DULUTH, Minnesota (WCCO) – No charges will be brought against a Northern Minnesota deputy who said he shot a suspected mugger who dragged him from an ATV last fall.
The St. Louis County law firm says Deputy Sheriff Jason Kuhnly shot Jesse Ferrari in Duluth in the early morning hours of Sept. 28, 2021. – night raids in the area. Ferrari ran off with another man on board and fled on an ATV track.
Sheriff Deputy Kuhnly and a K-9 soon arrived to help the Deputy Sheriff track the two suspects. The officers broke up at one point and Kuhnly eventually saw an ATV and told the driver to stop. The quad fled, but soon came back along the trail toward Kuhnly.
He told investigators that as the ATV approached him, he told the driver, Ferrari, to stop and then grabbed a steering wheel to try to push the vehicle’s kill switch. Kuhnly said Ferrari then ‘pinned’ him to the vehicle by pressing the accelerator pedal to accelerate, and began towing him alongside.
Kuhnly says he feared for his safety and warned Ferrari he would shoot if he didn’t stop. He quickly fired in the direction of Ferrari and hit him in the side. The bullet left his body and became lodged in the rear compartment of the vehicle. Ferrari then fell off the ATV.
After an investigation by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, the St. Louis County Attorney’s Office decided not to charge Kuhnly, saying that despite the conflicting accounts, it would be rational for any member of law enforcement in Kuhnly’s position to fear for their safety, and there was not enough evidence to suggest that his decision to shed his service weapon was “unreasonable”.