A Minneapolis man accused of shooting his neighbor but has not been arrested, sparking anger at police

A white Minneapolis man was charged with attempted murder Thursday after an ongoing dispute resulted in him shooting his black neighbor in the neck for touching a tree, but the failure of police to arrest the suspect angered city council members.

The The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office has filed charges against John Herbert Sawchak in connection with Wednesday’s shooting of Davis Moturi.

The office said it received the case Thursday and immediately charged Sawchak with attempted murder, first-degree assault and harassment and stalking, aggravated by racial bias, NBC affiliate KARE Minneapolis reported.

Court documents show that at the time of the shooting, Sawchak had three outstanding arrest warrants, including one for threats of violence against Moturi.

As of Saturday afternoon, Minneapolis police had not arrested Sawchak. A spokesman said they “intend to arrest him.”

On Wednesday, Moturi was trimming a tree on his property when he was shot. Court documents say Sawchak shot a neighbor in the neck with a gun from an open upstairs window.

Moturi broke his spine, has two broken ribs and a concussion, his wife Caroline said in a telephone interview on Saturday.

Sawchak, 54, could not be reached at a phone number listed for him.

Police Chief Brian O’Hara said at press conference On Friday, officers went to the hospital on a report of a gunshot victim. Moturi told them that a neighbor had threatened to shoot him “if he touched a particular tree.” While Moturi was cutting down a tree, he was shot.

The chief said Sawchak was not arrested because of his “mental illness” and possession of a firearm. O’Hara said Sawchak had been involved in “violent confrontations” in the past and had refused to cooperate with officers dozens of times at his home.

Court documents say Sawchak suffers from mental illness and a “paranoid personality disorder.”

“We have been working to arrest the suspect in this case since at least April this year, when the district attorney’s office first dismissed the harassment charges and then referred them to the city prosecutor’s office,” the police chief told reporters. “No Minneapolis police officers have had personal contact with this suspect since the victim in this case called us.”

O’Hara said enforcing the order would be considered high risk.

“Based on our assessment, the likelihood of an armed, violent confrontation that may result in us having to use lethal force against the suspect in this case is high,” he said. “We wanted to arrest the suspect in a location where he was least likely to have access to firearms. This is outside the residence.

The chief said Sawchak was a “loner” who rarely left his home. A police spokesman did not provide the exact date of a possible arrest.

The delay in Sawchak’s arrest has angered some Minneapolis City Council members. Andrea Jenkins, Elliott Payne, Aisha Chughtai, Jason Chavez and Robin Wonsley sent a letter to O’Hara and Mayor Jacob Frey accusing police of failing to protect “a resident of Minneapolis from a clear, persistent and widely reported threat from his neighbor,” according to Minnesota Star Stand.

After the police chief’s news conference, Jenkins told reporters that violent criminals need to be taken off the streets.

“I’m not a police officer, I don’t know how it’s done, but I know it has to be done,” Jenkins said.

O’Hara said anyone who suggests police don’t want to arrest Sawchak is “simply wrong.” Frey’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“To be honest, the officers are afraid. They fear that they will be held criminally liable if they find themselves in a situation where they make a mistake while trying to do their job and protect the public,” the police chief said at a news conference.

Last year, the Minneapolis Police Department found itself at the center of a federal investigation fired in the aftermath The murder of George Floyd in 2020. The Justice Department said the department and the city had a pattern of excessive force and racial discrimination which violated both the United States Constitution and federal law.

“If we went in with a SWAT team and were in a deadly force situation, the headlines would be, ‘MPD shoots mentally ill person,’” the chief said.

Moturi, 34, said he is currently in hospital because the police did not help him.

“I was clear in the emails that something really, really bad had to happen before anything was done,” he said in a telephone interview from the hospital. “And something really bad happened and he’s still free.”

Moturi and his wife said their problems with Sawchak began after they moved into their home in September 2023. They initially claimed it was due to Moturi’s desire to cut down a tree on his property.

“I went to him about the tree, as any good neighbor should… but he just wasn’t up for it. He started being very aggressive, calling me names,” Moturi said. “I thought he was just having a bad day, so I left, came back and he was still threatening and saying racist things, calling me ghetto.”

Sawchak’s problems soon escalated, according to Moturi, who said Sawchak began doing things such as spraying water on the walls of his house and using a blower to stay awake.

It got so bad that Moturi installed outdoor cameras to capture his neighbor’s behavior. According to Moturi, while he was setting up cameras, Sawchak tried to attack him.

Moturi said he had to spray Sawchak to make him back off.

In another incident in April, Moturi said Sawchak attacked him with a shovel while he was cleaning up his yard.

Moturi said he and his wife called and emailed police dozens of times, but Sawchak was never arrested.

Court documents show Sawchak has a long history of alleged threats and acts of violence. Documents show that in January 2016, he allegedly verbally abused a neighbor while holding a knife and threatened to kill him.

In June this year, he allegedly slashed the tires of an off-duty police officer’s vehicle with a knife. Other incidents mentioned in the document included trying to hit a neighbor with a moped, threatening to ambush and shoot his sister, hitting a neighbor with a wooden stick causing injury, threatening to put a neighbor in hospital, and throwing a shovel at a neighbor’s house.

Court documents show he was arrested several times over the years on charges of second-degree assault and misdemeanor assault/harassment.

Documents show Sawchak was charged this month with brandishing a knife and threatening to kill a neighbor, pointing a firearm at a neighbor while standing outside the neighbor’s window, and shooting the neighbor in the neck.

The lawsuit also accuses Sawchak of repeatedly violating restraining orders. There have been 13 arrest warrants issued against him for harassment since 2007, the most recent by Moturi, who said Sawchak “threatened to put him in the hospital while holding a gun.”

Court documents show that another restraining order filed by another person expired earlier this month.