Minneapolis man accused of shooting neighbor but has not been arrested, sparking anger with police

A white Minneapolis man was charged with attempted murder Thursday after allegedly shooting his Black neighbor in the neck for touching a tree following an ongoing dispute, but police’s failure to arrest the suspect has angered residents. city ​​council members.

He The Hennepin County Prosecutor’s Office filed charges against John Herbert Sawchak in connection with Wednesday’s shooting of Davis Moturi.

The office said it received the case Thursday and immediately charged Sawchak with attempted murder, first-degree assault and felony stalking and harassment, aggravated by racial bias, NBC reported. KARE of Minneapolis reported.

At the time of the shooting, Sawchak had three active arrest warrants against him, including one for threats of violence against Moturi, according to court documents.

As of Saturday afternoon, Sawchak had not been arrested by Minneapolis police. A spokesman said they have “every intention of arresting him.”

On Wednesday, Moturi was trimming a tree on his property when he was shot. Court documents claim Sawchak shot his neighbor in the neck with a handgun from an open upstairs window.

Moturi fractured his spine, has two broken ribs and a concussion, his wife, Caroline, said in a telephone interview Saturday.

Sawchak, 54, could not be reached at a phone number listed in his name.

Police Chief Brian O’Hara said in a press conference On Friday officers responded to the hospital for reports of a gunshot victim. Moturi told them that his neighbor had threatened to shoot him “if he touched a specific tree.” While Moturi was cutting down the tree, he was shot.

The chief said Sawchak has not been arrested because he is “mentally ill” and possesses firearms. In the past, Sawchak has had “violent confrontations” and refused to cooperate the dozens of times officers responded to his home, O’Hara said.

Court documents claim Sawchak suffers from mental illness and “paranoid personality disorder.”

“We have been working to arrest the suspect in this case since at least April of this year, when the county attorney’s office first rejected the harassment charges and then filed them with the city attorney’s office,” said the police chief to journalists. “No Minneapolis police officers have had in-person contact with that suspect since the victim in this case called us.”

O’Hara said executing a warrant would be considered high risk.

“Based on our assessment, the likelihood of an armed and violent confrontation where we have to use deadly force with the suspect in this case is high,” he said. “We wanted to arrest the suspect where he was least likely to have access to firearms. “That is outside the residence.”

The chief said Sawchak is a “recluse” who does not frequently leave his house. A police spokesman did not have a timeline for when a possible arrest could be made.

The delay in arresting Sawchak has angered some members of the Minneapolis City Council. Andrea Jenkins, Elliott Payne, Aisha Chughtai, Jason Chavez and Robin Wonsley sent a letter to O’Hara and Mayor Jacob Frey, accusing police of failing to protect “a Minneapolis resident from a clear, persistent and widely reported threat posed for his neighbor.” ,” according Minnesota’s star tribune.

Jenkins told reporters after the police chief’s news conference that violent criminals need to be taken off the streets.

“I’m not a police officer, I don’t know how that’s done, but I know it needs to be done,” Jenkins said.

O’Hara said anyone who suggests police don’t want to arrest Sawchak is “simply wrong.” Frey’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“To be honest, the agents, however, are scared. “They are afraid of being prosecuted if they find themselves in a situation where they make a mistake while trying to do their job and protect the public,” the police chief said at the press conference.

Last year, the Minneapolis Police Department was at the center of a federal investigation that was launched following the Murder of George Floyd in 2020. The Justice Department found that the department and the city had a pattern of excessive force and racial discrimination which violated both the United States Constitution and federal law.

“If we went in with a SWAT team and ended up with a deadly force situation, the headlines would say ‘MPD Shoots Mentally Ill Person,’” the chief said.

Moturi, 34, said the lack of help from police is the reason he is now in hospital.

“In the emails, I specifically said that something very, very bad was going to have to happen before anything was done,” he said in a telephone interview from the hospital. “And something really bad happened and he’s still free.”

Moturi and his wife said their problems with Sawchak began after they moved into their home in September 2023. Initially, they said it was because Moturi wanted to cut down a tree on their property.

“I went to approach him about the tree like any good neighbor should… and he just didn’t agree. He started to get very aggressive, insulting me,” Moturi said. “I was thinking he just had a bad day, so I left and came back and he continued to threaten me and say all kinds of racially charged things, he called me ghetto.”

Problems with Sawchak soon escalated, according to Moturi, who said Sawchak began doing things like spraying water on the side of their house and using a horn to keep them awake.

The situation got so bad that Moturi installed outside cameras to capture his neighbor’s behavior. According to Moturi, while setting up the cameras, he says Sawchak tried to attack him.

Moturi said he had to spray Sawchak to get him to back away.

During another incident in April, Moturi said Sawchak attacked him with a shovel while he was cleaning his garden.

Moturi said he and his wife called and emailed police dozens of times, but Sawchak was never arrested.

Court documents revealed that Sawchak has a long history of alleged threats and violent acts. In January 2016, he allegedly verbally harassed a neighbor while holding a knife and threatened to kill him, documents say.

In June of that year, he allegedly used a knife to slash the tires of an off-duty police officer’s vehicle. Other cases mentioned in the document allege that he attempted to hit a neighbor with a motorized bicycle, threatened to ambush and shoot his sister, hit a neighbor with a wooden stick causing injuries, threatened to put a neighbor in the hospital, and threw a shovel to a neighbor.

He was arrested several times over the years on suspicion of second-degree assault and misdemeanor assault/harassment, according to court documents.

This month, Sawchak was accused of brandishing a knife and threatening to kill his neighbor, pointing a firearm at his neighbor while he was standing outside the neighbor’s window and shooting him in the neck, according to documents.

The court filing also accuses Sawchak of violating multiple harassment restraining orders. Since 2007, he has been served with 13 harassment restraining orders, the most recent filed by Moturi, who said Sawchak “threatened to put him in a hospital while holding a gun.”

Another restraining order filed by another person expired earlier this month, according to court documents.