DULUTH — An unarmed man who was shot by a Duluth police officer through the closed door of a downtown apartment building has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the city and the officer.

Jared Fyle, 26, is seeking unspecified damages from the city of Duluth and Tyler Leibfried over the Sept. 12, 2020, shooting at the Kingsley Heights Apartments.

Leibfried was fired by the Duluth Police Department and criminally charged with two felonies, only to later be acquitted by a St. Louis County jury and reinstated to his post by an arbitrator.

But Fyle’s lawsuit, brought in U.S. District Court in November, alleges that he was deprived of his constitutional rights to remain free from excessive force.

Attorneys wrote in the 25-page complaint that Leibfried was “without legal justification” when he fired two separate volleys through the door, never having identified himself and continuing even as the victim pleaded for him to stop. They additionally claim that the city failed to properly train the officer.

“It is an objectively unreasonable use of force to discharge a weapon through a closed door without knowing who or what is on the other side, including whether any threat of serious bodily injury or death had been posed,” the complaint states.

Legal representatives for both the city and Leibfried have denied the allegations, asserting among other claims that Fyle’s own actions contributed to the shooting.

“The evidence has not changed since Officer Leibfried’s acquittal by a jury,” Stephanie Angolkar, an attorney for Leibfried, said in a statement. “We trust a civil jury will also find Officer Leibfried used reasonable force in response to a perceived imminent threat of death or serious injury.”

Attorneys: Prior shooting affected officer’s judgment

The complaint, filed by Duluth attorney Andrew Poole and the Minneapolis firm Robins Kaplan, relies on information that was largely already made public through Leibfried’s criminal prosecution.

Then a five-year veteran of the Duluth police force, Leibfried responded to the apartment building with partner Cory Lindsholm regarding a domestic disturbance complaint.

The officers quickly determined there was no basis for an arrest, but headed to Fyle’s third-floor unit to help retrieve some of his girlfriend’s belongings. Leibfried approached the door but had not yet announced his presence when two loud banging noises were heard.

According to body camera footage, Leibfried ducked into a small alcove next to the door and silently waited approximately 12 seconds before firing four shots.

Fyle, who remained inside the apartment, could then be heard screaming “Stop!” at least nine times, followed by an expression of “Ow!” Leibfried, after waiting six seconds, then fired an additional two rounds into the door as further screams were heard from Fyle and others in the building.

Fyle, then 23, was struck once in the back shoulder area and retained a bullet fragment that could not safely be removed by doctors.

It was later discovered that the initial banging noises were the result of Fyle using the blunt end of a hatchet to forcibly close the door — though there was no evidence that Leibfried knew he had the tool or that Fyle was aware the officers were approaching at that moment.

Fyle’s attorneys said Leibfried could clearly see there were no holes in the door or wall — but he nonetheless responded by “blindly firing” in rapid succession at an unknown target.

Leibfried and Lindsholm both told the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension that they initially believed shots had come from the apartment, with Leibfried thinking his partner had been struck.

But the complaint notes that Lindsholm refrained from firing his own weapon, telling investigators he “wasn’t going to start putting rounds into this apartment just on a guess.”

Leibfried, in trial testimony, compared the incident to a standoff 20 months earlier in which he was actually shot at by a barricaded domestic violence suspect. K-9 Haas was killed by gunfire, while his handler, Officer Aaron Haller, was wounded.

Duluth Police Officer Tyler Leibfried (Forum News Service)

“This is Jan. 13, 2019, all over again,” Leibfried recalled thinking, saying he was “100%” sure he was getting shot at again.

Fyle’s attorneys say Leibfried allowed that incident “to affect his judgment on this call.”

“The city of Duluth failed to train before this earlier incident or to retrain Leibfried afterwards to ensure he was properly trained and equipped to make objectively reasonable force decisions in light of the facts and circumstances he faced,” they wrote.

The attorneys said Fyle suffered “prolonged and severe pain” and retains a scar that “serves as a reminder of defendant Leibfried’s unreasonable and unconstitutional actions.”

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A city representative said officials would not comment on the pending litigation. But attorneys formally denied the allegations in a legal answer, writing: “At all relevant times, the city properly trained its police officers, including Officer Leibfried.”

Angolkar additionally asserted that the claims are barred by several legal immunities.

“The reasonableness of a particular use of force must be judged from the police officer’s perspective, not plaintiff’s perspective, or based on 20/20 hindsight,” the Bloomington attorney wrote, adding: “All actions taken by Officer Leibfried were legally reasonable, proper and necessary under the circumstances and authorized by the laws of the United States and state of Minnesota.“

Officer back on job

A Duluth jury acquitted Leibfried of assault and firearm charges in April 2022. But the civil lawsuit, if ultimately allowed to reach trial, would come with a lower legal threshold to establish liability against the officer and the city.

The case has already been litigated on several fronts, resulting in seemingly contradictory findings.

The Duluth Police Department, which initially placed Leibfried on paid leave, moved to fire him months after the shooting, publicly announcing that he had violated the department’s use-of-force policies and training. Then-Chief Mike Tusken and two department training experts also took the witness stand at his criminal trial.

But an arbitrator, former Ramsey County Attorney Susan Gaertner, sided with the Duluth Police Union in its grievance over Leibfried’s termination, ordering the officer reinstated April 5, 2023.

Arbitrators are given the authority to issue binding rulings under the collective bargaining agreement — an issue that previously arose with the department’s unsuccessful attempts to fire officer Adam Huot after he dragged a handcuffed homeless man through the downtown skywalk system.

Because Leibfried’s discipline was reversed in full, Gaertner’s legal conclusions are not public under state law.

But in a separate dispute, the Minnesota Court of Appeals concluded this week that Leibfried engaged in a “serious violation” of city policy, constituting employment misconduct.

A three-judge panel ruled against the officer, who was denied unemployment benefits by the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development.

Affirming the decision of an unemployment law judge, the panel said it was “not believable” that Leibfried continued to view Fyle as an “imminent deadly threat” when he fired the final two rounds. The jurists also concluded that the officer gave testimony that “is unsupported by the evidence and is not credible.”

“As a result, this was not a circumstance in which the use of deadly force was justified,” Judge Keala Ede wrote in the opinion.

The decision, which could be further appealed to the state Supreme Court, means Leibfried can’t collect unemployment benefits for the time he was out of work. But it does not have a direct bearing on his continued employment or Fyle’s civil lawsuit.

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