The man accused of shooting his neighbor last week was arrested by police on Monday. Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara told the community that the department “failed” the victim when officers didn’t move quickly enough on the harassment that led to the shooting.
The 52-year-old John H. Sawchak was arrested early Monday morning after a fight in the 3500 block of Grand Avenue South.
Police say Sawchak shot and injured his neighbor Davis Moturi on Thursday while Moturi was trimming a tree that had grown onto Sawchak’s land on Wednesday. He was charged with attempted second-degree murder and other felonies.
The complaint says that Moturi and his wife had called the police several times in the year before the killing to say that Sawchak was constantly bothering them.
During a recent news conference, O’Hara said, “In this case, we failed this victim.”
“Somehow, we didn’t act quickly enough to stop that person from being shot,” he said. “I’m sorry to that person,” she said.
Sawchak has been reported to Minneapolis police at least 19 times since 2023 for mischief, hate speech, verbal threats, and threats to hurt someone.
The charges list all the events that happened because Sawchak wouldn’t cut down a tree that had crossed the property line and was in Moturi’s yard.
Moturi was cutting back parts of this tree on Wednesday when Sawchak is said to have pointed a gun out his window and shot Moturi in the back of the neck.
The moment Moturi is hit by the bullet and falls can be seen on the ring camera video.
Moturi didn’t know he had been shot until his wife took him to the hospital. When doctors looked at him, they saw a small hole in the back of his neck, which turned out to be a bullet stuck near his spine.
“I should be dead,” Moturi told the show Bring Me The News. “The way the shot was and all the organs that it missed on its way from my back to my torso, I’m lucky to be alive.”
Moturi was upset that MPD wasn’t doing anything about Sawchak while he was talking about the threats his wife has been through over the past year.
“They haven’t made any legitimate attempt to arrest him,” Moturi told us. “When he was arrested for attacking me, the police who came to the scene let him go. They let him go even though they knew he had a warrant out for his arrest.
Since 2007, court records show that Sawchak has been the subject of 13 harassment restraining orders (HROs).
Moturi just recently filed an HRO in April because Sawchak reportedly held a gun to his head and threatened to put him in the hospital.
Mayor Jacob Frey and Chief O’Hara talked about the arrest at a press meeting close to where the shooting happened.
Frey said he was thankful for the police’s work in “an extraordinarily dangerous situation.”
“You have an individual with mental illness, likely possessing firearms, with knowledge of explosive devices, and all this is happening in a residential area,” said Frey. “This was done the right way by our police.” There have been a lot of people, including council members, telling them to come in right away. I support our police officers.
In response to what Mayor Frey said at the news conference, Councilmember Aurin Chowdhury wrote on Twitter that she was glad Sawchak was finally in jail, even though it took a long time to get him there.
“I’m grateful and sad that it took council members writing letters and getting media attention to get the executive to act,” he said. “It’s clear he didn’t like it, but when constituent lives are on the line, you need to advocate to the fullest extent, and personal feelings need to be put aside.”
She also said Frey’s claim that council members were asking police to “barge in immediately” to arrest Sawchak, even though she had been allegedly harassed for nine months, “confounded” her.
“There are no official statements or quotes from my colleagues that I have seen that point to that request,” he said.
Sawchak is being held at the Hennepin County jail on a $1 million bond. His first court date is set for Tuesday at 1:30 p.m.
Source: Man accused of shooting neighbor arrested, MPD chief says department ‘failed’ victim
