Bakari Sellers Instagram – With dozens of law enforcement officers present in a show of support, State Patrol trooper Ryan Londregan made his first court appearance Monday after he was charged last week with murder in the fatal shooting of motorist Ricky Cobb II.
Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty charged Londregan last week with second-degree unintentional murder, first-degree assault and second-degree manslaughter in the July 31 shooting of Cobb, 33. Londregan, 27, has and will remain out of custody.
Londregan has not yet been booked into jail. His attorney, Chris Madel, said that will likely take place next week.
According to state statute, a defendant must submit fingerprints to the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) before a judge accepting a plea of guilty or not guilty. Londregan didn’t enter a plea Monday.
Cobb’s family attended the hearing Monday along with retained civil rights attorney Bakari Sellers. They declined to comment beyond a statement in which Sellers said he enlisted Geoffrey Alpert, a criminologist at the University of South Carolina.
Alpert served as an expert witness for the family of George Floyd who won a record $27 million settlement against the city of Minneapolis and the four officers. It’s said to be the largest pretrial settlement in a civil rights wrongful death lawsuit in U.S. history. Alpert reviewed dash and body-worn camera footage of Cobb’s fatal traffic stop.
“Review of the body-worn camera video raises serious questions and red flags about policy violations and the use of excessive force,” Alpert said in a statement. “The video can be used as an example of what a police officer should not do and if the officers had followed protocol and accepted police practices, it is likely that Ricky Cobb II would be alive today.”
The BCA said early on that at no point was Cobb seen holding a gun, although one was later recovered on the floor behind the center console | Posted on 31/Jan/2024 02:13:22
