# Jamar Clark *Man shot by Minneapolis police officers on November 15, 2015; the Hennepin County Attorney declined to file charges.* Jamar Clark (May 3, 1991 – November 16, 2015) was a 24-year-old man shot on November 15, 2015, by Mark Ringgenberg and Dustin Schwarze, officers of the [[Minneapolis Police Department]], on the North Side of [[Minneapolis]] after a domestic disturbance call.[^1][^2][^3] He was taken off life support and died the following night at Hennepin County Medical Center from a wound received in that shooting.[^2] On March 16, 2016, [[Hennepin County Attorney]] Mike Freeman announced that his office would stop taking police shootings to grand juries and would make the charging decision itself. The reason given was that a grand jury would not provide a transparent and fair process.[^4] On March 30, 2016, the office announced that neither officer would be charged.[^1] In August 2019 Clark's family accepted a $200,000 civil settlement, which the Minneapolis City Council approved on August 23, 2019.[^4] The project's dossier on Freeman's tenure records that the same office charged MPD officer [[Mohamed Noor]] in 2018 for an on-duty killing. The dossier describes that case as producing the first murder conviction of a Minnesota police officer for an on-duty killing. The project's at-issue entry notes that the record contains no published audit of the difference between the two outcomes.[^5][^6] The [[Minnesota Department of Human Rights]] filed a civil rights charge against the [[City of Minneapolis]] over the police department in July 2020, after the killing of George Floyd. The project's time table, citing the department's press-release index, records no comparable charge after Clark's death in 2015.[^7] ## Who Clark was adopted at age four. His 2010 felony conviction for first-degree aggravated robbery carried a 41-month prison sentence. In November 2015 he was on probation for a terroristic-threats conviction arising from a March 2015 incident, and he was awaiting trial on a July 2015 arrest that followed a high-speed chase.[^8] Ringgenberg and Schwarze had been with the department for 13 months. Both were placed on paid administrative leave during the investigation. The Police Officers Federation of Minneapolis said that neither officer had a prior disciplinary issue.[^9] According to the project's dossier, which cites Legislative Reference Library and Minnesota Historical Society records, Freeman served in the [[Minnesota Senate]] for District 40 from 1982 to 1991. He then held the county attorney's office from January 7, 1991, to January 5, 1999, and again from January 3, 2007, to January 2, 2023. The dossier also records that he lost the 1994 DFL endorsement to [[John Marty]]. In 1998 he won the DFL endorsement but lost the primary to [[Skip Humphrey]].[^5][^10] ## What The accounts of the shooting conflict. An onlooker said that paramedics and police asked Clark to step away from the ambulance his girlfriend had entered, and that officers then took him to the ground. The onlooker also said that an EMS supervisor put a knee on his chest before he was shot. The county attorney's account is that Clark confronted paramedics and that a struggle followed after officers responded at 12:45 a.m. In that account, Clark obtained one officer's gun and the other officer then fired.[^11] Witnesses said Clark was handcuffed. Police said that preliminary reports indicated he was not.[^12] Freeman said Clark was resisting and was not handcuffed. On November 16, Chief Janeé Harteau said that the department's preliminary information was that Clark had not been restrained with handcuffs. Bob Kroll, president of the police union, said Clark tried to take an officer's weapon.[^11] The Hennepin County Medical Examiner released an autopsy on November 17, which gave a gunshot wound to the head as the cause of death.[^11] The charging decision cited forensic evidence, including Clark's DNA on the officer's gun.[^1] ## When - November 15, 2015: officers respond at 12:45 a.m., and Clark is shot.[^11] - November 16, 2015: Clark dies at Hennepin County Medical Center.[^2] - November 17, 2015: the medical examiner's autopsy is released.[^11] - November 23, 2015: five protesters are shot near the Fourth Precinct demonstration.[^13] - February 2016: the U.S. Justice Department's Community Oriented Policing Services office announces a review of the city's handling of the November protests.[^4] - March 16, 2016: Freeman ends the use of grand juries in police shootings.[^4] - March 30, 2016: the county attorney announces no charges against Ringgenberg and Schwarze.[^1] - May 2019: city leaders offer a five-figure settlement.[^4] - August 2019: the family accepts $200,000, and the city council approves the settlement on August 23.[^4] ## Where The shooting took place on the 1600 block of Plymouth Avenue North, near an apartment where Clark had attended a birthday party.[^11] The protests that followed were held outside the police department's Fourth Precinct station.[^2] ## Why The office gave two grounds for its decision. It found that the officers acted within the Minnesota Statutes authorizing deadly force. It also found that the state could not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the shooting was unjustified under Minnesota Statutes, section 609.066.[^1][^4] The pack does not include the text of section 609.066. ## How Minnesota's [[Bureau of Criminal Apprehension]] had already opened an investigation. Mayor Betsy Hodges said she had also asked the Civil Rights Division of the [[United States Department of Justice]] and the U.S. Attorney for Minnesota for an outside investigation, in the "interest of transparency and community confidence," and that the city needed "all the tools we have available to us."[^9] The federal step documented in the pack is the Community Oriented Policing Services review of the city's handling of the November protests.[^4] The county's decision was made without a grand jury, under the procedure Freeman announced on March 16, 2016. That procedure was introduced on the stated ground of transparency and fairness, and the decision it produced was not to charge.[^4][^1] ## How much The family's civil settlement was $200,000, accepted in August 2019. This was larger than the five-figure offer city leaders made in May 2019.[^4] ## How many - 18 days: the length of the protests outside the Fourth Precinct.[^2] - 5 protesters were shot on November 23, 2015, none with life-threatening injuries.[^13] - 4 men were charged in those shootings. One was charged with second-degree riot and five counts of second-degree assault, and three were each charged with second-degree riot.[^13] - 13 months: each officer's time with the department at the time of the shooting.[^9] ## In the at-issue record Entry AI-021 (Hennepin package, rank 21) pairs two outputs of the Hennepin County Attorney's Office. The first is the 2016 decision not to charge in Clark's death. The second is the 2018 charge against Noor, which the entry says produced the first murder conviction of a Minnesota police officer for an on-duty killing. The entry describes these as the same office, in the same decade, producing opposite outputs, and it notes that no published audit of the difference exists.[^5][^6] The entry rests on one source domain (en.wikipedia.org). It is anchored to the March 2025 presidential action *Stopping Waste, Fraud, and Abuse by Eliminating Information Silos*.[^14] The project's dossier places both decisions in a sequence of four matters during Freeman's tenure. The office declined to charge in Clark's death (2016) and in the 2018 shooting of Thurman Blevins. It charged Noor (2018), and it charged [[Derek Chauvin]] and three other officers (2020). The dossier records that on September 11, 2020, Judge [[Peter Cahill]] disqualified Freeman and three of his staff lawyers from the Floyd cases, after staff met with the [[medical examiner]] in alleged violation of attorney conduct rules. Attorney General [[Keith Ellison]]'s team then obtained Chauvin's conviction on April 20, 2021.[^5][^6] Separately, U.S. Department of Justice release No. 26-21 (January 14, 2026) is titled *United States Department of Justice Files Lawsuit Against Minnesota's 'Affirmative Action' Regime*. The title applies the United States' term "Minnesota's 'Affirmative Action' Regime" to the State's apparatus, and Attorney General Pamela Bondi certified the case as a matter of general public importance.[^15] The pack does not connect that lawsuit to the Clark matter, and it does not give the lawsuit's docket or status. ## In the Minnesota record ### Who - Time table row TL-0841 lists Clark, 24, as shot by Officers Mark Ringgenberg and Dustin Schwarze. The row also records that he died at Hennepin County Medical Center.[^3] ### What - Row TL-0835 records the handcuffing dispute between witness and police accounts.[^12] - Row TL-0850 records the March 30, 2016 no-charge decision and its reliance on forensic evidence.[^1] The row lists "Orville Freeman" as its subject. The county attorney was Michael Orville Freeman, known as Mike Freeman.[^5] - Rows TL-0890 and TL-0902 record the department's July 2020 civil rights charge against the City of Minneapolis. The time table states that the charge led to a [[consent decree]] in 2023.[^7] ### When - November 15, 2015 (shooting); March 30, 2016 (no charges); July 2020 (state civil rights charge against the city).[^3][^1][^7] ### Where - Minneapolis, Minnesota.[^3] ## Notes [^1]: Hennepin County Attorney's Office, *Clark decision* (news release, March 30, 2016) — the county attorney's decision not to charge officers Ringgenberg and Schwarze in the November 15, 2015 shooting, its deadly-force basis, and the forensic evidence cited. https://www.hennepinattorney.org/news/news/2016/March/cao-clark-decision-3-30-2016 [^2]: Wikipedia, *Jamar Clark*, lead section (rev. 1381657515, retrieved 2026-10-27) — age 24; death at Hennepin County Medical Center the night after the shooting; 18 days of protests at the Fourth Precinct. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamar_Clark [^3]: Project Time Table, rows TL-0834 and TL-0841 (2015-11-15), citing Wikipedia, *Killing of Jamar Clark* — the North Side location, the domestic disturbance call, the officers' names, and the death at HCMC. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_Jamar_Clark [^4]: Wikipedia, *Jamar Clark*, section on legal actions and settlement (retrieved 2026-10-27) — the February 2016 COPS review; the March 16, 2016 end of grand juries; section 609.066; the May 2019 offer; the $200,000 settlement approved August 23, 2019. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamar_Clark [^5]: Freeman Apex Dossier (2026-09-02), §III.d and n. 14, citing Minnesota Legislative Reference Library, *Legislators Past & Present* entry (graded S) — Freeman's Senate service and county attorney terms; his decisions in the Clark, Blevins, Noor and Chauvin matters. https://www.lrl.mn.gov/legdb/fulldetail?id=10197 [^6]: Wikipedia, *Michael O. Freeman* (graded F in dossier n. 14) — Freeman's declined and filed charges, 2016–2020, as cited by the project's dossier and at-issue entry AI-021. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_O._Freeman [^7]: Minnesota Department of Human Rights, *Press releases* (index; cited by Time Table rows TL-0890 and TL-0902, July 2020) — the civil rights charge against the City of Minneapolis over MPD. https://mn.gov/mdhr/news-community/press-releases/ [^8]: Wikipedia, *Jamar Clark*, biographical section (retrieved 2026-10-27) — birth date; adoption; the 2010, March 2015 and July 2015 criminal matters. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamar_Clark [^9]: Wikipedia, *Jamar Clark*, section on political reaction (retrieved 2026-10-27) — the officers' 13 months of service and paid leave; the federation statement; Hodges's request for an outside investigation; the BCA investigation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamar_Clark [^10]: Minnesota Historical Society, *Finding aid 00531* (graded S; cited in Freeman Apex Dossier n. 14) — a source for Freeman's biographical record. https://www2.mnhs.org/library/findaids/00531.xml [^11]: Wikipedia, *Jamar Clark*, shooting section (retrieved 2026-10-27) — the onlooker and county attorney accounts; the 12:45 a.m. response; the Harteau and Kroll statements; the November 17 autopsy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamar_Clark [^12]: Minnesota Public Radio News, *Jamar Clark* (cited by Time Table row TL-0835, 2015-11-15) — the dispute over whether Clark was handcuffed. https://www.mprnews.org/crime-law-and-justice/jamar-clark [^13]: Wikipedia, *Jamar Clark*, protests section (retrieved 2026-10-27) — the November 23, 2015 shooting of five protesters; the charges against four men. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamar_Clark [^14]: The White House, *Stopping Waste, Fraud, and Abuse by Eliminating Information Silos* (presidential action, March 2025) — the anchor document cited by at-issue entry AI-021. https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/03/stopping-waste-fraud-and-abuse-by-eliminating-information-silos/ [^15]: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Public Affairs, *United States Department of Justice Files Lawsuit Against Minnesota's 'Affirmative Action' Regime* (release No. 26-21, January 14, 2026) — the release title and Attorney General Bondi's certification of the case as a matter of general public importance. https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/united-states-department-justice-files-lawsuit-against-minnesotas-affirmative-action-regime