Tuesday's memorial service in Maple Grove for Minneapolis police officer Jamal Mitchell, who was fatally shot late last month, will be livestreamed, then followed by a law enforcement procession to the Twin Cities airport and his return to his native Connecticut, organizers said Monday.
The public service for Mitchell in the Maple Grove High School gymnasium is scheduled to start at 11 a.m. and last about two hours, the Minneapolis Police Department announced.
Seating for the general public will begin at 9 a.m., but space is limited. The only parking near the school available to the public will be at the Maple Grove Parkway Station, 9870 Maple Grove Pkwy. The parking lot opens at 8 a.m., and the first buses will leave the lot about 8:15 a.m. Buses will return to the parking lot at the conclusion of the service, starting around noon. Bus service will pause during the procession.
Memorial service viewing will also be available on the YouTube page for KSTP-TV, Ch. 5.
After the service, an honors ceremony will be held outside the school, where law enforcement officers will fall into formation and military jets will conduct a flyover, according to the MPD.
"Thousands of police officers from across the state, region and nation are expected to join family and friends for the memorial service," the announcement from MPD read. Gov. Tim Walz will also be in attendance, according to his public schedule.
Shortly after 2 p.m., Mitchell's body will be escorted in a procession from the high school at 9800 Fernbrook Lane N. to the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, the organizers said.
The procession route of more than 30 miles, starting in the city Mitchell called home, is largely along two major Twin Cities freeways, which will allow viewing from various overpasses. It will run south along Interstate 494, then east on Hwy. 62 before arriving at the airport. Motorists should anticipate intermittent highway closures as the procession moves along.
From there, his body will be flown back to Connecticut "where there will be services at a later date," MPD spokesman Brian Feintech told the Star Tribune.
Latest on the shootings
Along with Mitchell, three other people were killed in back-to-back shootings in a two-block stretch of S. Blaisdell Avenue late on the afternoon of May 30.
Among the dead is Mustafa Ahmed Mohamed, 35, of Eden Prairie, who state investigators say shot Mitchell at close range in the 2100 block of Blaisdell after the officer asked him whether he needed help.
Surviving their wounds were Alexander Hage, 38, of Minneapolis, who happened to be driving in the area and was critically injured; police officer Luke Kittock, one of two officers who killed Mohamed, who was hospitalized and later released; and a firefighter whose identity has yet to be disclosed and did not require hospitalization.
Mitchell and other officers were sent to the area on a report of a shooting in an apartment in the 2200 block of Blaisdell that resulted in the killing of two men: Mohamed Bashir Aden, 36, of Columbia Heights, and Osman Said Jimale, 32, of Minneapolis.
A statement issued early the next morning by police pointed to Mohamed as the gunman who killed Aden and Jimale, explaining they "received a call of two people shot inside an apartment. ... Police officers from MPD's Fifth Precinct responded, and the suspected shooter opened fire on the officers."
The motive remains unclear.
Along with investigating the gunfire that killed Mitchell and Mohamed, the state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension is leading the inquiry into the shooting in the apartment.
