Armed man fatally shot by Minneapolis police ID'd by medical examiner

A 39-year-old Bloomington man has been identified as the man fatally shot by police this week in south Minneapolis, the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office said Friday.

Michael Warren Ristow was shot and killed Wednesday by officers responding to reports of a man threatening a person with a gun in the 3000 block of Hiawatha Avenue of the Longfellow neighborhood, the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) said in a preliminary report.

The BCA said Ristow had fled police trying to arrest him, then stopped at a fence and “turned toward the officers with a gun in his hand.” The three officers fired, striking Ristow.

According to the medical examiner’s report, Ristow was pronounced dead of “multiple gunshot wounds” just before 10 p.m. at HCMC.

The BCA identified the three officers as Enoch Langford, Abdirizaq Mumin and Chaz Wilson. They were placed on leave pending the investigation as is standard protocol when an officer kills a person in the line of duty.

The BCA said the officers were wearing body cameras, and the video was being reviewed. BCA investigators found cartridge casings and two handguns that were later determined to be stolen, agency spokeswoman Bonney Bowman said.

In a news conference after the shooting, Police Chief Brian O’Hara said Ristow’s gun appeared to have been jammed, but he did not know whether it had been fired.

“I have no reason to think that this is anything other than a justifiable and lawful use of force by police officers,” the chief said.

Ristow did not have a violent criminal record, but it did include three open cases in Hennepin County from 2023: felony fifth-degree possession of fentanyl, misdemeanor possession of drug paraphernalia and trespassing. In each case, he allegedly possessed drugs or paraphernalia.

This was the second fatal shooting by Minneapolis police in two weeks. On May 30, police shot to death Mustafa Ahmed Mohamed, 35, after he ambushed and killed officer Jamal Mitchell in a confrontation on S. Blaisdell Avenue.

-Star Tribune staff writers Paul Walsh and Louis Krauss contributed to this report.