Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement from the Minnesota-based Twin Cites Coalition for Justice.

Yesterday, October 22, 2026, Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty announced she is charging Chuck Foss with second-degree murder in the 2024 killing of Allison Lussier. This announcement comes two-and-a-half years after Allison’s body was found in her apartment.

Two-and-a-half years of Allison’s family, community and local organizers fighting for answers.

Two-and-a-half years of press conferences, rallies, meetings with police and city leadership, court hearings, and gaslighting from the mayor and the chief of police.

Two-and-a-half years of Allison’s family being retraumatized by having to convince people in power that her life mattered. That her death was worthy of investigation and that her murderer should be held accountable.

There would be no opportunity for justice for Allison today without the tireless advocacy of her aunt, Jana Williams, and community organizers who have fought to make sure Allison’s name continues to be uplifted.

Allison’s family and the Minneapolis community have been lied to continuously by the Minneapolis Police Department. Disgraced former Police Chief Brian O’Hara said publicly that Allison died from a drug overdose, with substantial evidence available to the contrary. The city auditor’s report showed that the MPD didn’t even bother to request an autopsy report before spreading false information and victim-blaming Allison for her own murder. In fact, the autopsy wasn’t requested at all until the city auditor requested it themself.

The announcement simply confirms what Allison’s family and community already knew.

If MPD had properly investigated this murder when it happened, Allison’s family could have been spared the trauma of seeing their loved one’s name dragged through the mud. Her community wouldn’t have had to do the prosecutors’ jobs for them by finding witnesses and collecting evidence to create a chargeable case.

“it’s been a long two years. You know what? Can I rest and relax tonight? Probably not, because there’s a bigger system here that needs attention,” said Jana Williams, aunt of Allison Lussier

The lack of accountability in this case demonstrates yet again that we cannot depend on the mayor to hold the police accountable. We need real mechanisms of accountability. No more toothless review boards, no more city audits that the police can refuse to participate in. This is why we are fighting for community control of the police through an all elected Civilian Police Accountability Commission.

Victims of intimate partner violence like Allison Lussier and Mariah Samuels deserve to be believed when they call for help. They deserve to be protected. And when, tragically, their lives are stolen, they deserve justice.

#MinneapolisMN #MN #InjusticeSystem #OppressedNationalities #Indigenous #AllisonLussier #PoliceAccountability #TCC4J

Minneapolis, MN – On Wednesday, April 22, the city of Minneapolis released a long-awaited after-action review examining the Minneapolis Police Department’s failures in the handling of the murder of Allison Lussier and the shooting of Davis Moturi.

Allison Lussier was a Native woman living in the North Loop of Minneapolis who called MPD more than six separate times to protect her from her abuser Chuck Foss. Despite her family and community making MPD aware of Foss’s potential connection to the case, MPD never called a crime scene unit to investigate and failed to interview witnesses or review surveillance footage. Chief O’Hara, without reviewing the findings of the medical examiner, immediately declared she had died of an overdose despite the lack of investigation.

There was similar neglect in Davis Moturi’s case. Moturi logged 19 separate complaints with MPD regarding racist harassment and threats from his white neighbor John Sawchak, and, leading up to the shooting, the Moturi household called MPD at least 38 times according to the report. Officers did not arrest Sawchak until five days after the attempt on Moturi’s life.

The findings confirmed what families, organizers, and community members have been saying for years: the system meant to protect the most vulnerable is failing, and without sustained public pressure, those failures are buried. This review did not come out of nowhere. It exists because Allison’s family and loved ones refused to stay silent. They organized, they pushed, and they forced this city to confront the truth.

Activists and community members listened as the City Auditor presented for nearly four hours to a joint meeting of the Audit Committee and the Minneapolis City Council. What the City Auditor presented was beyond misconduct; the presentation showed MPD engaged in patterns of neglect and indifference toward non-white victims and that these failures show up in every level of the department’s functioning.

The audit revealed that MPD did not request the Medical Examiner’s report in Allison’s case until nearly two years later and only after the Auditor attempted to obtain it. Several officers outright refused to participate in the audit, including Sergeant Heyers, who was the detective assigned to Allison’s case. One officer who took early retirement before the auditor could speak to him reportedly said, “I’m not going to participate in the investigation.” Despite orders from leadership to participate, O’Hara chose not to enforce this order and as yet there have been no consequences for these officers.

When asked whether race played a role in how Allison’s case was handled, Chief O’Hara repeatedly dodged the question. Additionally, coordination between MPD and the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office still had not been established even after months of public scrutiny and promises. O’Hara blamed these issues on understaffing, but a lack of staff does not explain why reports weren’t requested, why officers refused to cooperate and properly file reports, why families were ignored, or why accountability only shows up when the community forces it. MPD received a budget increase of over $5 million in addition to nearly $20 million in approved overtime in 2026, so the issue is clearly not a lean budget but a mismanagement of its resources.

Despite everything revealed in this audit, justice has still not been served. Allison Lussier’s killer has not been charged and MPD has yet to take full responsibility not just for failing her in the investigation, but for failing her before her murder and in how they communicated with the public afterward.

We also stand in solidarity with the family of Mariah Samuels, whose case reflects the same patterns. These are not isolated incidents. This is a pattern of neglect, especially when it comes to indigenous women, Black women, and marginalized communities. The families and community members demand a full direct apology, real consequences for officers who failed to act and investigate these cases, and immediate and meaningful investment in domestic violence response. Twin Cities Coalition for Justice will continue to highlight these cases and push for community control of the police so that cops are held accountable for these egregious failures.

#MinneapolisMN #MN #TCC4J #AllisonLussier #DavisMoturi #MariahSamuels #PoliceAccountability #InjusticeSystem #OppressedNationalities