Police arrest man charged with threatening and shooting neighbor in the neck after standoff

A white Minneapolis man accused of shooting and critically injuring his Black neighbor was arrested early Monday following a SWAT standoff, after the department faced backlash for failing to address his escalating threats that turned violent.

John Herbert Sawchak, 54, was arrested in connection with allegedly shooting his neighbor, Davis Moturi, 34, in the neck on Oct. 23.

The arrest came as police admitted they had failed Moturi by failing to prevent Sawchack's ongoing harassment, following a number of complaints.

Sawchak surrendered outside his home around 1:30 a.m. ET after a five-hour standoff in which a negotiator used a loudspeaker to urge him to leave his residence and police threatened the use of gas.

"Ultimately the individual was safely emerged from the house prior to us needing to insert gas into the house,” Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said in a press conference at 2:30 a.m. Monday.

“That was our next step we prepared to do. We told individual we were about to do it and immediately prior to that at about 1:24 am, he emerged from rear of residence and surrendered,” O’Hara said.

O'Hara said his team "very methodically and systematically" gave the suspect announcements and updates on what was happening.

Sawchak was charged last week in connection with the shooting during which he opened fire on Moturi from an upstairs window as he was pruning a tree, according to court documents. Moturi was hospitalized with a fractured spine, two broken ribs and a concussion.

Moturi had contacted police multiple times about Sawchak’s escalating harassment, but police had failed to arrest him saying that he has mental illness, possesses firearms, and executing a warrant was considered high-risk.

Yet early Monday O’Hara admitted: “Yes, we failed this victim — he should not have been shot.”

He explained that there had been dozens of attempts to make contact with Sawchak and surveillance was done prior to the shooting, but with no success since April.

“But I will say this, we had no reason to suspect that he would shoot the neighbor from inside the house,” O’Hara added.

O'Hara told the 2:30 a.m. news conference that police had surrounded Sawchak's residence for the last several days in an attempt to arrest him and exhausted all "peaceful" efforts prior to escalating use of force with a SWAT team and special tactics. 

“Minneapolis police officers waited for days for the individual to emerge from the house and he never did,” O’Hara explained, but officers were able to confirm he was inside and spoke with his family multiple times to gather information on his mental health history. 

Officers had tried dozens of phone numbers and emails for Sawchak and tried reaching him via a psychiatrist and family members before last night’s operation. In last night's standoff, officers inserted a phone into the residence and called it constantly in a bid to make contact.

“We identified issues of concern including issues that the individual had both firearms inside and also had knowledge of improvised explosive devices,” the police chief said.

O'Hara said that the shooting was caused by Moturi cutting a tree that had been planted by the suspect and his mother.

“Ultimately what precipitated the shooting was that the cutting of a tree that the individual had planted with his mother who apparently he had a deep attachment to that was what prompted the shooting I believe,” he said.

At the time of the press conference, a full search of the residence had not yet been completed and firearms believed to be in the home were not yet recovered.

Sawchak was booked into jail at 2:30 a.m. on multiple warrants. He was charged last week in Hennepin County with attempted murder, first-degree assault and felony harassment and stalking, enhanced for racial bias in connection with the Moturi shooting.

The delay in arresting Sawchak had sparked outrage among Minneapolis City Council Members, some of whom wrote a letter to O’Hara and Mayor Jacob Frey accusing police of failing to protect Moturi. 

In the Monday press conference, however, Frey defended the police. “What we had tonight was an extraordinarily dangerous situation ... Our officers did this the right way,” he said.