Jury hears testimony in 2017 police shooting civil suit
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A federal jury is hearing testimony this week in a civil trial over the death of a man whom St. Paul police shot six years ago.
Officers Mikko Norman and Nathaniel Younce killed Cordale Handy, 29, on March 15, 2017 after responding to a domestic violence call in the Dayton's Bluff neighborhood.
Ramsey County Attorney John Choi said later that the officers' use of deadly force was justified and they would not face criminal charges.
Handy's mother Kim Handy Jones sued the city nearly a month after the incident but later dropped her case. She refiled her lawsuit in 2020.
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In it, Handy Jones alleges that the officers shouted conflicting commands at her son and shot him seconds after he tossed his gun away.
Handy Jones said her son was experiencing a mental health crisis and acknowledges that he had earlier fired 16 shots inside his apartment because he thought someone was “trying to hurt or kill him.”
Responding to questions from plaintiff’s attorney Kevin O’Connor on Tuesday, Younce testified that he opened fire when Handy pointed his gun toward Officer Norman, and said Handy posed a “active deadly threat.”
“If he did not point the gun at my partner, I would not have shot him,” Younce said.
Younce fired four of the seven shots that struck Handy; Norman fired the other three.
The incident happened about six months before the St. Paul Police Department began deploying body cameras. Security cameras in the area captured some video related to the incident, but not the shooting itself.
Officer Dao Vang testified that he drove from Eastern District headquarters to the scene near E. 7th and Sinnen Streets after hearing a radio call about a man with a gun. En route, Vang said Younce reported that shots had been fired.
In response to questions from O’Connor, Vang said that he wrote in an official report that he observed a Black male falling face forward to the ground on Sinnen St. while holding a handgun.
Later Tuesday, a forensic pathologist who testified as an expert witness for the plaintiffs cast doubt on the officers’ testimony.
Dr. Ronald K. Wright, who reviewed the medical examiner’s report, said abrasions on Handy’s right hand indicate that it was “highly unlikely” that Handy was holding the gun when he fell.
Wright also testified that Handy was shot as he lay on the ground with his legs pointed up as evidenced by a gunshot wound to the bottom of his right foot. Wright added that even if Handy had a gun nearby, he would not have been able to fire it because one of the officers’ bullets injured his forearm.
Under cross examination from Assistant St. Paul City Attorney Tony Edwards, Wright said it’s not possible to determine the exact time when Handy injured his hand, and conceded that the injury could have occurred before the officers confronted him.
Handy's gun was later determined to have been unloaded. The medical examiner found that Handy had drugs in his system including N-Ethylpentylone. The drug, commonly known as “bath salts,” can result in agitation and erratic behavior, according to the autopsy report.