Thread by @UR_Ninja

Isak Aden, One Year Later: A Life Stolen by Police

Family files $20M lawsuit on 1-yr anniversary.

Ofcr Moseng, who was speaking on phone with Aden as he was fatally shot by police, pushed 2 #JusticeForIsak protesters during the 1-yr event.

Full Story: unicornriot.ninja/2020/isak-aden…

Isak Aden was a 23 y/o college student, entrepreneur, & father figure to his younger siblings when he was killed by police in Eagan, MN, on July 2, 2019.

He had immigrated to the US w/ his grandma after both his parents died in the Somali civil war.

>unicornriot.ninja/2020/isak-aden…<

Responding to a disputed domestic disturbance call, nearly 100 officers from a slew of south suburban police depts – including the South Metro SWAT unit, 4 snipers, three K-9 units, an MRAP, & 2 Bearcats – quickly surrounded #IsakAden in a parking lot off HWY 13 in Eagan.

4 hours later & an hr into negotiations, while on the phone with him, officers fatally shot Aden.

Aden had a handgun on the ground when the police initiated their action plan but there's no conclusive evidence proving he aimed it at any officers standing behind armored vehicles.

Two wks after Aden was killed, a large crowd overtook Eagan’s City Council mtg, using the space to express outrage over Isak’s death.

After the 2019 action, 2 of his siblings shared stories of their beloved sibling & what happened the night he was killed. unicornriot.ninja/2019/isak-aden…

The next week, in late July 2019, a large protest marched through Eagan's high-end outlet mall calling for #JusticeForIsak.

https://twitter.com/UR_Ninja/status/1155988227955687426

On November 13, 2019, the Dakota County Attorney announced that the death of #IsakAden was “legally justified” and the police officers that killed the 23-year-old would face no legal consequences.
unicornriot.ninja/2019/isak-aden…

A year after her brother’s death, Sumaya Aden led a march to the location where he was killed.

She pointed to the wall of the building where she said bullet holes & her brother’s blood could still be seen.

Full video of Sumaya's speech avail here: unicornriot.ninja/2020/isak-aden…

“The city has blood on it’s hands and there’s no way you can cover it up. There was a murder that took place right here in this spot. The murder of my brother.“ - Sumaya Aden, Isak's sister

Sumaya said combining the July 2020 march for her brother [#IsakAden] along with the celebration of Somali Independence Day was a way to “honor the ancestors” & the legacy of the dead “in a way that they would’ve loved, which is protesting and fighting against these injustices.”

While at the site of Aden’s death, his former classmate, Kamia Muse, recounted meeting & becoming friends with Isak in the 7th grade after she moved to Minnesota.

She said he helped comfort her & spoke to her in Somali, “which was greatly appreciated” at the time.

Many people spoke during the July 1, 2020, march to the site where #IsakAden was killed by police.

This video features some of what Sumaya, Kamia (mentioned in thread above), & other participants & friends of Aden had to say a year after he was killed.
vimeo.com/462502858

In the lawsuit filed on behalf of Isak Aden exactly a year after his death, 23 defendants are named as violating Aden’s Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment rights.

Lawsuit PDF: unicornriot.ninja/wp-content/upl…

The 23 are listed in the complaint as follows:

Two of the “lethal force defendants” – Bloomington's Anthony Kiehl & Eagan’s Jacob Peterson – have killed before as police officers.

Kiehl, one of the snipers who shot Aden, killed 24y/o Quincy Reindl in Bloomington in 2015. Peterson killed 26y/o Zachary Premo in Duluth in 2013.

Burnsville Police Sergeant Maksim Yakovlev, one of the “supervising defendants” had also killed before & was awarded Burnsville’s 2016 Officer of the Year award.

In 2016, Yakovlev fatally shot #MapKong in the back several times as he ran away from officers while holding a knife.

Similar to Yakovlev after killing #MapKong, Ofc. Adam Stier was awarded Officer of the Year after killing #IsakAden.

Stier was one of the other snipers on the roof who shot Aden (along w Ofc. Kiehl) & was given the 2019 Officer of the Year award for the Bloomington Police Dept.

“Putting officers who have a previous past of being involved in fatal shootings on the frontline of a situation that sensitive, tells you what kind of mindset they had going into this.” - Sumaya Aden said to Unicorn Riot in July 2019

The lawsuit filed by the Aden family claims the initial police response during the night #IsakAden was killed was “militarized” and “aggressive” and contained Aden to a “vacant, industrial parking lot” eliminating “any risk to the public.“

https://twitter.com/UR_Ninja/status/1334694925884121088

Isak Aden sat on the curb of an industrial parking lot off Hwy 13 in Eagan at 6:44 p.m. and remained seated and calm, never provoking or threatening any of the officers, until 10:37 p.m. when the “tactical plan” that killed Aden was carried out.

Read the full story 'Isak Aden, One Year Later: A Life Stolen by police':
unicornriot.ninja/2020/isak-aden…

*Correction: Officer Adam Stier was awarded the 2019 Officer of the Year award in late June. He killed Isak Aden on July 2, 2019.

Pic & details via: hometownsource.com/sun_current/co…

Central to the demands of the police negotiation was the gun that Isak Aden had in his possession.

Aden followed commands to put the gun on the ground around 8:56 p.m. & didn’t touch it until police attacked him, when he was 18 inches away from the gun & on the phone w/ police.

When the police initiated their deadly "tactical plan," they first shot at least 3 flashbang grenades & 6 "less-lethal" rounds at #IsakAden in a couple of seconds.

Aden then attempted to run to his right & was immediately shot w/ live rounds, incl 2 from snipers, & killed.

The lawsuit states that Isak Aden’s only request was to speak with his ex-girlfriend, who had initially called 911, & have her confirm to the police that he hadn’t threatened her with the handgun, which prompted the standoff.

Their dispute revolved around shared private images.

Negotiations between Officer Moseng & Aden allowed for “immediate, significant, & positive results” & the assault plans developed/authorized by defendants Roger New, Andrew Speakman, Corey Cardenas, & Maksim Yakovlev constituted “extreme & unjustifiable violence," says the suit.

A main reason for this violent response as opposed to a more peaceful resolution, according to the lawsuit, was that the police officers “ignored Mr. Aden’s compliance, seeing only a threatening young, Black, Somali male that could be dealt with by force.“

Eagan’s Police Chief Roger New, 1 of 3 Black police chiefs in MN, made the curious claim that Isak Aden ‘looked at them with deadly force’ and said his officers “showed a great deal of restraint."

New claimed he developed that bias from “tactical” and “law enforcement training.“

Saying someone’s ‘look’ is so threatening that one had to ‘defend themselves’ against such a perceived threat is a centuries-old trope rooted in racism.

This logic's been used in numerous recent cases of police killings across the US, leading to the exoneration of the officers.

These sorts of dubious claims were part of the strategy to clear officers in the #TwinCities responsible for the deaths of #BrianQuinones & #JamarClark, among others.

Screen grab from article on ruling of officer justification in #BrianQuinones' killing: unicornriot.ninja/2020/no-charge…

Officers’ use of deadly force against #IsakAden “was contrary to the [officers] conduct in other, similar situations with individuals who were not Black & Somali“, says the lawsuit.

A year before Aden was killed, Yakovlev’s Burnsville PD peacefully ended a 12-hour-standoff.

One of the leading causes of deaths for Black men in the US is being killed by police, w/ nearly one in every 1,000 dying at the hands of a cop.

The realities of racial bias being instilled during police training started to gain more public attn in the latter part of the 2010s.

Lifetime risk of being killed by the police in the US by sex and race–ethnicity for a synthetic cohort of 100,000 at 2013 to 2018 risk levels.

Graph via the study ‘Risk of being killed by police use of force in the US by age, race–ethnicity, and sex‘

https://twitter.com/UR_Ninja/status/1334994403530846212

One of the more infamous trainings for officers is the fear based Bulletproof Warrior trainings taught by so-called ‘Killology’ creator Dave Grossman.

Former St. Anthony Police ofc Jeronimo Yanez, who killed #PhilandoCastile in 2016, had attended Bulletproof Warrior trainings.

In 2018, Unicorn Riot published The Bulletproof Warrior & Anatomy of Force Incidents training manuals that Jeronimo Yanez read during a 2014 seminar.

Copies of the manuals were passed to the public by @CUAPBMpls at a May 2018 protest against the trainings.unicornriot.ninja/2018/bulletpro…