"This is one of the hardest decisions I ever made."
Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said that she and her team, plus a Washington DC firm hired to help in the Ryan Londregan manslaughter and murder case, were ready to prosecute.
Instead, on Sunday Moriarty announced she was dropping charges against the Minnesota State Trooper, who shot and killed Ricky Cobb II during a traffic stop last July on Interstate 94 in north Minneapolis.
Speaking Monday at the Hennepin County Government Center in downtown Minneapolis, Moriarty said she felt Londregan used unreasonable force when he shot Cobb as he tried to flee the scene.
She blamed a lack of training and lax policy for state troopers, which she believes set off a chain reaction that resulted in Cobb's death.
The officers talked with Ramsey County authorities about a hold they had out for Cobb, who had asked several times why he could not drive away.
"Ricky Cobb, a Black man who is stopped by white patrol officers on the side of the road, has no idea why he is being detained," said Moriarty. "None."
Defense attorneys pointed to video that shows Londregan's partner hanging on to the car door as Cobb drove away.
In an April court hearing, defense attorneys say the officer believed Cobb was reaching for Londregan's gun and that his partner's life was in jeapordy.
"The tactics were absolutely horrible," said Moriarty, adding that this shows state troopers need more training and guidance to avoid such a situation.
"It was, on the one hand, not so hard legally (to drop the charges), but people in our community, and Ricky Cobb's family shouldn't have to listen to me... talk about the same legal barriers that prevent accountability, time after time after time," she said.
Members of Londregan's defense team praised Moriarty's decision, while attorneys for Cobb's family say they can't be more disappointed.
Here is a statement from defense attorneys Bakari Sellers and Harry Daniels as well as F. Clayton Tyler:
While we are disappointed, we are not surprised because, like many, we have come to expect the absence of justice and accountability when Black lives are lost in this country. In fact, the state of Minnesota has repeatedly demonstrated that Black lives simply are not valued whether it’s Daunte Demetrius Wright, Philando Castile or Ricky Cobb II.
The simple fact is that, regardless of how many absurd excuses Trooper Londregan gives to try and absolve himself, he shot and killed Ricky Cobb II at point blank range without any justification and, instead of prosecuting him for murder, the County Attorney’s Office has bowed to political pressure to drop the charges. Apparently, all you have to do to get away with murder is to bully the prosecutors enough and the charges will just go away.
The people don’t believe the excuses and neither do we.
Moriarty said this was not a political decision, and would not say if Governor Walz had asked her to turn the case over to the state attorney's office.
She also said this was not a failure by her office.