Ricky Cobb II's family asks DOJ to investigate killing, Minnesota State Patrol
MINNEAPOLIS — Attorneys for the family of a man shot and killed by a Minnesota state trooper during a traffic stop last summer are calling on the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate.
Minnesota state trooper Ryan Londregan fatally shot 33-year-old Ricky Cobb II on July 31 last year after pulling him over for inactive taillights.
Londregan was charged with second-degree unintentional murder, first-degree assault and second-degree manslaughter, to which Londregan pleaded not guilty.
On Monday, the Hennepin County Attorney's Office officially dismissed those charges after Mary Moriarty said her office learned new information about Londregan's planned testimony and state patrol training that would "make it impossible" to prove the case against Londregan.
Cobb's family expressed their frustration in a joint press conference with attorney Bakari Sellers on Tuesday.
"One thing I want them to understand, we're not taking 'Nos' no more," said Rashad Cobb, Ricky Cobb's brother.
When announcing the dismissed charges, Moriarty said that special prosecutors for the case in April developed a report that includes an analysis of the impact of the new evidence and recommendations for the state patrol.
On Thursday, Sellers, along with attorneys Harry Daniels and F. Clayton Tyler, called for the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate Ricky Cobb's killing as well as "disturbing failures in both training and procedure at the Minnesota State Patrol outlined in a report released by the Hennepin County Attorney's Office."
"The report released by the Hennepin County Attorney's Office outlined multiple disturbing failures at the Minnesota State Patrol and, based on those failures alone, someone needs to come in and investigate the Minnesota State Patrol because, if this continues, you'll have more innocent people killed," Sellers said.
In a letter to the Department of Justice, the attorneys bring up the actions of Gov. Tim Walz related to the case. Walz said he had been set to take Moriarty off the case and reassign it to the state attorney's office, a move he made in April 2023 in the Zaria McKeever murder case.
The letter goes on to say that the training and procedures at the Minnesota State Patrol "represent an ongoing threat to civil rights and public safety."
In April, Ricky Cobb's family filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against Londregan and Brett Seide, another trooper involved in the traffic stop. The lawsuit accuses the state troopers of unreasonable seizure and excessive use of force in violation of the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments.
The lawsuit says Londregan and Seide unreasonably seized Ricky Cobb by ordering him out of the car without explaining if he was under arrest, and by reaching into the car and grabbing him in an attempt to "forcibly remove him." The troopers also used "unnecessary, excessive, and deadly force" on Ricky Cobb, the lawsuit says.