Prosecutors plan to dismiss murder and manslaughter charges against a white Minnesota state trooper who fatally shot Black motorist Ricky Cobb as Cobb tried to pull away from a traffic stop, saying the decision comes in response to statements from the trooper’s attorney and new analysis of video from the scene. Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty filed a notice to dismiss the charges after Trooper Ryan Londregan’s defense team revealed prospective testimony during an April court hearing that the trooper believed Cobb was reaching for a firearm — and that a Minnesota State Patrol trainer said he never instructed officers to refrain from shooting into a moving vehicle, the Associated Press reports. The evidence would have made it impossible for prosecutors to prove that Londregan’s actions were not an authorized use of force by a peace officer, the county attorney’s office said.
Citing the decision to drop the charges, Londregan’s attorney, Chris Madel, told the Star Tribune, “It’s about goddamn time." Londregan, 27, pleaded not guilty May 15, and his trial was set to begin Sept. 9. Troopers pulled over Cobb, 33, over on Interstate 94 in Minneapolis last July 31 because the lights were out on his car. They found that Cobb was wanted for violating a protection order in neighboring Ramsey County. Londregan shot Cobb twice as Cobb tried to drive away after troopers ordered him to get out of his car.P rosecutors and a law enforcement expert reviewed footage from the scene and found that, as Londregan’s partner clung to the passenger’s door, Cobb moved his hand upward. Cobb had a gun in the vehicle. Moriarty said there is no evidence he intended to grab it but that the defense team’s statements caused prosecutors to reconsider the case through a new lens. Law enforcement and Republican leaders had asked Gov. Tim Walz to take the case away from Moriarty, a former public defender who was elected on a platform of police accountability after the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis officer in 2020, and turn it over to Attorney General Keith Ellison.