Quote: Following the Missing Gun Trail Minneapolis police accused of planting gun Created On: Wednesday, 01 Apr 2009, 10:23 PM CDT * Tom Lyden MINNEAPOLIS - To say this story is complicated is an understatement. It is the tale of two guns, sloppy police work and, in the end, a dead teenager whose family believes he was unarmed when he was shot eight times. The gun was found several feet from Fong Lee's body. It did not contain a single fingerprint or any of Lee's DNA. "We believe all along that Fong did not have a gun and to this day we still believe it," Lee's sister, Shoua, said. Earlier this week, lawyers for the family filed court documents saying " the evidence supports a claim of police planting a gun ." That evidence, the family says, includes several confusing an conflicting police reports. Two years before the shooting of Fong Lee, the gun was stolen from a man named Dang Her. Police reports indicate officers recovered the Russian-made 380 a week later from a snow bank, placing the stolen weapon in the police property room. "The gun owner was apparently notified and told, allegedly, that the police had his gun," Richard Hechter, an attorney for the Lee family, said. "And they found him by tracing the make, model and serial number to this gentleman. This is even indicated in some of the police reports after Fong Lee's shooting, yet, miraculously. a week after Fong Lee's shooting another report surfaces claiming that there was some mistake in 2004 and the gun found by Fong Lee's body was not the same gun they allegedly recovered back in 2004. Very suspicious and very troubling." Troubling because police reports two years earlier refer interchangeably to two very different guns -- one a Russian-made 380, clearly marked. The other was a Belgian-made FNH 7-point 65 caliber. A Minneapolis police officer writes he has recovered a Russian-made 380 caliber gun, but then gives a serial number for the Belgian-made FNH gun. Wednesday, Minneapolis police pointed us to yet another report saying it clears up everything. The report shows the gun in the evidence locker was the FNH gun, and not the Russian-made gun found by Lee's body. Minneapolis police believe they have finally sorted out the confusing mess, but for Fong Lee's family, they've only raised suspicions. A grand jury and internal affairs investigation both cleared the officer of any wrongdoing. In fact, he received the Medal of Valor for his actions. But the Lee family says the MPS still owes them answers. The wrongful death lawsuit is set to go to trial in May.

Author:	DeanC [ Thu Apr 02, 2009 5:22 pm ]
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I'm guessing this is what they mean by a FNH 7-point 65 caliber And this what they mean by a Russian-made 380 caliber gun

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Suit alleges Minneapolis cops planted gun by man they killed http://forum.twincitiescarry.com/viewtopic.php?f=40&t=12336	Page 2 of 3

Author:	1911fan [ Thu Apr 02, 2009 6:48 pm ]
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An underlying story, but one with great implications here. Why was the recovered property gun not returned to the rightful owner?? If the gun had been released from the property room it could not have been borrowed. If it was a mak " found " at the shooting site, it would be hard to say it was the baby browning which belonged to someone else. That's an awful nice little pocket gun to let the cops keep. There was a bill up once upon a time that was require PD's to release/dispose/or sell all seized property within 14 days of closing the case. Does anyone know if that's law now? It was to keep PDs from warehousing drugs.

Author:	Jeff [ Mon Apr 06, 2009 11:44 am ]
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Chief Dolan says that the gun wasn't planted: http://www.startribune.com/local/425282 ... _Yyc:aUUsZ It's not surprising to me that neither DNA nor fingerprints were found on the gun. In my experience, you see either incomplete DNA profiles or none at all due to the surface of the gun not having good spots for depositing either. Occasionally, the lab will find a complete DNA profile. I would be interested to find out if they found any trace of DNA at all. Of course, the article doesn't make that clear.

Author:	joelr [ Mon Apr 06, 2009 1:48 pm ]
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It occurs to me that, just maybe, if the MPD stopped with the whole "arrest the gun" stuff, and all the silly hoops that they make gunowners go through before returning their property -- if ever -- they'd have fewer guns lying around the property room to be <s>drop guns</s> subjects of clerical errors that mistakenly suggest that they were dropped near a dead guy. All sarcasm aside: if the MPD internal affairs department had any credibility at all, or if the MPD spokesman did, maybe their statements would mean something in this case. But . . .

Author:	Specified Gravity [ Wed Apr 08, 2009 11:40 am ]
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No matter what the real story ends up being, it's going to leave everyone with a black eye.

Author:	kecker [ Wed Apr 08, 2009 1:31 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: Suit alleges Minneapolis cops planted gun by man they ki
mrokern wrote: Option #3: It got improperly released from MPD via a bureaucratic eff-up. In which case we're dealing with clean, but stupid. No matter what caused it, this situation is bad juju. -Mark Yeah, but even then you're dealing with an amazing set of coincidences!! A fairly uncommon handgun that just so happened to be released by "accident" from police impound, gets released to a person that just happens to be involved in a rather suspect police shooting in which the first responding officer was the same officer that originally impounded the firearm. If you don't see the extremely low probability there, I have beachfront property in Nebraska I'm willing to sell for a pretty good deal.

Author:	MTinMN [ Fri Apr 10, 2009 10:03 am ]
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The Pioneer Press article on this on Thursday sure laid out the Minneapolis spin of this, and it certainly didn't look the least bit probable. As I read about this, what troubled me more was that 5 shots were made into the suspect/victim after he was on the ground from the first 3 shots! How could 2 internal MPD investigations and the grand jury find nothing wrong with that? (without sufficient gallons of whitewash that is)

Author:	Traveler [ Fri Apr 10, 2009 2:57 pm ]
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You may be assured that when the Minneapolis Police Department hands out medals that something nefarious is afoot.

Author:	joelr [ Fri Apr 10, 2009 3:29 pm ]
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Traveler wrote: You may be assured that when the Minneapolis Police Department hands out medals that something nefarious is afoot. I've got to disagree; I wish it were so. If it were, then we could just assume that anybody who wears a badge with "MPD" on it and gets a medal is a scoundrel. But that's just not so. What is so is that the MPD has a policy of any MPD cop who shoots somebody and doesn't get convicted or disciplined for it gets a medal. (With very, very few exceptions; Chuck Storlie didn't get one for crippling Duy Ngo, far as I know.) That includes folks who have done real heroic stuff -- and there are some. Really. It also, alas, includes <s>heavily-armored, jackbooted thugs, toting full auto weapons, their identities concealed by executioners' hoods</s> heavily-armed, dedicated public servants wearing ballistic protection, their faces concealed by tactical balaclavas, shooting the shit out of some poor Hmong family's house while tripping over a bunch of kids. The trouble is: both kinds of folks get medals from the MPD. And that's very, very sad.

Author:	Traveler [ Fri Apr 10, 2009 3:35 pm ]
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You have to admit the some of the medal awards in the past few years have gone a long way to negating any positive worth in them. If I were employed by that department, and was selected to be honored with a medal, my instincts would be to decline. I would not want to be defined by my associations in that case.

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Author:	joelr [ Fri Apr 10, 2009 3:43 pm ]
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Traveler wrote: You have to admit the some of the medal awards in the past few years have gone a long way to negating any positive worth in them. Yup; I'll admit that with no reservation whatsoever.