Allegations of a ‘brutal’ police murder proven false

In March 2023 I highlighted the baseless allegations being made by several activist groups that local law enforcement had killed a young man, Khalil Azad, because he fled from them in a motor vehicle. Read that account here.

Sadly, as is too often the case in 2023, Azad’s family was used by these groups to foment anti-police rhetoric.

“According to Black Lives Matter Twin Cities, Communities United Against Police Brutality, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, and the family of Khalil Azad, an independent “community investigation” of Azad’s July 2022 death is required as they fuel speculation Azad was murdered by police and his death was covered up.”

To appease the demands for an investigation, the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension investigated the circumstances of Azad’s death, and the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office reviewed the BCA’s findings. 

This week, the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office supported the conclusions that police had no contact with Azad after he fled from them, and that Azad had apparently drowned while hiding in a lake attempting to evade capture. Read about the conclusion of the investigation here.

The Hennepin County Attorney concluded that law enforcement did nothing “other than seek in earnest to locate Khalil” using dogs, a State Patrol helicopter and thermal imaging, and trying to get information from the two others in the SUV, one of whom was Moses Azad…”

There was never any valid information to legitimately fuel the destructive narratives that police had killed Azad — yet activist groups played on the Azad family’s grief.

Rather than working to bridge communication between authorities and the family, these activist groups created more divide and more mistrust.

As a result, when the Hennepin County Attorney met with Azad’s family to share the findings of the investigation, some members refused to go. Azad’s brother Moses was one. He is convinced, absent any information to support it, that the police killed his brother. 

This is yet another example of the destructiveness of anti-police narratives which suggest among other things, that rampant police brutality and murderous cover ups not only occur, but are the norm. 

As noted in March, “In the end, we all lose.”