Prosecutor: Deputy ‘ignored the law and ignored the training’ when he shot suicidal man

Opening statements heard Wednesday in the manslaughter trial of a Washington County sheriff’s deputy show the potential challenges when law enforcement officers respond to people who are threatening to harm themselves.

Deputy Brian Krook is only the third officer in Minnesota to be charged in an on-duty killing. Krook, 31, faces a charge of second-degree manslaughter in the 2018 shooting death of Benjamin Evans, who was threatening to kill himself. Krook has pleaded not guilty.

Here’s what you need to know about the case:

What happened in this case?

It was a little after midnight on April 12, 2018, when Washington County sheriff’s deputies were called to respond to a man who was threatening suicide in Lake Elmo. When the deputies arrived, they found the man kneeling on the ground in the middle of an intersection holding a gun to his own head.

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Krook later told a grand jury that he shot Evans when Evans aimed the gun at him and another deputy. Prosecutors in the case said Evans was moving the gun between his own head and his own chest throughout the encounter, but never aimed at anybody else and had no intention of hurting anybody except himself.

Benjamin Evans was threatening to kill himself. What is this phenomenon of suicide by cop?

The idea of suicide by cop is that somebody who wants to hurt himself does something that “forces” the police to shoot him. In this case, the defense has argued that by refusing to drop the gun, Krook had no choice but to shoot him to protect himself, his fellow officers and the public.

The idea of suicide by cop has been around for decades, but people who study it say it’s controversial because it’s hard to tell if somebody is just distraught or is actually trying to threaten the officers.

In this case, as the prosecutors pointed out, Evans had written a goodbye note to his parents and a note of apology to the EMTs he assumed would find his body. A friend who was with him the day he died — and who called 911 when it became clear that Evans was intent on hurting himself —testified that he didn’t say anything about going after police.

The trial started Wednesday. What happened so far?

The trial is being held in Washington County, but to avoid conflict of interest, the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office is prosecuting it.

County Attorney Andrew Johnson gave the prosecution’s opening statement first. His take was that Evans was a good person — an EMT and a firefighter in training — who was in serious crisis that night. Evans had recently lost a job. His girlfriend had refused to marry him. And worse, Evans had just found out that she was dating an old friend of his.

Johnson said that Krook “ignored the law and ignored the training” when he shot Evans.

Defense attorney Paul Engh spoke second. To his telling, Evans had been drinking all day and all evening and was extremely drunk by the time of the shooting. He said that Evans “asked the police officers to do what he could not” — that is, to kill him.

Engh said the officers were afraid for their own safety and the safety of the public. He said Krook had never fired a gun in the line of duty and didn’t want to kill Evans.

Testimony from witnesses started, too. A friend who spent hours with Evans the day he died described watching him write notes to his parents and the EMTs. She testified to knocking on a neighbors’ door to call 911 after Evans left the apartment with his gun.

What’s next?

In coming days, expert witnesses will testify, as will other deputies who were there that night. The defense hasn’t said yet whether Krook himself will testify, but his attorney implied that in his opening statement Wednesday.