MPD Personnel Files For Officers Involved In Dolal Idd's Shooting Reveal History Of Complaints And Commendations
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) - At the end of December, Dolal Idd died in an apparent shoot-out with police after they say they tried to stop him as part of a weapons investigation.
Now, WCCO is digging deeper into the personnel files of the Minneapolis Police officers involved in his shooting death.
The files of MPD officers Paul Huynh, Jason Schmitt, and Sgt. Darcy Klund lay out their time with the department. Klund had been there the longest, on the force since 1987. His file shows four complaints reviewed by Internal Affairs, another three by a Civilian Review Authority, or CRA.
Early on in his career, in 1994, a letter of reprimand was added to his file for berating officers with another department while off duty. He was promoted to sergeant roughly five months later. In 1996, Klund was demoted to officer and was later reinstated after arbitration.
The rest of Klund's file is filled with numerous department commendations for quick response and excellence.
The mother of a murder victim once wrote, "He treated us with a tremendous amount of respect, always being mindful of the loss that we were suffering."
Officer Jason Schmitt has been with MPD for 23 years. His file shows 23 complaints, either reviewed by IA or CRA, all ending without discipline. There are also numerous department awards for things like merit, valor, and saving a life. He received the Medal of Honor as one of the first responders to the 35W bridge collapse.
While Associate Professor at St. Thomas School of Law Rachel Moran admits, he's been involved in dangerous situations, the 23 complaints stand out to her.
"I'm reluctant to judge, I can't do that, but I'm concerned that there's that many complaints and a lack of information about what the basis of those complaints were," she said.
Officer Paul Hunyh is newest to the department, hired in 2014. Eight internal affairs investigations resulted in no discipline. In that time, he received a handful of awards, the latest in November for his role in investigating a rash of robberies with the Community Response Team.
Overall, Moran calls the files standard, insufficient, saying the bigger issue is public access.
"It's even more frustrating when you're trying to figure out if that was an appropriate use of force by the police or not to know, well, a bunch of complaints filed against these officers. But we don't know what they were about," she said.
The three officers are on standard administrative leave while the BCA investigates. The Dakota County Attorney's Office is reviewing the case.
The files released associated with the Idd case are available here.