Risking his life to keep the peace.

That’s how Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara describes the actions of an off-duty officer who jumped into action while working at a nightclub this weekend, possibly preventing a shooting.

“The officers are literally putting their lives on the line to try to keep the peace in our community,” he declares.

The chief spoke to 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS after MPD released surveillance video showing an officer struggling with an armed suspect inside a car early Sunday morning as area bars were closing.

“It’s incredibly dangerous,” he says. “Over the course of my career, I have been in the same situation. And we know, just for the grace of God, we got out of there safely. The person decides to not simply point it towards us and pull the trigger.”

O’Hara says moments before, security personnel inside the Rumba nightclub on Lake Street pointed out the suspect, later identified as 34-year-old Leugim Efren Cruz Acosta of Apple Valley, to an off-duty MPD officer.

They told the officer that Cruz Acosta had assaulted a security guard.

The officer, a two-year veteran of MPD, went outside where a crowd was gathering.

“As he approached the group, the officer saw the suspect we see in the video holding a handgun, racking a load into the chamber,” O’Hara explained.

Police released an image of the suspect holding a gun.

Court documents say Cruz Acosta told the crowd around him, “Either you move, or I’ll do it for you.”

The probable cause statement says officers told Cruz Acosta to drop the gun, but instead, he put it inside his car.

“The officer immediately approached the male inside the car, that’s where the video picks up,” O’Hara says. “And you can see there’s a struggle inside the car between the officer and the gunman. The person was driving away.”

In the video, the suspect’s car’s taillights light up during that struggle.

The officer steps back, pulls out his service weapon, and another officer uses a taser before they arrest Cruz Acosta.

He later told police he was a bodyguard at the nightclub where the incident began.

Cruz Acosta — who was previously convicted on drug and weapons charges — should’ve never had a gun. Court documents say when he was asked where he got the gun, he replied, “from the streets.”

O’Hara calls the incident another example of police encountering hundreds of illegal guns on the street.

“Our officers this weekend at bar close recovered six guns downtown,” he says. “Five of them were inside vehicles, outside of bars, and one of them was in a handgun-pointing incident at Fifth and Hennepin. We’re probably hitting more than a thousand guns recovered by the police this year again for the third year in a row now.”

The chief says he hopes hiring more officers in the coming year will help de-escalate incidents like this.

He notes there are now 578 sworn officers in MPD and that he hopes to hire 50 more in January, with the goal of hiring 200 officers in 2025.

“We need more cops, more people from the community to step up and join us in this effort,” O’Hara declares. “We really need to rebuild this police department long term, to get things under control and to provide stability and safety for our community.”

According to Hennepin County Jail records, Cruz Acosta was released from custody on Tuesday because the 48-hour deadline to charge him had expired.

He now faces a gun possession charge and there is an active warrant for his arrest.

O’Hara says he is proud of the officers involved in Cruz Acosta’s arrest and the other officers who patrol the city streets.

“I’m thankful for him and all the officers that are out there for what they did,” he says.