New details emerged Friday in the fatal police shooting of Andrew Tekle Sundberg, who was killed Thursday morning after a standoff with Minneapolis police.
Sundberg was in an apartment building when two snipers from Minneapolis police’s SWAT team fired at him from their position on the rooftop of a building across the street, according to two search warrant affidavits filed Friday by a special agent with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. Sundberg, 20, died later at Hennepin Healthcare.
“Minneapolis SWAT Team members arrived and two snipers set up observation from the roof of apartment building located at 911 21st Avenue South which is across the street from 904 21st Avenue South,” agent Paul Gherardi wrote in the search warrant. “At some point during the standoff, the two snipers shot the male subject.”
The Bureau of Criminal Apprehension is investigating the shooting, which is typical protocol when Minneapolis police kill civilians while on duty.
Sundberg’s family has not spoken publicly about the shooting, although a woman who identified herself as Sundberg’s sister spoke about him at a candlelight vigil Thursday night. Attendees at the vigil who identified themselves as close family friends raised concerns about how police treated Sundberg’s parents after they were called to the scene during police negotiations with their son. Minneapolis police declined to address the concerns Friday, citing the ongoing investigation.
Sahan Journal reached out Friday to a home listed to Sundberg’s relatives, and did not receive any comment. Sundberg’s former youth soccer coach, Steve Scofield, remembered him as a “sweet” kid who was quick to give hugs, and who likely struggled with mental health issues.
Minneapolis police previously said the events began when a woman with two young children called Wednesday to report that her apartment in a building at 904 21st Avenue South was being fired upon. Officers responded to the scene about 9:30 p.m.
Minneapolis police started evacuating people from the building and were in a hallway near Sundberg’s third-floor apartment when officers “started taking fire,” according to the search warrants.
The officers left the building and called in the SWAT team, the search warrants said.
Minneapolis police previously said that officers shot and killed Sundberg about 4:30 a.m. Thursday after a six-hour standoff and negotiations with the department’s Crisis Team Negotiators and SWAT. The BCA identified Aaron Pearson and Zachary Seraphine as the two Minneapolis police officers involved in the incident. They were not named in the search warrants filed Friday.
Agents from the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension found multiple bullet cartridges–both spent and live rounds–in the hallway outside of Sundberg’s apartment and multiple “apparent bullet holes” in nearby walls, according to the search warrants.
It “appeared as though the subject was firing out from his apartment,” the search warrants said.
The Bureau of Criminal Apprehension and Minneapolis police have not said why the officers shot and killed Sundberg; statements issued by both agencies Thursday did not detail the moments leading up to the shooting. The bureau said Thursday that a firearm was recovered at the scene. Neither agency released new information Friday.
Bonnie Bowman, a spokesperson for the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, confirmed Friday that the information in the search warrants are “correct as of what we knew this morning.” She would not comment further or discuss other details of the fatal shooting.
Minneapolis police officer Garrett Parten, the department’s spokesperson, could not be immediately reached late Friday afternoon to respond to the search warrants. Earlier in the day, he told Sahan Journal that the department would not be commenting beyond its initial public statements because of the ongoing investigation.
