Sheriff defends search of shooting victim's family home

Shortly after Dolal Idd was killed in a shootout with Minneapolis police, authorities showed up at his house to execute a search warrant — and now they're being criticized for the way that search was carried out. 

This comes amid an ongoing investigation into the Wednesday night shooting, which happened at a Holiday gas station in south Minneapolis. Body cam footage from the incident shows police cornering Idd's vehicle in the parking lot shortly before gunfire breaks out. 

The shooting led to a protest in which a crowd of an estimated 100 people gathered at the scene.

Later, in the early morning hours of Thursday, December 31, Hennepin County sheriff's deputies arrived at Idd's Eden Prairie residence to execute a "court ordered 'knock and announce' high-risk search warrant," per a press release.

On Friday, the Sahan Journal — a news site that focuses on immigrants and refugees in Minnesota — reported that the deputies "allegedly pointed their guns" at Idd's parents and "tied their hands tightly with a cord" in the search.

When the couple's three young children came downstairs, deputies "pointed guns at them, too," Idd's father told the website.  

He also told Sahan Journal that "the officers ransacked the house and never showed him a search warrant— until the end," at which time they "told him his son had been killed."

The Hennepin County sheriff's press release addressed the conduct of the deputies on the scene, with Sheriff David Hutchinson saying he believes they "acted professionally and politely and followed procedure during execution of the search warrant":

The release does acknowledge that Idd's parents were handcuffed, but notes they were "placed in flexible, less rigid, plastic handcuffs – in front of their bodies," per standard procedure for all high-risk search warrants.

Hutchinson was quoted as saying the following:

“Based on the video I’ve reviewed, I am proud of the professionalism displayed by our Deputies during the execution of this search warrant. Law enforcement never knows for sure what it’s walking into in these high-risk situations. After reviewing the video, our staff acted appropriately and respectfully."

The Hennepin County Sheriff's Office was assisting the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension in its investigation of the shooting, which is still underway.