Cousin: DeCoteau fired at officer first
On the night that he died in north Minneapolis, Benjamin DeCoteau vowed that he would shoot a police officer, his cousin said in a criminal complaint filed Tuesday in Hennepin County.
The police officer shot and killed DeCoteau, 21, of Minneapolis, at about 3:20 a.m. Saturday after DeCoteau shot first, said defendant Dana Blue-David Dickenson, of Blaine. Dickenson, 27, is charged with reckless discharge of a firearm, a felony.
The criminal complaint doesn't name the officer, but police union president Sgt. John Delmonico identified him Sunday as Mark Beaupre, who joined the force in 1990.
Before the shooting, Dickenson said, he had driven his aunt's car in north Minneapolis while DeCoteau fired shots. When the car got stuck in the snow, Dickenson and DeCoteau began walking. Dickenson carried a shotgun and DeCoteau had a 9 mm pistol, the complaint said.
When they encountered a police officer in a van at 26th and Upton Avs. N., DeCoteau fired first at the officer, Dickenson said in the complaint. In response to the Dickenson complaint, Clyde Bellecourt, a leader in the American Indian community in Minneapolis, said Tuesday: "This young man's confession sounds like it covers it."
But Bellecourt, a member of the Police Community Relations Council, said it was not appropriate for police to say publicly that DeCoteau was a gang member and had been involved in assaults for which he was not charged.
"In America, you're innocent until proven guilty. If you're an American Indian, it's the other way around," Bellecourt said.
Council member Ron Edwards said Tuesday of the complaint against Dickenson: "This confirms what I've been saying the last couple of days. Regrettably, a life has been lost, but the officer was justified in the shooting."
article