Amid mounting community pressure, Minneapolis Police arrest man accused of shooting his neighbor

By Melissa Alonso, Lauren Mascarenhas and Zoe Sottile, CNN

(CNN) — Minneapolis police have taken a man into custody almost a week after he allegedly shot his neighbor in the neck – the culmination of a monthslong campaign of racial harassment and threats, according to local reports and court documents.

The city’s police department is facing mounting criticism for not making an arrest sooner despite the victim making nearly 20 reports about the harassment leading up to the shooting.

“We failed this victim 100%,” said Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara at a news conference Sunday. “The Minneapolis police somehow did not act urgently enough to prevent that individual from being shot.”

A video of the incident, captured on a home surveillance camera and obtained by CNN affiliate KARE, shows Davis Moturi standing outside, pruning a tree, when he suddenly falls to the ground. Moturi was hospitalized with a fractured spine, two broken ribs and a concussion, according to authorities.

The alleged shooter, John Sawchak – Moturi’s neighbor – surrendered around 1:24 a.m. Monday, following an hourslong standoff with police, O’Hara said at a news conference early Monday.

Sawchak has been charged with attempted murder, felony assault, and stalking and harassment for allegedly shooting Moturi, the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office said in court filings. Sawchak’s public defender, Elizabeth Karp, said her client denies the allegations against him.

By the time of his arrest, Sawchak had a yearslong history of harassing, threatening and attacking his neighbors, with three active warrants against him – including one for threats against Moturi.

Moturi’s family had called the police to report Sawchak for at least 19 incidents of threats, hate speech and more, the complaint states. Police had been trying since April to arrest Sawchak, who has a history of mental illness, O’Hara said.

Sawchak made his first court appearance Tuesday, where a judge set bail. The judge explained if Sawchak wanted to be released on bail with no conditions, the total would be $1 million, but if he posted $600,000, he would have to be supervised, live somewhere else and have no contact with the involved parties, among other conditions.

Sawchak indicated during the hearing he would not be able to make bail, and remains in custody, according to jail records.

Sawchak also asked the judge for restraining orders against the people who “keep coming” onto his property and “stalking” him, but the judge said that matter would not be discussed during Tuesday’s appearance.

Sawchak was then escorted from the courtroom. He did not enter a plea, and his next hearing was scheduled for November.

Prosecutors say the crime was racially motivated, according to the criminal complaint.

In the year leading up to the shooting, Sawchak, who is White, verbally harassed Moturi, who is Black, on multiple occasions, including using “racially charged language” during an incident in October 2023 and calling Moturi “a Black bastard” in May, according to the criminal complaint.

Moturi spoke to KARE from his hospital bed, saying he feels police failed to protect his family by not arresting Sawchak sooner.

“I don’t call the police for fun. I call because I want my family to be safe,” Moturi told KARE.

“It’s very sad that it had to come to this,” Moturi told CNN Tuesday while wearing a neck brace, hours after Sawchak appeared in court.

“I’m looking forward to recovering safely and securely in the comfort of my home,” he said. “I’m just glad that my lovely wife is here and that I am still alive.”

Moturi told CNN he is working to retain a lawyer after the ordeal.

Moturi’s wife told investigators Sawchak often observed them from a second-story window inside his home, according to the complaint.

She told police that in the past week, the defendant told the victim, “Touch my tree again and I’ll kill you,” according to the complaint.

“My heart is broken. We aren’t safe in our home,” Moturi’s wife said in a statement. “I can’t bring myself to think of where we would be had the angle of the bullet been slightly different.”

A verified GoFundMe raising money for Moturi’s recovery says the harassment started shortly after the couple bought their home in September 2023.

Sawchak threatened Moturi on multiple occasions, including flashing a large knife from a second-floor window of his home and threatening to kill Moturi and his wife, the complaint said.

“Ultimately, what precipitated the shooting was the cutting of a tree that this individual had planted with his mother, who apparently he had a very deep attachment to,” O’Hara said after the arrest.

Speaking with CNN after the shooting, Sean Sullivan, who lives near both of the involved homes, said Sawchak had an “ominous aura” and was known for yelling at neighbors from his home, including making racist comments. Sullivan once saw him throw a fountain drink on another man walking past his home, he said. But police efforts to respond to the incidents were “sorely lacking,” he said.

Sullivan said he feels relief that Sawchak has been arrested. “I hope he gets the help he needs,” he said.

‘This is an example of what de-escalation looks like’

The Minneapolis Police Department is facing pointed criticism from community leaders and residents over how long it took to make the arrest. But police said they were trying to avoid a potentially deadly confrontation.

Officers had surrounded Sawchak’s home – where they believed he had firearms and improvised explosives – waiting for days for him to exit, O’Hara said.

Crisis negotiators, a drone team and dozens of officers conducted a SWAT operation Sunday. Police threatened to gas the home before Sawchak surrendered, O’Hara said.

Officers are still working to recover firearms from the home as part of the ongoing investigation.

The department announced Monday it would conduct a full review into the shooting.

“Given reports of mental illness, presence of firearms, possibility of explosives – and all of this in a residential neighborhood – a careful and methodical approach was required to ensure that lives were not lost,” Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said in a news release.

In court documents, prosecutors say Sawchak was “committed” for mental illness about 10 years ago with “a paranoid personality disorder,” after he was found not competent to proceed in a criminal case.

Police attempted to contact the suspect on multiple occasions in response to Moturi’s 911 calls in the past, O’Hara said, but Sawchak refused to come to the door every time.

“We’re not going to go in and bust his door down with guns blazing and get into a deadly force situation,” O’Hara said. An understaffed police department and high crime load did not help the situation, he added.

After the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer in 2020, the city is grappling with conflicting demands for less use of force by officers and more effective policing, Frey said.

“You can’t simultaneously insist that police officers should be de-escalating tense situations … and then simultaneously say, right now you got to bust through those doors with the SWAT team and drag somebody out. You can’t have it both ways,” Frey said Sunday before Sawchak’s arrest.

Members of the Minneapolis City Council penned a letter to Frey in the days leading up to the arrest, criticizing police for not taking action sooner, KARE reported.

Frey called the letter a “gross” political stunt by officials who don’t understand police operations.

“Leadership is about doing the right thing regardless of what the masses want, and so I believe that’s what we’re doing,” O’Hara said Sunday.

“I know there’s a lot of rhetoric right now that we should just kick in the door, jump in there, guns blazing. That’s wrong. That is pandering to what’s going on while being completely ignorant of fact and having absolutely no expertise on police operations.”

City Council member Andrea Jenkins said the city needs to take violent criminals off the street. “I am not a police officer. I don’t know how that gets done but I know it needs to get done,” she said.

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CNN’s Sarah Dewberry, Chelsea Bailey, Bill Kirkos and McKenna Ewen contributed to this report.