Killing of Dolal Idd

Dolal Idd, a 23-year-old Somali-American man, was killed in an exchange of gunfire with Minneapolis police officers at approximately 6:15 p.m. on December 30, 2020, in the parking lot of a Holiday gas station near Cedar Avenue and East 36th Street in the Powderhorn Park neighborhood of Minneapolis. The location was about one mile from where George Floyd was killed by a Minneapolis police officer on May 25, 2020, and Idd's death was the first killing by a Minneapolis police officer since Floyd's.

Minneapolis police had been investigating Idd, who was prohibited from possessing firearms due to a prior felony conviction, for illegally selling firearms. A confidential informant arranged a sting in which an undercover buyer would purchase a MAC-10-style pistol from Idd. When officers moved to arrest Idd in the gas station parking lot, he struck several police vehicles with his car while attempting to flee, then fired a handgun through his rolled-up driver's-side window, striking a police vehicle occupied by several officers. Officers Paul Huynh, Darcy Klund, and Jason Schmitt returned fire, killing Idd at the scene. A female passenger, identified as Idd's girlfriend, was unharmed, and no officers were injured. Investigators recovered a handgun and two spent cartridges near Idd, and a backpack containing a Leinad PM-11 machine pistol and ammunition on the passenger side. An autopsy classified Idd's death as a homicide from multiple gunshot wounds, with toxicology showing THC and fentanyl in his system.

The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) investigated the shooting, issuing a preliminary report on January 4, 2021, stating Idd struck police vehicles and fired first. Hours after the shooting, agents from the BCA and Hennepin County Sheriff's Office executed a "knock and announce" search warrant at Idd's family home in Eden Prairie, seeking firearms; no weapons were recovered, and the family said they felt "terrorized" by the raid, during which they were not immediately told Idd had died.

The Dakota County Attorney's Office reviewed the officers' conduct after Hennepin County deferred under a multi-county agreement on officer-involved deaths. On August 6, 2021, Dakota County Attorney Kathryn Keena released a 13-page charging decision memorandum concluding that the officers' use of deadly force was legally justified and that no criminal charges would be filed against Huynh, Klund, or Schmitt.

Idd's death, coming seven months after George Floyd's murder, reignited local debate over policing and race relations. Protests occurred at the shooting scene the night of December 30, 2020, at a vigil the next day, in a march of up to 1,000 people on January 3, 2021, at a Black Lives Matter rally on January 9, 2021, and at demonstrations outside Governor Tim Walz's residence, including after the August 2021 charging decision. Idd's family and advocates called for an independent investigation and for Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison to review the case. Idd's name continued to be invoked in subsequent Minneapolis-area protests over police violence, including during the Derek Chauvin trial and after the deaths of Daunte Wright and Winston Boogie Smith.