Grand jury returns no charges in Minneapolis police shooting

A Hennepin County Grand Jury returned a no-bill Thursday in the shooting death of Terrance Franklin last spring, Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman announced.

“That means that they did not find sufficient evidence to reach the standard of probable cause that any criminal charge is warranted in the death of Mr. Franklin,” Freeman said during a late afternoon news conference. “The criminal process is now completed.”

Freeman reiterated that it is official policy that any time a police officer is involved in the shooting death of a civilian the office convenes a grand jury.

The grand jury met and took testimony over two days with the assistance of two assistant Hennepin County Attorneys. However, once deliberations began, only the grand jurors were in the room.

On May 10, Minneapolis Police received a burglary call and when they went to question Franklin, he fled, first by car and then on foot. He broke into a residence in the Uptown area and when police went into the basement to arrest him, Franklin grabbed an officer’s gun, fired shots that injured two police officers and then was killed by multiple gunshots from the police officers.