Fort Totten, North Dakota: BIA Officer Fatally Shoots Man on Spirit Lake Nation

A Bureau of Indian Affairs police officer shot and killed a man on Tuesday morning on the Spirit Lake Nation in northeast North Dakota, the FBI said in a news release. The man died from his injuries.

The officer was on duty with the Bureau of Indian Affairs Office of Justice Services when he discharged his weapon and hit the man, according to the FBI's Minneapolis Division, which issued the release. The shooting happened on the Spirit Lake Indian Reservation, in the Fort Totten area. The FBI called it a use-of-force incident and gave no account of what led up to it.

Body camera recorded the shooting

The officer's agency-issued body camera was activated and captured the incident, the FBI said. Officials have not said whether the video will be released, and they have released no recordings or still images from the scene.

Investigators released few other details. The FBI did not name the officer or the man who was shot, did not give the man's age, and did not give a more precise location on the reservation. No other injuries were reported in the accounts released on Tuesday, and officials did not say whether the man was armed or whether anyone else was present.

FBI leads the investigation

The FBI is investigating the shooting with cooperative support from the Bureau of Indian Affairs Office of Justice Services. The bureau said the inquiry is in the early stages of an active investigation. When the investigation is complete, the findings will go to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of North Dakota, which will review the case.

The man's identity, and the cause and manner of his death, are to be determined through an autopsy by UND Forensic Pathology and the Ramsey County coroner, Valley News Live reported. No timeline for releasing the man's name was given on Tuesday.

A federal case on tribal land

The Spirit Lake Nation is a federally recognized tribe. Its reservation covers parts of Benson and Eddy counties in northeast North Dakota, south of Devils Lake, and Fort Totten is the tribal headquarters community. Policing on the reservation is largely federal and tribal work: the Bureau of Indian Affairs Office of Justice Services provides police services, and the FBI investigates major crimes and officer-involved deaths in Indian Country. A shooting by a BIA officer is therefore reviewed by federal investigators and federal prosecutors, not by a county sheriff or a state agency.

What happened in the minutes before the officer fired, and why, remains under investigation. The answers will rest on the body camera video, the autopsy, and the FBI file that goes to the U.S. Attorney's Office.