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CUAPB Data Practices Lawsuit: Officer Matthew Ryan

Emma Pederson

So Communities United Against Police Brutality's Data Practices Workgroup has requested complaint files from the Minneapolis Park Police. I'm sure you remember this one, but stick it out for the Rest of the Story. Edited down from one of the ninja's summaries:


On the evening of July 10 2018, Officer Ryan and his partner Officer Olson responded to a 911 call about a “person with a weapon”. Upon arriving at the deer pen area of Minnehaha Falls Park, the officers saw the four juvenile males (ages 13, 13, 14 and 16) that matched the description of the 911 caller. Officer Ryan exited the squad, immediately drew his gun, and yelled at the boys to drop to the ground. He continued to yell and “scream” at the boys incessantly. During the incident, there were several bystanders, some of whom later contacted the MPRB to give statements. Officer Olson handcuffed the boys behind their backs and frisked them and their belongings for weapons. No weapons of any kind were found. The surrounding witnesses tried to provide the officers with some information as to what had transpired before their arrival, and told the officers that none of the kids had been violent or threatened anyone with a weapon or gun.


After putting the four boys in the back of the squad car, Officer Ryan drove to another location within the park to get away from the large crowd of onlookers.

Officer Olson attempted to locate the 911 caller, and the boyfriend that she had said was with her and who she said had been threatened by the boys with a knife, and possibly had a gun. The caller and her boyfriend had left the park. Officer Olson got her cell phone number from the 911 dispatcher, and attempted to call the number twice, but no one answered.

Officer Ryan was able to identify all four boys, and three of them were released. The fourth boy was identified as a runaway and brought to juvenile hall. Officer Ryan never apologized to the boys or explained anything to them about why they were being detained.


The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Police Department hired a pair of outside investigators to thoroughly review this case. Investigators found that the 911 caller’s boyfriend said to the four boys “get out of my country”; that the boyfriend was the actual instigator of the incident, threatening the four boys with a knife and approaching them with the lid of a trash can; that in the opinion of one witness, “the girlfriend intentionally “SWAT-ED the four boys by saying they may have a gun even though they did not”. The investigation included interviews with all four boys, and all four of them corroborated the fact that the boyfriend said “Get out of my country”, “Go back to Africa”, and that the girlfriend “flipped the story” when she called 911 and said the boys had a knife, when in reality it was her boyfriend that had a knife. Lt. Swanson was never able to make contact with the 911 caller. He submitted a request to the Minneapolis City Attorney to file complaint charges against the 911 caller for false reporting a crime, 5th degree assault, and 4th degree assault bias motivated, but this was denied by the Minneapolis City Attorney.


The investigators found that it was not against policy for Officer Ryan to brandish his gun, (because he was relying on information from the 911 caller about the possible presence of a gun), but it WAS against policy for him to speak to the boys in a loud, screaming, yelling voice as it unnecessarily escalated the situation in clear opposition to what is required of a Park Police officer.

Officer Ryan also violated the code of conduct when he failed to explain and apologize to someone that has been detained in error.


Officer Ryan was disciplined with a 27 hour suspension (3 shifts), 2 to be enacted immediately and one in abeyance for one year. He was also required to attend “further training”, the nature of which is not detailed in the report. Officer Ryan filed a grievance, and an arbitration hearing was held on April 26, 2019. The arbitrator denied the grievance and kept the suspension in place.

The Minneapolis Park Board paid the boys $170,000 to settle a lawsuit for their treatment.

Matthew Ryan is no longer with the Park Police; Matthew Ryan is now an officer with the Minneapolis Police Department, Badge #6773 (And now you know the Rest of the Story)

You can see the body worn camera footage of the incident on the Star Tribune's website. I will put a link in the comments. Thanks again to the Data Practice Workgroup at CUAPB.


A link to coverage of the incident by Unicorn Riot can be found here: https://twitter.com/UR_Ninja/status/1220873789585743872?s=20




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