Crookston officer fatally shoots naked man after multiple taser attempts inside homeless shelter

On June 30th, 44-year-old Christopher Ryan Junkin lost his life after police were dispatched to the Care and Share Shelter in Crookston to deal with a disturbance he was causing.

Since then, multiple people have come forward on our whistleblower hotline to express their reservations with the use of lethal force. The recently-released body camera footage paints a complex picture -- that of a man distinctly uncooperative, and likely not in touch with reality, but also one that appeared to be unarmed and did lay motionless on the ground multiple times during the interaction.

Law enforcement officials tasered Junkin repeatedly, and also utilized pepper spray. You can hear them in the footage, unsure about how to proceed after those methods do not suitably subdue Junkin.

“What do we got for less lethal, what do we have, more options?” asked Officer Nick Fladland of the Crookston Police Department.

Eventually, Junkin gets up from a facedown position -- where he had ignored commands to put his hands behind his back -- and runs at Fladland, who then fires the shots that end Junkin’s life.

Fladland had previously been on critical incident leave for his role in another shooting back on May 16th.