Travis Jordan, 36, had been living with his friend and co-worker Paul Johnson and his wife in the couple’s Minneapolis home. On Friday, Johnson became concerned about Jordan and called police.
Jordan had been “having a lot of suicidal thoughts because, um, depression, anxiety, but he’s not taking any pills for that. Um, he’s just taking alcohol for it,” a caller told a police dispatcher according to 911 transcript released by police on Sunday, ABC 5 reports.
When police arrived, shots were fired and what was supposed to be a welfare check on a man whom his friends claim had been struggling with depression, ended with another black man dead.
“Why are tasers not pulled out? Why is that not what’s in their hand?” Jordan asked the news station as he looked at the spot outside his home where his friend laid dying. “Why is the lethal form of de-escalating the situation and ending it in their hands and not all the other ways that could’ve been done?”
A press release from the police department claims that Jordan was carrying a knife but the transcript notes that the caller told the dispatcher that Jordan didn’t have any weapons.
During the call on Friday, the caller noted that they’d informed Jordan that they were calling the police.
“He doesn’t want to live, he doesn’t even think about his future anymore,” the caller said, then added: “I told him I was gonna call the cops, ‘cause I was really worried about him, and he threatened me and said go ahead and call the cops, I’ll talk to them when they get here,” the caller told dispatch.
Later in the conversation, the caller said, “I’ve looked through his text messages before and he’s asked for like to find him a gun for him from someone. And then I confronted him about that a long time ago and he said he wasn’t gonna do it,” ABC 5 reports.
The Hennepin County Medical Examiner told ABC 5 that Jordan died from multiple gunshot wounds.
John Elder, the spokesperson for the Minneapolis Police Department, told the news station that the “officers’ body cameras were on, recording both audio and video of the shooting.”
Elder added that every officer on the street has gone through state-mandated training on how to de-escalate wellness calls should the person become aggressive. Both officers have been placed on administrative leave pending an investigation.
“It was a wellness check and now our friend is dead instead of alive and getting the help that he needed,” Johnson’s wife Allison Reinke told the news station.