A family of a man fatally shot by police in Eagan last Tuesday is asking for all information to be released by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension because they say there's more to the circumstances of his death.
Family members of 23-year-old Isak Aden, of Columbia Heights, tearfully talked about their brother, son and friend, who was passionate about architecture and creating art. They wanted the public to have a better idea of who he was as a person.
"Isak loved to laugh and make other laugh," Isak's sister Sumaya Aden said. "Isak was easy-going and it was easy to be around him. People were naturally drawn to him. I can wholeheartedly say that my brother truly embodied what it meant to be a kind and good person."
She said Aden was one semester away from getting his degree in information technology and infrastructure at the U of M. He was also in the process of starting a nonprofit based on his own experience as a mentor to kids.
The officers involved, including how many, have not been identified by the BCA. The BCA said it would release more information once interviews with people involved and witnesses are conducted, but there is no timeline for when that might happen.
Police said that they recovered a gun at the scene in the 1900 block of Seneca Road July 2. Officers were responding to a domestic violence call involving a gun that led to an hours-long standoff. Police said that "at some point" in the negotiations, shots were fired.
RELATED: Eagan police fatally shoot man after standoff
The lawyer representing the family, Ellen Longfellow, said she could not discuss specifics about the case without more information from the BCA first.
The BCA's investigatory process drew criticism during the Mohamed Noor trial, the former Minneapolis Police Officer convicted of murder in the shooting death of Justine Ruszczyk Damond. Prosecutors pointed to what they called a devised narrative of Damond slapping the car causing the officers to be scared by the loud noise, and presented evidence that Damond's fingerprints were not lifted from the car. Activists groups contend their process is preferential to police.
"We are not going to tolerate another white-wash for the police," Michelle Gross with Communities Against Police Brutality, said. "That needs to be absolutely clear. And the only way the community will have any real understanding of what happened here is for the release of all video footage to happen immediately. We don't want to wait for an interpretation by the BCA."
Eagan Police say squad and body camera video may have captured the shooting.
