When cops might kill, but don't

Last year, Minnesota law enforcement officers shot and killed 11 people. In every case, officers say they fired at people who were either armed or tried to take the officers' guns.

But most violent clashes with law enforcement do not end in a suspect's death. MPR News studied dozens of court cases from 2015 in which people allegedly assaulted police officers. Experts say that in some of those incidents, officers would have been legally justified in using deadly force. But the officers chose not to.

In January 2015, Officer Randy Mahlen's encounter with an apparently intoxicated suspect turned from routine to potentially deadly within a few seconds.

The Golden Valley police officer was putting handcuffs on 29-year-old Colonjay Eggleston at Hennepin County Medical Center when Eggleston turned and fought with the officer.

"He was able to forcefully rip the Taser out of the holster," Mahlen recounted, "and at that time it was all about survival."

The officer had pulled Eggleston over a few hours earlier on suspicion of driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Eggleston was so cooperative throughout the process, Mahlen said, that handcuffs seemed unnecessary. Mahlen had brought Eggleston to HCMC to have his blood tested.

It took several people and a Tasing to get Eggleston under control, he said.

Mahlen said he could have drawn his weapon and fired, but it wasn't necessary. He knew there were sheriff's deputies and security staff nearby, so he didn't have to wait long for help.

"Eventually security staff, which is stationed right in front of where the deputies were sitting in the little waiting room, were able to use an additional Taser on him and eventually subdue him," Mahlen said.

But having backup at a scene doesn't necessarily make it less likely that deadly force will be used. Last year, more than half of fatal police shootings involved two or more officers.

So far this year, police have shot and killed two men. In the most recent incident, five Burnsville police officers were involved in the fatal shooting of 38-year-old Map Kong. According to investigators, Kong had a weapon.

Police claim that in four fatal encounters last year — including the death of Jamar Clark in north Minneapolis — suspects were grabbing for officers' guns. However, some eyewitnesses say Clark wasn't resisting the officers when he was shot.

So why do some encounters end in death and others don't?

"I think that's an impossible question to answer," said Golden Valley Police Chief Jason Sturgis.

Many factors can influence how a scenario will end, he said, adding that the person interacting with the officer ultimately dictates the level of force an officer will have to use.

He said there's no way officers can account for everything that can happen, so they have to be prepared to handle just about anything.

"Not to go too far back, but you have to account for it by hiring the right people, training them the right way and continuing to train them," he said.

Sturgis said Randy Mahlen is one of more than a dozen officers on the Golden Valley force who have received crisis intervention training. The training is meant to prepare officers to interact with people who may be suffering from some sort of mental or emotional breakdown.

The Minneapolis Police Department is in the process of training all of its officers through a 40-hour crisis intervention program. Commander Troy Schoenberger said the training helps officers identify potential mental illness in the people they interact with.

A goal of the training is "understanding what you're looking at," Schoenberger said. "And then having some tools that you can use ... different de-escalation techniques to effectively resolve this particular incident without having to use force."

Schoenberger said about 15 percent of Minneapolis patrol officers have already received crisis training. He expects the rest of the force to be trained by this fall.

Mental health experts say people with mental illnesses are no more violent than anyone else. Those experts have advocated for training to help law enforcement officers better understand what they may be experiencing.

MPR News examined court documents from nearly 80 cases in Hennepin County last year involving reported assaults on police officers, including eight cases where suspects allegedly grabbed officers' Tasers or guns. In more than a quarter of those cases, the defendants self-reported that they had received some treatment for mental illness.

Colonjay Eggleston, the man who fought with Officer Randy Mahlen, pleaded guilty to one count of disarming a police officer and was sentenced to probation. On the plea agreement form filed in Hennepin County District Court, Eggleston checked a box indicating he had been treated for mental illness. Eggleston's public defender declined to comment on his case, and Eggleston has not responded to a request for comment.

The efforts by police departments in Minnesota and around the country to find ways to avoid using deadly force may not be new. But criminal justice professor and advocate Jason Sole said protests and demonstrations sparked by recent high-profile police shootings of African-Americans are pushing departments to reexamine how they use force.

"Police departments are realizing that there's going to be conversation, there may be protests," Sole said. "Something's going to happen when someone is killed. Now police departments are having the conversation — what does de-escalation look like?"

Sole is a member of the Minneapolis NAACP and a professor of law enforcement and criminal justice at Metropolitan State University. He also conducts diversity training for police departments around the country.

Sole said police departments can also avoid violent clashes with people of color by eliminating racial bias that may lead officers to treat African-Americans as if they're more dangerous than others. He also said police departments should hire more women.

"We don't see a lot of women involved in these shootings," Sole said. "And that's something that's missed from the discussion. But now, I'm going to departments and saying, 'Hey, this is a masculinity issue as well.'"

Of the 21 officers involved in fatal shootings in Minnesota last year, two were women. According to the state's Department of Public Safety, female officers make up 11 percent of the more than 10,000 law enforcement officers in Minnesota.

The executive director of the Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) board, Nathan Gove, looked at a small sample of the nearly 80 cases MPR News examined for this story. He said that in every case he saw, officers could have been justified in using deadly force. That just shows that law enforcement officers deal with much more complex situations than the cops on TV, he said.