Shane Netterville
FARGO, N.D. (KFGO KVRR) — Fargo Mayor Tim Mahoney expressed sympathies to the family of a man killed in an officer-involved shooting last week, and invited them to meet with leaders like the state’s Attorney General Drew Wrigley and Police Chief David Zibolski. Meanwhile, community activists, family and friends of Shane Netterville are pushing for body camera footage to be released to see how the 28-year-old lost his life.
“Where is it and why has it been held onto even this long? Even this long, that leads to a suspicion. That leads to a suspicion that something is being tainted. If they have nothing to hide, the body cams should be released and should’ve been released even to the family right away. Immediately. Why would you hold anything?,” says Netterville’s friend Michael Ertelt.
Ertelt says they seem nonchalant about the situation and demands accountability.
“When a person gets pulled over by a police officer and they don’t wanna say what’s going on and the police officer is asking them, ‘what were you doing tonight?,’ or, ‘where were you? What was going on?’,…If you don’t respond correctly, you don’t respond the way that they see adequate. They’re under automatic suspicion that you’re trying to hide something. Why isn’t that the same way when the coin is tossed?,” Ertelt says.
Ertelt last saw Netterville nearly an hour before he was shot by officer Adam O’Brien. “I actually talked to him a little while before that – we were gonna get breakfast.”
He says Netterville struggled with addiction, which he says is the bigger issue at hand where he says the consequences involve prison or death.
“He was probably using. That, to me, is a victimless crime. He was in a situation where he’s doing a victimless crime. I don’t believe he wanted to do anything to turn it into a crime with a victim whether it be a police officer or a civilian at all. I firmly believe that he was fleeing. He was trying to get away. I don’t believe his first thought would’ve been to harm any police officer or a civilian. That just wasn’t the type of person he was,” Ertelt says.
Ertelt says police training needs to be re-examined and wonders if Officer O’Brien prematurely reacted with force.
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