Davis Moturi is alive to tell his story. Allison Lussier, an Indigenous woman, and Mariah Samuels, a Black woman, are not.
The pattern is tragically familiar: people of color repeatedly calling 911, warning police about violent neighbors or ex-partners, doing everything authorities ask, only to be met with inaction. Lussier and Samuels were killed this year despite those warnings.
Moturi survived a gunshot to the neck last October. His case is now raising serious questions about whether the Minneapolis Police Department ignored the same warning signs that advocates say contributed to the deaths of Lussier and Samuels.
Repeated warnings unanswered
On Oct. 23, 2024, Moturi was trimming a tree outside his home on Grand Avenue So. when he suddenly felt a surge of pressure in his chest. He thought he was having a heart attack. Doctors discovered he had been shot in the neck.
The alleged shooter was his next-door neighbor, 54-year-old John Sawchak, a White man whose history includes multiple harassment allegations and criminal convictions. According to court records and neighbors, Sawchak has been the subject of at least 10 restraining orders over the years…