In addressing the fatal shooting of Billy Hughes in a confrontation with St. Paul Police officers this week, Mayor Melvin Carter and Chief of Police Todd Axtell have said things that bear repeating because they speak to a regard for human life and represent significant progress toward transparency in government.

Each has promised thorough investigation and timely release of information regarding the shooting and its circumstances. Each has stood up for balancing the integrity of the investigation with the public’s need to know what happened.

Carter’s initial statement on Sunday was humane and measured: “Last night’s officer-involved shooting was a tragedy for our entire city. As we await further details, my heart goes out to the family of the deceased, to our St. Paul officers, and to every member of our community as we all grieve and process this loss.”

Axtell on Tuesday said, “Sunday’s officer-involved shooting is a tragedy for us all. The family of Mr. Hughes has lost their loved one. Two officers have had their lives changed in ways that can never be understood by most.”

And, “An officer-involved shooting leaves an indelible bruise on our collective soul, for which truth is the only relief. … I also know that the only path to truth is through a thorough, unadulterated investigation by highly trained professionals.”

The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension is the investigating agency, and the investigation is proceeding apace. Axtell and Carter said they expect video from the officers’ body-worn cameras to be released within 10 days or so.

The promise of a thorough, timely investigation and the information it yields, including the footage from body-worn cameras, is significant in direct and indirect ways. Directly, it means we’ll know much more soon, including what the investigation looks like and what it found. Indirectly, it deters posturing and postulating, because facts are at hand. The more we can have confidence in the investigation and its tools — and confidence that the public will have a chance to judge for itself — the less need there is for conjecture.

As Carter and Axtell and others have said, the BCA’s probe won’t answer every question, nor settle every doubt. But thoroughness and transparency, in lesser matters as well as these of life and death, are cardinal virtues regardless. They don’t come easy.

 

— St. Paul Pioneer Press, Aug. 9