MINNEAPOLIS — It began as a promising second date.
Norhan Askar and Winston Smith enjoyed a walleye sandwich, beef bites and coconut shrimp at Stella's Fish Cafe the afternoon of June 3, 2021. After their meal, they were sitting in Smith's car atop a parking ramp when members of the North Star Fugitive Task Force boxed the couple in to apprehend Smith on a gun warrant. Claiming Smith disobeyed commands and brandished a gun, they shot and killed him, shattering windows that injured Askar.
Askar's attorneys announced in front of the federal courthouse in downtown Minneapolis last summer that they would sue officers in the U.S. Marshals Service-run task force who fired their guns: two Ramsey and Hennepin county deputy sheriffs. But U.S. District Court Judge David S. Doty dismissed the suit last month, highlighting the challenges of winning cases against members of joint local-federal task forces.
