Law enforcement authorities fatally shot Winston Boogie Smith Jr.,[2] a 32-year-old black American man,[3] in the Uptown area of Minneapolis at 2:08 p.m. CDT on June 3, 2021.

[10][14][15] An investigation of law enforcement conduct by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) after the shooting said that Smith had brandished a firearm at officers who attempted to arrest him.

[18] In his report, Donald Ryan, the attorney for Crow Wing County, said that the officers’ actions were justified under Minnesota Statutes and that no criminal charges should be filed against them.

[27] Smith had been active on social media, where in addition to posting his music, comedy sketches, and photos of family and friends, he had been outspoken about police killings of black men, such as George Floyd and Daunte Wright.

[23] On the afternoon of June 3, 2021, Smith was inside a stationary Maserati SUV with a female passenger, Norhan Askar,[29] on the fifth floor of a parking ramp, after eating at a nearby restaurant.

[5][1][11] On June 3, 2021, Smith had posted on Instagram that he was at Stella's Fish Café, a restaurant on West Lake Street, near Seven Points, in the Uptown neighborhood of Minneapolis.

[17][7][5][1][11] Just after 2:00 p.m. CDT, the task force officers observed as Smith and Askar departed the restaurant and made their way to a Maserati vehicle atop a parking ramp near West Lake Street and Girard Avenue South.

[14][17] For several minutes, task force members in tactical gear repeatedly told Smith he was under arrest, to put his hands up, and exit the vehicle—commands that a citizen bystander overheard.

[43] The driver, Nicholas Kraus, a 35-year old man from Saint Paul, Minnesota, pleaded guilty in late 2022 to the charges of unintentional murder for Knajdek's death and second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon for injuring another protester.

Smith's family held a press conference on June 4 outside the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension building in Saint Paul to demanded greater law enforcement transparency and the release of any surveillance footage that might have captured the incident.

Marshals Service in a statement they released soon after the incident, Smith had failed to comply with orders from apprehending officers, and that he produced a handgun, which resulted in the task force firing at him.

[38][32][14] Outside the passenger's side of Smith's vehicle, investigators recovered fifteen[32] (another source says fourteen[48]) FC 9mm Luger cartridge cases from where the officers had fired.

[32] An autopsy report issued by the medical examiner's office for Hennepin County ruled the manner of Smith's death, which occurred at 2:11 p.m. CDT on June 3, 2021, to be a homicide from multiple gunshot wounds.

Armstrong alleged that Dohman, a Trump administration appointee, had a conflict of interest due to a past working relationship with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.

In response, a spokesperson for the BCA said the agency stood by its earlier statements that evidence gathered at the scene supported their claim that Smith had fired a gun from inside the vehicle.

[8][22] Expressing her frustration with the investigation, Minneapolis city counselor Lisa Bender said on June 16, 2021, that preliminary information released by law enforcement about the incident was "incomplete and inconsistent".

[48] Investigators were aware that Smith had attempted to record a video on his cellphone during the arrest, but the BCA was unable to overcome the device's encryption to access the contents.

[52] The BCA sent the completed case to Crow Wing County attorney Donald Ryan to determine if the involved officers should face criminal charges.

[52] Though the shooting took place in Hennepin County, its attorney Michael O. Freeman sought another prosecutor who did not have a conflict of interest in the case from past work with involved law enforcement organizations and personnel.

[14][19][20] Ryan was "unable to determine who fired first", but considered the matter "irrelevant" as Smith's actions to reach for and brandish a firearm constituted an initiation of a deadly force confrontation.

[53] Jaylani Hussein, the executive director of the Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said on October 11, 2021, "There is absolutely no confidence that county prosecutors can fully bring forth justice against law enforcement.

[52] Initial reports by police scanners and a story by the Star Tribune said law enforcement had shot and killed a "murder suspect," a detail that was later proved false.

[56][8] Local activist Nekima Levy Armstrong said in an opinion article published by the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder on June 16, 2021, that the false characterization by the Star Tribune represented a pattern of "demonization of Black victims of police violence".

[11] Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher accused the Marshals Service of having been "misleading in their public comments to the media" about policies regarding the usage of body cameras.

"[7] Following the shooting, the Hennepin, Ramsey, and Anoka county sheriff's offices announced they would suspend participation in the federal task force over the body camera issue.

[58] A racial justice group led by Nekima Levy Armstrong also called on Minnesota Governor Tim Walz to prohibit local agencies from participating in U.S.

[8] After facing public criticism for the lack of law enforcement officer accountability in Smith's case, the U.S. Department of Justice announced on June 7, 2021, that federal agents would be required to wear body cameras for warranted arrests and searches of buildings in a reversal of a longstanding policy.

[9] Deputy U.S. Attorney General Lisa Monaco ordered the heads of the Marshals Service, FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) to create body camera policies within 30 days.

[59] The U.S. Department of Justice began a phased program to implement body camera usage and requested that Congress provide more funding to equip all agents.

[62] Askar filed a lawsuit in Hennepin County District Court seeking $50,000 in relief for injuries sustained by shattered glass from gunshots fired by law enforcement officers.