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City audit finds gaps in Minneapolis Police response to two high-profile cases, offers 37 recommendations
Summary
A city audit released April 22, 2026, found lapses in MPD response, documentation, and interagency coordination in the shooting of Davis Muri and the death of Allison Lucer and offered 37 recommendations to improve training, case escalation, and victim supports. The audit committee voted to publish the report and referred it to the full council for further study.
The Office of City Auditor presented two after-action reviews to a joint meeting of the Minneapolis City Council and the audit committee on April 22, finding uneven police response capacity, inconsistent documentation and evidence-gathering, and breakdowns in communication with prosecutors that limited earlier escalation in two high-profile cases.
Robert Timberman, the city auditor, said his office and external counsel Hogan Adams reviewed roughly 49,000 pages of documents and more than 25 hours of video and interviewed dozens of witnesses and officials. "These reviews highlight opportunities for the city and for MPD to strengthen how high-risk situations are documented, escalated, and addressed," Timberman said during the presentation.
The report examined two cases: the shooting of resident Davis Muri, who was hospitalized after being shot in October 2024, and the February 2024 death of Allison Lucer. Auditors concluded that staffing shortages, heavy call volume and shift-change gaps contributed to delayed responses; inconsistent knowledge about legal tools such as harassment restraining orders and the Minnesota statutory 72‑hour rule affected arrest decisions; and varying record-keeping and the inconsistent use of report flags reduced information continuity across shifts.
For the Muri case, auditors documented repeated 911 calls and neighborhood patrol efforts that did not lead to arrest before the October 23, 2024 shooting; they recommended policies that require officers to review PIMS/CAD information while en route, formal escalation procedures when multiple calls concern the same address or person, and better documentation of drive-by and visual-observation details.
In the Lucer case, auditors found that investigators sometimes did not submit gone-on-arrival domestic abuse investigations to prosecutors in a timely fashion, that decisions about whether to request crime-lab response varied across supervisors and shift gaps, and that early documentation was sometimes incomplete. The report recommended new SOPs for DOA (dead-on-arrival) scenes with domestic-violence history, expanded training on the 72‑hour rule and HRO/OFP differences, clearer procedures for evidence collection, and a review of case-assignment and investigator staffing.
The audit also called out public communications concerns. Timberman described instances in which MPD leadership had relied on incomplete or inaccurate information before issuing public statements; auditors urged more rigorous review of public statements tied to medical-examiner conclusions.
Chief Brian O'Hara, who answered council questions during the meeting, acknowledged mistakes in earlier public comments and offered a public apology in the chamber. "I am sorry for the harm caused by my words," Chief O'Hara said, adding that he had met privately with Lucer’s family and that MPD would continue cooperating with investigators and partners.
The audit includes a total of 37 recommendations across the two cases; MPD provided a detailed response and implementation timeline for each recommendation. MPD told auditors it is developing policies for information review while en route, improving CAD/VizNet flagging for repeat calls, enhancing training on domestic-abuse response, and restoring or restaffing specialized units such as the violent-criminal apprehension team.
The audit committee voted to receive and publish the report; the committee also referred the item to the full city council for additional review and possible follow-up. Chair Elliot Payne said the council and audit committee will use regular follow-up reports to track implementation.
Council members pressed both auditors and MPD for concrete dates, clarification on disciplinary processes, and details about coordination with the Hennepin County Attorney's Office. Auditors said they will monitor implementation and report back to the audit committee; MPD and the Office of Community Safety said they would work to establish a regular cadence of communications with county prosecutors to address charging and escalation procedures.
Next steps noted at the meeting include audit follow-up reporting to the audit committee, MPD implementation of corrective actions with specific planned dates in some cases, and additional council-level review and hearings where council members indicated they will press for further detail on staffing, prosecutor coordination, and the department's internal accountability mechanisms.
