Early Monday morning, a man from Minnesota was arrested and charged with shooting his friend while he was cutting down a tree. Officials say that his neighbor called the cops several times before the shooting.
Davis Moturi, the suspect’s 54-year-old neighbor, is thought to have been shot on October 23 from inside his Minneapolis home while Moturi was cutting down a tree.
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara says the victim had reported Sawchak several times before, including after Sawchak allegedly threatened to shoot the victim if he touched the same tree he was cutting on Wednesday.
O’Hara told reporters Friday that Moturi’s wife thought her husband had had a heart attack when she got home, so Emergency Medical Services took him to the hospital.
There, hospital staff found that he had been shot.
O’Hara said the victim couldn’t remember anything before he was found asleep, not even that he had been shot. Nearby people did not see the shooting happen.
USA TODAY got in touch with the Minneapolis Police Department. The victim’s name was revealed by Sergeant Garrett Parten, who told USA TODAY to watch the press briefing on YouTube for the most up-to-date information.
The suspect was caught days later
After a SWAT raid that lasted several hours, Sawchak was arrested without any trouble on Monday morning.
“Minneapolis Police exhausted all of our efforts to peacefully bring the situation to resolution (prior) to escalating the use of force with a SWAT team and special tactics,” O’Hara said.
Based on the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Department, Sawchak was charged with the following felonies:
Second-degree attempted murder
First-degree assault
Stalking
Harassment
Records from the police department show that the suspect is being held on a $1 million bond and will be in court on Tuesday at 1:30 p.m.
The police chief says sorry
The victim also told several people about his neighbor before the killing and called 911 several times about Sawchak. O’Hara says he also told on his neighbor before when he threatened to shoot him if he touched a certain tree.
“We failed this victim,” O’Hara said on Sunday night. “He should not have been shot.”
It was reported by O’Hara that when cops arrived, Sawchak refused to open the door and talk to them.
The officer had been to the suspect’s house more than 20 times. The number doesn’t show how many times other police have been called to the home.
O’Hara said that this made the lieutenant give his target his phone number. The officer told the victim to call him when he saw Sawchak leave his house.
Warrant for high risk
Before Sunday night, police were worried about a fight and wanted to arrest the suspect somewhere he wouldn’t be able to get to his guns. But O’Hara said the man was a “recluse” who didn’t leave his house very often.
While O’Hara said the suspect was “mentally ill,” it was known that he had guns, been in fights in the past, and failed to cooperate “the dozens of times that police officers have responded to the residence.”
Following through on the arrest warrant was seen as “high-risk.”
I think there will be a high chance of an armed, violent fight with the suspect in this case, and we may have to use deadly force,” O’Hara told the press on Friday. “Before Wednesday, all we had was a threats warrant.”
