Federal Lawsuit Filed Against Two Minnesota State Troopers is Dismissed

(KNSI) — The federal lawsuit filed by the family of Ricky Cobb II against Minnesota State Trooper Ryan Londregan and another officer has been dismissed.

Attorneys for Londregan filed the motion to dismiss, saying he was protected by qualified immunity. The judge agreed, saying qualified immunity can protect police and other officials from being sued for damages.

In her ruling, Judge Nancy Brasel said it was “objectively reasonable for an officer to use deadly force to neutralize what he reasonably believed was a risk of serious physical harm to others, including a fellow officer.”

Brasel added the Court will not “second guess whether alternative actions by police officers might conceivably have been available.”

On July 31st, 2023, Cobb was stopped on Interstate 94 in north Minneapolis for allegedly having no tail lights on his Ford Fusion, and it was discovered he also had a felony warrant out for his arrest for violating a domestic abuse order for protection in Ramsey County. On body cam footage released shortly after the shooting, troopers asked Cobb several times to step out of the car to talk, and he repeatedly questioned why. The troopers wouldn’t explain why, only saying they wanted to talk to him outside his car. When troopers tried to physically remove Cobb, he sped away with the two officers hanging out of the car, dragging them several feet along the highway. Londregan fired his gun. Cobb stopped a short distance away, and life saving measures were taken at the scene, but he died. A gun was found in the vehicle, but investigators say “at no point on available video” was Cobb ever holding the firearm.

The suit was filed by Nyra Jean Miller-Fields, identified as the “Personal Representative of the Estate of Ricky Cobb II,” against Londregan and Trooper Brett Seide. In it, she said the two violated the law against unreasonable search and seizure and alleged they used excessive force. She contends that Londregan’s use of deadly force against Cobb without providing an adequate warning was a clearly established violation of his Fourth Amendment rights.

The Court cited a previous ruling that says an officer should give some warning when it’s feasible to do so. Brasel wrote, “Both common sense and our cases suggest that a warning is less likely to be ‘feasible’ in a high pressure situation that requires a split second judgment like the one here. This was just such a high pressure situation, given that the car was moving; it required a split second judgment, and a warning was less likely to be feasible. An officer’s ‘split second decision to shoot without warning . . . did not violate a clearly established right.’ Under this case law, the Court cannot conclude that Londregan violated a clearly established right when he made the decision to shoot Cobb.”

Londregan was charged with murder and manslaughter in January, but those charges were dropped by Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty in August, citing new evidence that would have made it hard to meet the burden of proof at trial.

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