Hennepin

On Tuesday, a day after Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty defended her initial decision to charge the trooper who killed Ricky Cobb II and to later drop the charges, Cobb’s family said officials had failed them and once again not held law enforcement accountable.

“I was elected by the people in Hennepin County to make ethical, courageous decisions,” Moriarty said.

After months of heavy criticism, even from the state’s Democratic governor, Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty on Monday stood by her initial decision to charge Trooper Ryan Londregan in last summer’s killing of Ricky Cobb II. She says that new evidence makes the case would difficult to prove.

Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty filed a notice to dismiss the charges after Trooper Ryan Londregan’s defense team revealed prospective testimony during an April court hearing that the trooper believed Cobb was reaching for a firearm — and that a Minnesota State Patrol trainer said he never instructed officers to refrain from shooting into a moving vehicle.

Jeremy Zoss, a spokesman for the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office, said he did not have any more information to provide about the episode.