Family of Tekle Sundberg Files Federal Civil Rights Lawsuit Against Minneapolis Police

The family of Tekle Sundberg has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the City of Minneapolis and the officers responsible for his death, alleging violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution. The family’s lawsuit seeks compensatory and punitive damages, as well as reforms to MPD’s handling of mental health crises, including mandatory BCR deployment.

July 14, 2025 - The family of Tekle Sundberg, a 20-year-old Black man killed by Minneapolis police in 2022, has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the snipers who pulled the trigger, the command staff who authorized the operation and the City of Minneapolis. 

The lawsuit, filed this morning in federal court, comes exactly three years after Tekle was killed by MPD snipers during a prolonged standoff that his family argues was a mishandled mental health crisis, not a legitimate use of deadly force. According to the National Association for the Mentally Ill, the mentally ill are 10 times more likely to be the subjects of police use of force than those not mentally ill.

"We filed a lawsuit against MPD officers and the City of Minneapolis for Tekle and his family, but also for all mentally ill people who have been mistreated by the MPD," said the family's attorney, Paul Bosman. "The Minnesota Department of Human Rights and the Department of Justice have condemned MPD for its handling of the mentally ill. Tekle's family is asking for injunctive relief against the City to make a change."

A Counter-Narrative Emerges

The lawsuit draws heavily from the findings of the Reinvestigation Workgroup (RWG), an independent team formed after the 2018 killing of Thurman Blevins to provide transparent reviews of police killings in Minnesota. Their deep-dive report paints a starkly different picture than the original Minneapolis police narrative.

The official MPD statement described Tekle as an armed “active shooter” who endangered others and refused to comply with commands over a six-hour standoff. The report, however, found no evidence of a credible threat to police or the public in the hours leading up to Tekle’s death. He had not fired his weapon since shortly after police arrived on July 13, 2022, and by the time snipers fired, his gun didn’t have a bullet in the chamber.

"Ignored Warnings, Missed Opportunities"

Tekle was adopted from Ethiopia at the age of four and suffered from depression, PTSD, and a processing delay due to early trauma. His parents, Mark and Cindy, who were at the scene and in direct communication with officers, repeatedly warned MPD of his mental health history and begged to help de-escalate the situation. They were denied.

Despite policies that required the use of Behavioral Crisis Response (BCR) teams, unarmed mental health professionals trained to respond to crises, MPD never activated that option. According to the federal civil rights complaint filed by attorney Paul Bosman, this decision violated Travis’ Law (Minn. Stat. 403.03), which mandates referrals to mental health crisis teams when appropriate.

Photo of Mobile Command Center whiteboard documenting Tekle’s known mental health concerns. Photo credit: Reinvestigation Workgroup

According to the RWG report, Cindy Sundberg also let officers know that Tekle did not trust police, that he’d respond better to a Black officer than a white officer and mentioned that Tekle would be particularly unresponsive to them because he was afraid of being another Black man killed by the police.

Tekle’s fears of being shot and killed by the police while being a Black man in America were scoffed at by the officers on scene, according to his parents.

Use of Deadly Force

The fatal shots were fired by two SWAT snipers—Officer Aaron Pearson and Officer Zachary Seraphine—from a rooftop 75 yards away. Neither was under direct threat or exhibited signs of imminent danger at the time, according to body camera footage and their own statements.

Pearson fired first, Seraphine fired seconds later, not knowing where the first shot had come from. That second shot, according to the autopsy, is what killed Tekle. When officers retrieved Tekle’s gun, they discovered it had no bullet in the chamber.

The family’s lawsuit seeks compensatory and punitive damages, as well as reforms to MPD’s handling of mental health crises, including mandatory BCR deployment. The City of Minneapolis and MPD have yet to respond to the filing.

WATCH: Tekle's parents and siblings sat down with Georgia Fort the day after he was killed by police.

Tekle's mother, Cindy Sundberg says the family will continue to fight for justice for Tekle and every life stolen by state sanctioned violence. "Every person deserves to be seen as created in God's image and responded to fairly. He should still be with us," said Cindy.

Tekle's case is among a growing number of lawsuits nationwide demanding accountability from police departments in how they respond to mental health emergencies including the cases of Kobe Dimock-Heisler, Travis Jordan and Barbara Schneider, all killed by Minnesota officers in recent years.

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If you or someone you know is in a mental health crisis, call the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988. For culturally specific crisis care in Minneapolis, contact the Behavioral Crisis Response team at 311.