BCA Still Looking Over Details Of Deadly Minneapolis Officer-Involved Shooting

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension confirmed Tuesday that 24- year-old Jamar Clark is dead. He was shot by Minneapolis police officers during a struggle while they were responding to a call of a woman being assaulted.

BCA investigators said Tuesday this case is a top priority. They are pouring through video, interviewing witnesses and collecting forensic evidence, all in hopes of figuring out what led to the shooting of Clark and whether or not he was in handcuffs when he was shot.

Video evidence from the scene comes from the ambulance that treated the assault victim, cameras from public housing, Minneapolis police portable cameras and cameras operated by witnesses. Investigators say none of that video will be made public.

"We don't want to taint the interviews that may be ongoing with witnesses in this case and by having the video going public we would potentially taint portions of the investigation," Drew Evans with the BCA said.

Evans says so far, none of the video investigators have looked at show the entire incident, the struggle with officers and the shooting of Clark. What we do know is there are lots of questions about how things unfolded.

Witnesses say Clark was handcuffed before he was shot, something police deny. Investigators say they will have to use science to find the truth.

"What we're still undergoing is to exactly how handcuffs came into this scene there, were handcuffs at the scene at the time and we're still examining if they were on Mr. Clark or whether or not they just fell out at the scene that's what we are trying to exert," Evans said.

WCCO took a look at Jamar Clark's arrest record. We found 10 arrests in Minneapolis since 2009. His crimes range from robbery and aggravated assault to DWI and running from police.

Most recently in Ramsey County, Clark is accused of terroristic threats and domestic assault. We spoke with the man who adopted Jamar Clark when he was 3 years old.

James Clark, who told me that no matter what his son did in the past, no matter what his arrest record says, he did not deserve to die like he did. James Clark says his son was shot once near the eye and the bullet was still there when Jamar was taken off life support.

The Hennepin County Medical Center released its autopsy of Jamar Clark's death Tuesday. The report says he died of a gunshot wound to the head and his manner of death is a homicide.