St. Paul police chief: Actions of officer who shot man didn't 'align' with department policy

Aug. 8—St. Paul's police chief said Saturday the officer who shot and wounded a man last year "made a terrible mistake."

Todd Axtell's statement came the day after a decision was released by the Minnesota attorney general's office, which said Tony Dean would not be criminally charged in the Nov. 28 shooting of Joseph Javonte Washington.

Axtell's statement said the officer's "actions didn't align with the policies or standards of the St. Paul Police Department." Those policy standards are separate from the criminal process of determining whether an officer is justified under state law to use deadly force.

But Dean's attorney, Robert Paule, said Saturday he believes Axtell's decision last year to terminate the officer directly after the shooting "was a knee-jerk reaction designed to prevent protests in St. Paul rather than a logical, thoughtful decision. My client's actions were proper and done to protect his fellow officers from an attacking dangerous felon."

The St. Paul Police Federation is appealing Dean's termination.

SUSPECT TURNED OUT TO BE UNARMED

Washington, 31, was naked and turned out to be unarmed when Dean shot him in St. Paul's North End. Police were searching for him the night of Nov. 28 after criminal charges say he sexually assaulted a former girlfriend and threatened to kill her.

Dean later told Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension investigators that Washington wasn't fully facing the officers and he could not tell if there was a knife or gun in the man's hand.

An attorney general's office memo about the decision not to charge Dean stated: "At the time he fired his gun, Officer Dean knew that Washington had committed a violent crime involving a knife, was likely in an altered state, told officers that he had a gun, rushed at officers rather than away from officers, and was in close proximity to other officers, including (a sergeant) for whom he was responsible for providing lethal cover. Based on these objective facts, the State could not disprove that it was reasonable to believe death or great bodily harm could occur without using deadly force."

Dean shot Washington in the abdomen and legs. The criminal cases against Washington are ongoing.

'INCREDIBLY DIFFICULT' SITUATION FOR DEPARTMENT

In his statement Saturday, Axtell said: "This situation has been incredibly difficult for our department. The individual involved in the incident is a great person who served honorably and did a lot of outstanding work."

Dean, a St. Paul officer since 2014 and U.S. Marine for eight years, was named by the Minnesota American Legion as officer of the year in 2016, and Axtell gave him the department's life-saving award for working with other officers to save a woman who was trying to jump from a bridge last spring.

Axtell's statement concluded, "I have an obligation to our city and agency to hold ourselves accountable to the highest standards, even and especially when it's difficult, as it was in this case."

Mark Ross, St. Paul Police Federation president, said Saturday that the decision by the attorney general's office "confirms what we believed all along."

"Officer Dean was not afforded his due process, but instead became a victim of politics," he said. "Our community expects us to protect them from violent criminals and appreciates law enforcement risking their lives to help keep communities safe."