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Curtis Gilbert

Conflict concerns lead Ramsey County to step back on shooting probe

The site of an officer-involved shooting
A vehicle is photographed at the site of an officer-involved shooting in St. Paul, Minn., on Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2015.
Jeffrey Thompson / MPR News

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Washington County prosecutors have taken over the investigation of an officer-involved shooting in St. Paul after the Ramsey County Attorney's Office determined the case posed a conflict of interest.

One of the officers who killed 24-year-old Marcus Golden on Jan. 14 is the son of a "management-level employee" in the Ramsey attorney's office, said spokesman Dennis Gerhardstein.

Ramsey County Attorney John Choi referred the case to Washington County Attorney Pete Orput on Jan. 20, after discovering the conflict. It wasn't reported publicly until today.

St. Paul Police say Golden accelerated his car at officers Dan Peck and Jeremy Doverspike after they confronted him in the parking lot of a University Avenue apartment building at around 2:14 a.m. The officers were responding to reports that Golden was sending threatening text messages.

Golden's family has asked the public to "respect the investigative process and forego rash judgments and commentary on the circumstances that led to the death of another vibrant young African-American man." His mother, Ericka Cullars-Golden, worked for 20 years as a civilian reserve officer in the St. Paul Police Department.

Orput received the case file this week, which he described as "voluminous."

"I also learned that investigators are awaiting results of a subpoena that was served on an Israeli company that owns a server that may contain text data from the deceased's phone, but I have not had time to determine whether those records may be necessary or not," Orput wrote in an email.

A grand jury will ultimately decide whether any criminal charges are warranted, a standard practice in police shootings.