In Minneapolis, distrust flares after officers cleared

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Activists from Minneapolis' black community spent four months demanding the release of videos and other evidence after a black man was fatally shot in a confrontation with two white police officers.

Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman on Wednesday cleared the officers, saying forensic evidence backed their account that 24-year-old Jamar Clark was not handcuffed and was struggling for an officer's gun when he was shot.

[...] Freeman's detailed version of the events early on Nov. 15, and his release of the investigative documents, drew derision even at the news conference from activists who accused him of favoring police over the accounts of bystanders who said Clark was handcuffed when he was shot.

Several of the critics were among those who maintained a protest encampment outside a police station for 18 days and led marches and largely peaceful protests across the Twin Cities area after the shooting.

With conflicting accounts, Freeman said he relied on forensic evidence, including physical examinations that found no injuries or markings on Clark's wrists that would have been consistent with handcuffs.

Freeman made the charging decision himself after initially planning to rely on a nonpublic grand jury process, and he posted more than 1,000 pages of investigative materials, videos and other evidence on his website.

A federal investigation is still pending into whether police violated Clark's civil rights through excessive force.