Minneapolis Police Chief Says He Never Saw Excessive Force Video Of Officer Whose Hiring He OKd

By Deena Winter, Minnesota Reformer

July 11, 2023

Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara told reporters Monday during a quickly arranged press conference that he had little involvement in the final interview of a former police officer who was hired after being involved in an excessive force case in Virginia.

Last week, the MPD “separated” with Tyler Timberlake, a former Fairfax County Police officer who repeatedly used a stun gun on a disoriented, unarmed Black man who had been wandering around a residential street shouting that he needed oxygen. Body camera video also shows Timberlake jammed his knee into the man’s neck and back while the man said he couldn’t breathe.

Timberlake made headlines on the East Coast for the 2020 incident because of parallels to George Floyd’s police killing.

After the Reformer first reported on Timberlake’s hiring in April, O’Hara released a statement saying he was “extremely concerned” about the hire and directed staff to complete a thorough investigation into MPD’s background checks and hiring processes.

But after Timberlake’s departure last week, emails and internal MPD documents began leaking to the press indicating O’Hara was present for Timberlake’s final interview. In a letter to city officials, Timberlake accused O’Hara of defaming him by falsely claiming he didn’t know about the Virginia incident.

The contradictions have put O’Hara, who was hired to reform the scandal-plagued department, under pressure to explain what he knew and when. During Monday’s press conference, he acknowledged that his “messaging” has “at times been confusing.” He said it was his second day on the job in November when he sat in on Timberlake’s final interview as an “observer,” not a “participant.”

“I was observing the operations of the department in general, and as you can imagine, my second day on the job here was quite a whirlwind,” he said. “The entire hiring process prior to the final interview was completed prior to me becoming an employee of the city. And quite frankly, the final interview that I observed was perfunctory.”

It was disclosed during the interview that Timberlake had been involved in a “critical incident,” but that’s not unusual for police officers, O’Hara said.

“Quite frankly, that is unremarkable for anyone who has been a police officer in a major city,” he said. “I am certain I did not have anything described to me relating to the behavior that’s obvious and apparent in that video.”

O’Hara clarified that he was aware of Timberlake’s hiring and signed off on it, but said he’d never seen video footage of the Virginia incident until after the Reformer contacted him in April.

The video shows a paramedic and police officer trying to coax an incoherent man, La Monta Gladney, into an ambulance. Then Timberlake arrived, strode up to the man and almost immediately Tased him, causing the man to fall on his back. Timberlake then jammed his knees into Gladney’s neck and back, held the stun gun on his back, hit him in the head with the stun gun and stunned him again on the back of his neck. Several officers handcuffed the man who was yelling that he couldn’t breathe, so they rolled him onto his side.

“I had a very visceral reaction to the behavior that I saw on that video,” O’Hara said. “I was shocked and I gave a statement to the media very quickly and the statement could have been more clear.”

After he saw the video, he became aware of “more… that I am not at liberty to disclose.”

“I was shocked with what I saw. And it is just unbelievable to me that we could have a process in place where something like that could not be flagged — that you could get that far in the (hiring) process.”

O’Hara said wouldn’t have signed off on the hire had he seen the video beforehand, and accepted responsibility for not being clear enough in his April comments.

The president of the Minneapolis Police Officers Federation, Sherral Schmidt, released a statement to the Star Tribune last week saying O’Hara was “fully aware of (Timberlake’s) history” and assured Timberlake “he would be OK if he did good work.,”

Asked what he thought of the police union coming out in support of Timberlake, the chief said, “It’s disturbing to me that any member of this department could observe the behavior in that video and think that that is what we need in the city at this time. That’s very disturbing.”

O’Hara said he’s committed to fixing the hiring process so the department doesn’t simply hire people who meet minimum qualifications — even as it grapples with short-staffing since Floyd’s murder.

“I came here to fix problems,” he said. “The people of Minneapolis have high expectations of me, and I intend to always strive to meet those expectations. I came here to rebuild trust between the community and the department. And I am committed to working to do just that.”

He said he’s already changed the hiring process so people who investigate candidates’ backgrounds are now a part of the Internal Affairs department, which will do a “full investigation.”

O’Hara wouldn’t say whether others at MPD were aware of the Virginia incident, which was highly publicized on the East Coast. A day after it happened, Fairfax County Police Chief Edwin C. Roessler Jr. called Timberlake’s actions horrible, unacceptable, criminal and a violation of department policies, according to the Washington Post.

Timberlake was relieved of duty and charged with three counts of misdemeanor assault and battery. Nearly two years later, he was acquitted by a Fairfax County jury. Timberlake testified during his trial that he thought Gladney was another man wanted for violent crimes.

Gladney sued Timberlake and the county and settled the case for $150,000, according to the Washington Post.

Personnel documents obtained by the Reformer show O’Hara signed the letter offering Timberlake a job as a police officer. Key portions of the personnel documents were redacted by city attorneys, such as Timberlake’s answer to a question on the application about whether he’d been suspended or terminated from a job in the past decade, and whether he’d been charged with or convicted of crimes. His “reason for leaving” Virginia was also redacted from his MPD application.

The Minnesota Reformer is an independent, nonprofit news organization dedicated to keeping Minnesotans informed and unearthing stories other outlets can’t or won’t tell..