2 SWAT team members involved in Jaleel Stallings case were part of Locke raid

Two officers on a SWAT team that was caught on body camera video firing at citizens without warning from an unmarked cargo van just days after the police killing of George Floyd were involved in the raid that led to the police killing of Amir Locke Wednesday morning.

A Minneapolis police report says police officers Kristopher Dauble and Nathan Sundberg were on two SWAT teams that executed search warrants on the Bolero Flats apartments, where 22-year-old Locke was shot and killed after being awakened as he slept on a couch. 

The report indicates Sundberg was on the SWAT team with officer Mark Hanneman that entered the apartment where Hanneman shot and killed Locke. Dauble was listed as a member of a second SWAT team on the scene.

Dauble and Sundberg were on the SWAT team that roamed Lake Street in a van five days after Floyd’s murder, randomly firing 40mm marking rounds at citizens as police struggled to regain control of the city after days of riots, looting and arson.

One person they fired at was Jaleel Stallings, who fired back with his gun because he thought they were the white supremacists the governor had warned the public about. Stallings, a military veteran with a gun permit, later said he purposely missed the people in the van, and only realized they were police officers when they jumped out of the van yelling “shots fired!” He dropped his pistol and laid flat on the ground, hands out. Two officers beat him. 

A Hennepin County jury later acquitted Stallings of eight charges, including attempted murder of police officers, after a judge allowed him to claim self-defense.

In bodycam videos, Dauble is seen laughing and fist-bumping another officer after he hit a group of protesters violating curfew but not looting or rioting. Later, when Stallings fired on their van, Dauble said he lifted his feet (which were hanging out of the van) when he saw a round skipping off the pavement below the van. On bodycam video, Dauble fell backward, then fired toward Stallings’ pickup, hitting the passenger side mirror and cracking the casing, as the SWAT team’s van slowed.

Dauble later testified that the SWAT team was “emotionally charged” that night and shot at people to deter rioting and looting, which they’d seen earlier that night before they headed out on Lake Street. 

“So Lake Street, obviously, was on fire,” he testified during a pre-trial hearing. “Every other store was either looted or on fire so we were just trying to push people out of the area and disperse crowds from buildings to calm the city. So it was no lights, no sirens, and just on patrol down Lake Street trying to regain some control of the city.”

While testifying before a state House public safety committee Friday morning, Stallings’ attorney, Eric Rice, noted the officers’ involvement in the deadly Wednesday raid. He said that to his knowledge, the officers involved have not been disciplined for their Lake Street actions nearly two years later.

“Not only have no actions occurred, to my knowledge, to the officers involved, but they’re still operating business as usual,” he said. “We have another incident that further erodes public trust.”

Two members of the SWAT team that fired on Stallings took “duty disability retirements” and a third took regular retirement, but it’s unclear how many of the others are still working on SWAT teams.

Stallings has since sued the city, naming 19 Minneapolis officers, including Dauble and Sundberg.

MPD has declined to comment on the Stallings case, saying an internal investigation was underway after the Reformer wrote about Stallings’ acquittal and published bodycam videos that renewed questions about the department.