Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) confirmed on Thursday that the young black man photographed as he was targeted with a weapon by a Minneapolis police officer is his son Jeremiah Ellison, Al Jazeera America reported.
“Photo is agonizing for me to see,” Ellison wrote on Twitter. “My son is PEACEFULLY protesting w/ hands up; officer is shouldering gun. Why?”
The picture was originally published by the Minneapolis Star-Tribune before being re-posted online on Wednesday night, amid protests against police use of force in the death of 24-year-old Jamar Clark. It can be seen in full below.
Disturbing photo of @MinneapolisPD ready to shoot US Rep @keithellison son. @MayorHodges save your city! #Jamarclark pic.twitter.com/icnC2hcHtd
— WinDiddy (@WintanaMN) November 19, 2015
Police removed demonstrators on Wednesday after they gathered near the city’s north police precinct, where Clark was shot early on Sunday morning. Local activists have said that Clark was handcuffed and unarmed at the time. Clark died on Monday night.
The two officers involved in the encounter, Mark Ringgenberg and Dustin Schwarze, have been put on administrative leave. The Guardian reported that a former police informant sued Schwarze in 2011 for allegedly subjecting him to “continuous and unbroken sequence of unlawful searches, intimidation and phone threats.” The suit was settled out of court.
Mayor Betsy Hodges has already asked the Justice Department to investigate the incident, and Time magazine reported that Ellison has contacted Attorney General Loretta Lynch asking her to launch an investigation.