Not true, says a spokesman for Governor Tim Walz about allegations that Walz told officials to abandon the 3rd Precinct police station during the Minneapolis riots. That after M-P-D Sergeant Anna Hedberg told a state Senate committee Wednesday afternoon, “I was in the command post. I heard it: I heard the governor say, give it up. It wasn’t directly to me, it was through a phone call, how the governor says, give up the precinct.” Hedberg later acknowledged to reporters she got the information third-hand.
The governor’s spokesman says the state did not assume operational control until the following day and “the only decision Governor Walz made involving the 3rd Precinct was the mission he ordered to reclaim the building early Friday morning after it was abandoned Thursday night.” Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said earlier he made the decision to abandon the precinct to prevent loss of life.