Minneapolis residents sounded off on the city’s handling of a year-long dispute between neighbors that culminated in a shooting last month during a City Council committee meeting on Tuesday.

Davis Moturi, who is Black, was pruning a tree in his yard with a chainsaw on Oct. 23 when he was allegedly shot by his white next-door neighbor, 54-year-old John Sawchak. A medical examination found a small-caliber bullet had pierced Moturi’s neck and was embedded near his spine.

According to court documents, Moturi and his wife had made at least 19 reports to police regarding threats and racist tirades by Sawchak since they moved into their home on the 3500 block of Grand Avenue in September 2023, including separate incidents in the weeks leading up to the shooting in which Sawchak brandished a knife at Moturi and pointed a gun at him.

In the aftermath of the shooting, city leaders criticized the Minneapolis Police Department for letting Sawchak continue to terrorize the Moturi family, despite the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office issuing a warrant for his arrest in July due to threats of violence. Sawchak had three active warrants before the shooting, and police didn’t arrest him until five days afterward.

Residents who spoke during a Minneapolis City Council Committee of the Whole meeting on Tuesday said this shooting was the latest in a long line of instances in which a Black person was harmed by the actions — or inaction — of the Minneapolis Police Department.

“So it was very unsurprising whenever i saw the reports and the outrage about the unabashed violence of Sawchak going completely unchecked and with pitiful attempts from MPD to intervene because Sawchak is part of the plan,” Minneapolis resident Julia Johnson said. “He is a vigilante doing the work of the MPD to keep us in line, to know our place.”

Several people brought up the police killings of George Floyd and Jamar Clark, and another person contrasted MPD’s refusal to take Sawchak into custody with the deadly shooting of Amir Locke while MPD officers served a no-knock warrant.

“Sawchak gets over a year on just this particular case, and yet Amir Locke, who wasn’t on any warrant, who wasn’t involved in any crime, got six seconds from when they kicked in the door,” a resident named Keith testified.

Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara initially defended his department’s actions and said his officers were running into difficulty coaxing Sawchak — who O’Hara characterized as a “recluse” who could be armed and dangerous — out into the open. O’Hara later apologized, saying MPD “failed” Moturi.

Ahead of the public hearing in the council chambers, O’Hara announced an expanded partnership with the NAACP and a few other volunteer organizations, known as the city’s Unity Community Mediation Team (UCMT). The hope is to improve the city’s response to neighbor disputes before someone is seriously hurt and to add physical spaces where people can get help without relying on police.

The announcement began with an acknowledgement that Moturi’s life was in danger and the system failed him.

“Let me be clear, Mr. Moturi called the police several times, he did everything he was supposed to do to try and get help, but unfortunately, the Minneapolis Police Department alone was not able to provide that help for him, and again, we are sorry for that,” O’Hara said.

“So for me, when you apologize, not only do you apologize, but you say, hey, how can we get this right?” echoed Minneapolis NAACP President Cynthia Wilson. “It’s not going to be overnight. Something might happen tomorrow, something might happen tonight, but we are working toward making things better. And so this is a great start.”

A full list of UCMT locations and hours is available here.

O’Hara said his department’s internal investigation into police actions leading up to Moturi being shot continues.

“And almost each day, you know, we’re learning things that we weren’t aware of before,” the chief said. “It’s a complicated issue. It’s been going on for quite some time, and there were multiple facets of the system that were involved here.”

Council members have also called for an independent review.

Click here for a GoFundMe created by the Moturi family as they navigate medical bills and missed work.

Sawchak is charged with second-degree attempted murder, first-degree assault, stalking and harassment committed because of bias. He remains in custody at the Hennepin County Jail on $600,000 bail, and his next court hearing is scheduled for Nov. 25.